Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Coronavirus is a cover for the real problem.

Cisco is being stripped bare by vulture capitalists and their used car salesmen flying monkeys like Chuck and his bloodless VPs .

I concur. The most interesting aspect of the last ‘Beat’ was on how to help someone with a cardiac arrest. ELT seems to ignore Cisco’s cardiac arrest

you are just in an echo chamber. those executives care about "GRLPWR" sticker and a supposedly "Gender diverse" instead of "Talent diverse" workplace.

Reminds me of a company I worked with long ago (similarities are eerie). Once, we had an exec fly into a facility (in New Hampshire) in the company helicopter to complain about the amount of office stationary being used in the building. The company, despite being massively successful (number 2 in IT) is long gone.

The other day, we had some faceless bureaucrat in our SP BU send out a mail to a bunch of my colleagues using the Adobe Acrobat Pro license, which allows you to edit PDF files. Apparently, there is about 25 people using it and costing about $2400 per year (I think it was per year).
So now everybody has to REJUSTIFY a piddling expense (you have to get permission to use it in the first place). This is a multi-billion dollar BU!! I’m sure the time, effort an IT put into this exercise vastly outweighs the $ likely to be saved.
Meanwhile, we have tons of people blowing fortunes on unnecessary travel (including an unnamed director and Snr Mgr who spend at least that amount every 2 weeks - and nobody would miss).
To me it sums up everything wrong with the company.

90% Cisco still lives on the old end of support hardware replacement and service contract like tac support.. I remember the VP who dismantled our BU was talking about how we shall learn the AOL business model (pays 9.95 a month for Internet access), if you are willing to pay, we shall be ready to support AOL. He was laid off last year, and went on become a instructor at a local college.. however, our BU was gone and many people were laid off by him.

Another VP we know was a career United States Maine Corp Drill Sergent living in the mountains. Oh, what a disaster when he comes and gone through.

Correct, Cisco is filled with bureaucrats and misfits.

@lie+13Kgqr4k

Spot on. It is a matter of trust.

And as for me the answer is no, I can't trust this company.

It’s the only company I’ve been at where high performers or people with radical or interesting ideas are consistently laid off or managed out. I still haven’t figured out how or why this happens, but it definitely seems that mid-management finds these ideas threatening? Or at minimum not useful for their promotion to VP or SVP. Have seen this happen over and over again the last few years.

I am a engineer in EN. Have been with Cisco only for 3 years. Have a family to support with young child. I was not affected this time but I might be on the line next. I was very enthusiastic when I joined but I am utterly disillusioned by the level of incompetence in the organization (constant bug fix mode, sub par products, management without vision or direction, most decisions politically motivated). I agree with everything that the OP says here. Both the SVPs (GM and Engineering) running the show either don't seem to care about the plight of the employees or incompetent that they don't even seem to notice that they have a problem. Would you have any suggestions for someone in my situation? Should I find a role elsewhere within Cisco or just leave Cisco? Should I keep trusting this company?

Indeed, this is the real problem here...clueless mid-level management (Director to VP level) with no vision/strategy... executants/funnels most of them, with no real understanding of what is going on in the market they operate into. In CX that's already a big drama... I reckon this is the beginning of the end. It was a great company when I joined.
Also, the way how they handle this layoff shows dilettantism at its best. We had to learn that from press although we had an earnings call and a Beat... really nobody bothered? No 1 company in the world my a–.