Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I quitted Cisco in 2014 and came back in 2016 to a different position. My former director was consulted before they made me a new offer.

There isnt exactly a “file” but.... if were previously LRd and are in the final stages for another position/req, the req’s recruiter WILL get feedback from your previous mgr who LRd you

This feedback from your previous mgr is required before an offer can be made. Whether or not req’s hiring mgr or recruiter value the feedback, is a separate subject

Dude wake up. Are you trying to tell me that if you aggressively pursue what amounts to legal action against any company that they are not going to note it? Look, you made your choice at the time and you probably had your reasons, and one can and should respect that. But why would any employer not note that with prospects of future employment, be it full time or contract work? Its a small world. If you burned the bridge, live with that and move on. Your made the decision you made, live with it.

I know many people that got hired back (why exactly they'd want to in a good job market remains a mystery to me but hey)

I'm one of those that keep coming back. :-)
Yes, it's a good job market. But not every company out there is worth working for. (Yes, I recognize the irony of saying that, believe me.) Hands down, Cisco has been better than any of the other companies I worked at in between Cisco gigs.

One company totally misrepresented the position, so I quietly started looking for a new position. When I gave my notice, they "forced" me to extend my 2 weeks notice a few extra days because the Thursday & Friday of my first week of notice were company holidays (Thanksgiving & the day after). Then they had the gall to suddenly escort me out the following Tuesday instead of making me work the rest of the week and the Mon/Tue after that they requested I add to my 2 weeks notice. My boss's boss gave me 30 min notice to "hand off" my work to him and update him on the status of all my projects. Needless to say, 30 min wasn't enough time & I didn't really care to be detailed.

The next company worked my a$$ off. Paid well, but 60-70 hr weeks get old after a year.

Another company had double standards depending on if you were friendly w/ the boss or other management. They micromanaged everything and required that you track how much time you spent working on issues by opening cases for EVERYTHING! You had to open cases for meetings to track that time. If you weren't working 30+ hrs per week on issues that could be billed to customers, you weren't working hard enough. Add in daily stand ups & other meetings, and you didn't have time to do anything else. When a director would give Sr Technical Leads tasks to create new user accounts because they couldn't find the guy who's job it was and now that lead had to work extra hours to get his billable 30+ hrs in, it s—ed.

I like the more laid back, devil-that-you-know positions at Cisco. Sure, I might get laid off (again!), but since I banked the last severance and the market is good, I can go work at some c-appy place until another easy Cisco gig rolls around, work it for a yr as a red badge and then flip to employee, work another 2-3 yrs until I get laid off and bank another severance while I take yet another job.

And all 3 of those other companies did frequent lay-offs too. They just did it in different fashions. The bank company would buy out some other smaller bank, merge & let redundant people go. They at least kept the best of the two groups of workers. The other financial company did everything as "projects". They hired people for a project. When it ended, everyone was let go. Then they re-hired for the next project. Unless you worked in IT, help desk, sales or were a software manager or higher, you were stuck in the revolving door of work a project, get terminated, interview for another project a couple of weeks later and start 1-3 weeks after that and work a project. Their severance was barely 4 weeks because no one ever got more than a year or two's seniority before the project ended.

Isn't having to work for a living fun?

I am no fan of Cisco's policies but I am not sure why you would be surprised. I know many people that got hired back (why exactly they'd want to in a good job market remains a mystery to me but hey), but yes, you can rest assured the 'ok to hire back' in your file is a no if you challenged Cisco there is such a marker in your Cisco file. And in every other company you worked for.