Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

ER fills me with wonderful thoughts of what they would have to offer to get me to come back when they realize they are screwed.

I’m thinking of asking for $5K per day, but might settle for $3.5K.
They’d hate it, but in the 6-9 months they take to find a replacement, I’d make enough to boost the retirement.

Can’t imagine Cisco doing this program again.
If they do I will take the package again and return after 3 yrs.

Left 2014. Keep coming here to watch the never ending comedy of a dying company. Could have put thousands of kids through college for what this company blows on a regular basis. Especially nice watching the h1b visa kids turn on each other...

What did the ER package look like?

Don’t worry what it looks like... if there is a package, take it. There are plenty of jobs out there. Cisco’s customers are hiring, Cisco’s competitors are hiring, the cloud is hiring.

If there is a package, take it.

What did the ER package look like?

If there's a package - take it.

I was deadwood then and am still here !!

It's so sad you brag about it. Although, if you can convince someone to pay you to do nothing and cover up their team's lack of productivity to carry you, you've got some mad people skills or you're working for your daddy.

I have skills that are in very short supply across the company. I think they might be just too smart to LR me, because it will really hurt. But you never know if some goose of a VP just says one day
“let him go, we can find somebody else to do that”.
But ER fills me with wonderful thoughts of what they would have to offer to get me to come back when they realize they are screwed. It would hurt for them to pay it, although they pay similar sums to some of the snake oil people around the ELT.

I left Cisco numerous times, came back asap for more money and higher pay, but finally left for the big money that you wont get unless Senior Director. Miss Cisco no matter how unfair their LR policies are, V2momma slowly destroying CX and Chuck throwing money at charities instead of raises. S—s to be out of cisco, but the pay makes the pain worthwhile.

It stuns me how many people visit here and post who say they were LR’d several years ago.
Have you not got Cisco out of your system and moved on pyschologically yet?
Wow.

• too young for the retirement package but was LR'd a few years after; now three years ago...

• if LR happens for you, take the $ and go with a smile...big world out there...miss Cisco (a bit) but glad it happened just for the experience and transition...

I was deadwood then and am still here !!

What was the actual offer?

I took the ER in 2011, not because I wanted to but because I felt threatened of being LR'd the following month (Cisco had pre-announced their August LR that year). They gave potential ER employees six weeks to make their decision. Every Friday HR sent a reminder email to the targeted ER employees reminding them that if they didn't take the lucrative ER package they were being offered, they were at risk of being LR'd the following month w/ a much smaller package. Many ER targeted employees felt they were being pushed out the door. The company said at the time it would be the last ER they would ever do. They did one prior around 2009.

So, hypothetically: Has anything changed since the previous Early Retirement offering that would reduce or eliminate the negatives? Is there any way, legally, to do a "targeted" early retirement? FYI - I was around, and eligible for the last one and did not take it although many co-workers did and yes, we lost a lot of good people.

Last time they did was a disaster for the company because by law they cannot tell the people they want to leave to take it. LR is targeted, ER is voluntary. So what ended up happening with the last ER is that the people they didn't want to leave took it and the ones they wanted to take it didn't. That's why they said they wouldn't do it again.

I wish they’d do a voluntary LR in the UK also. Last one was in 2009 but I was still drinking the Kool Aid back then... I would have a very different response to it now!

I think there is a very good reason to do early retirement versus a layoff. Optics. It's political, with the virus, asking for volunteers is going to look a lot better than just opening the door and applying the boot. I have no knowledge of the reality on the ground or in the ivory tower, just an opinion.

This rumor comes back every year. Wishful thinking but not likely to happen

The problem with the ER offer back in '11 was that too many people with needed skills voluntarily left and could not be replaced easily while too much dead wood remained.

I've heard, but can't verify, that some of those people came back as contractors when their "cannot return period" ended.

I do know from personal knowledge that one high level manager had finally persuaded his leadership chain to promote him to Director just before they announced the ER offer and he took it, getting a much better ER package than he'd have gotten had he not been promoted 3 months earlier. I heard through the grape vine that his SVP was very upset he took the package and would not have promoted him had they known he was going to suddenly leave. They ended up making him stay for some additional time after the ER's planned separation date to give them time to select the replacement director before ending his employment.

Cisco learned a valuable lesson when they offered the ER plan and it's doubtful they'll do it again unless they really need to purge the older folks without finding enough younger, or well compensated middle aged employees to offset the purge of old folks.

They are probably all racists anyway, so the company is better off without them.

Everything is a rumour until it happens

This will be announced soon. It’s to eliminate older employees without getting sued for laying them off. Number is to be determine but current options are 60-65.

It seems like the only reason to offer voluntary retirement would be because they want to get rid of a bunch of 50 and over people without worries of a lawsuit or having to pad the stats by getting rid of some sacrificial new grads at the same time.

Other than a bit of dignity and a touch of respect does anyone know if the financial terms of ER are different than LR?

It was a big mistake , No way it will happen again.

Probably not true. It's too easy and cheaper to put them on a LR list. Plus it would cause an uproar for all the eligible folks that got LR'd in the past ~8 years (it would be a big number, since a very large number of older folks got hit)

What was the math to qualify?

Why wouldnt they jusf put these people on an LR list?