Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I was impacted while 8 months pregnant. My manager had been removing my job duties for months to “prepare for maternity leave” so when I heard the rumors of layoffs I prepared myself for the worst. We did not get along and he seemed really put off that I was having a baby.

Apparently he never told HR that I was just a few weeks away from maternity leave. I asked them about delaying my career transition services until after my baby was born. They were freaked out by this information and offered to double my severance or put off my termination date til after leave and get regular severance. I chose the latter in order to keep my health insurance for several more months.

Baby arrived just a few weeks after my notice date. With the delay in termination + severance I ended up with about 9 months pay, and my husband and I stretched it to 15 months before I even started looking for a job. Didn’t go back to work til 18 months after baby - not a bad maternity leave for the U.S.! And I got to leave a situation I was miserable in. Best thing that could have happened to me.

if you get LR , its your fault, but you dont deserve it even though you know its coming no matter your performance. Cisco is great gig to work from home, make less than market but who cares for 10 hours a week of effort, I cleaned my pool and washed cars , walked mall, went to park and was a high level architect, just BS my boss, attended a few meetings. Leadership didnt care what a was doing, just make up your V2MOM , stay quiet and ride gravy train. If you leave for more money, its shocking to actually have to do stuff and work, but the money is so much more, you adapt quickly.

I was treated very well. Both my VP and my Director were very appreciative of my contribution and actually gave me a 6 week advance notice on the inevitability. One of them didn't know they were on the list too.

At the end of the day it doesn't change anything about what YOU have to do. Despite the fact I had kind of prepared and thought I was ready -and semi-volunteered for it- it did hit me hard because I thought I'd have a bit more time to truly perfect my resume and finesse my LinkedIn and truly network more aggressively... and then... BAM... despite it all you're a bit like a deer in headlights.

Don't let that happen to you. At this stage it would be inexcusable to not know the algorithm that MyKinsey developed for HR as they worm around the organization analyzing teams: If you have been in Cisco for over 15 years, and in the same role for over 5, you're over 50. It doesn't matter if you just filed a patent for an algorithm that turns transport bytes into solid gold somehow.

NETWORK, talk to the people you used to work with and are elsewhere in the industry. Update your stuff. Prepare to interview: never seem needy, work on your pitch and confidence.

Cisco didn't s— as much as many people now want to make it look like. We were a smart team, and we have a lot to contribute to other organizations, and we can help built them up with the best people we worked with at the big C. I have.

I guess protocol is pretty much same for every one impacted. There are ton of companies doing far more interesting work with far better compensation, benefits and culture. If I may say so, being impacted is one of the best gifts you can get if you were miserable in your role. Once you land in a good place, you will realize how mind dumbing your experience at Cisco was and how better off you are today than you were until 7/31.

@1fxx, you could be one of several people I know who did that and got laid off soon after... and I’m sure there are many more. I’m sure the “it’s a business decision” cuts it even less in those circumstances.

I relocated for a job at Cisco. Biggest mistake of my life.

Meanwhile, a majority of Cisco upper management continues to work from home, work less than 20 hours a week, milk company’s resources, and collect awards and accolades for accomplishing projects, I mean PPT slides, with zero tangible results and zero contribution to shareholders’ value!

My position was eliminated 7/31/19 after being recognized as a 20 year employee in May. I felt as though I had become invisible instantly. I was given 6 weeks to secure another position within the company but felt as though I had been blacklisted. Chuck stated at the July 31 Cisco Beat that all hiring managers were to give impacted employees top priority in filling their open reqs. I never felt as though I was a top priority in my job search. I found the internal recruiter slow to respond or just non-responsive altogether. I was assigned a Talent Acquisition Manager (a red badge) that merely served as a middle-man to inform the non-responsive recruiter of the reqs I'd applied to. I viewed her role as just another layer of red tape and virtually ineffective. Impacted employees were promised to be "fast tracked" through the job search process but I did not find this to be the case. It was not a good experience for me and as a long term employee I left feeling abandoned and bitter, especially from a company that espouses the "Cisco family". Side note to the originator of this chain: Chambers bought his own private jet, it was not company provided. And yes, Chambers was upset by the first round of layoffs in '01 because it was the first in the company's history and on his watch. Sadly, it has since become a regular occurrence that now feels like the human element has been taken out of it.

I was laid off over the phone in 2016.

Yup, more or less my (and my team's) experience back in '14. After 18 years, we were laid off over the phone. So much for JC's famous tears after his Wang experiences. We all bought the b—s—.

Reads like the Cisco version of "Up in the Air"