HR's job is to protect the employer, there is no doubt about that. But that being said, you have good and bad with anything in business or life, and that applies to HR. Trust me, I have seen much worse in other companies. Cisco HR is far from perfect, but I can tell you about a lot of very good people who work in that organization who carry themselves with a high level of professionalism and even empathy. And even those that may not be all that good, I highly doubt they enjoy LRs, Call it bad bedside manner or whatever. The real issue is Cisco management, whose directives HR carries out. In short, I am saying what while anyone should always exercise discretion with working with any HR team in any company, please dont generalize the people in Cisco HR and demonize them. As I said, I know a lot of really good people there who at the end of their day have to do their jobs.