if you declined to leave on your own don’t worry they still don’t want you.
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At least in CA, Cisco has a pretty standard process where they “lay off” a person thought to be a performance problem rather than going thru the HR administrative process to document the issues and fire the person. That’s too much work and risks lawsuits.
Especially when the perceived "performance problem" is really that the manager doesn't like you. My new manager of 18 months managed to drive off or remove 80% of the previous manager's team in the 18 months it took for him to finally LR me. The previous team had been with the previous manager since that department had been initially created. I'd been on the team for 3 years as a contractor and a newly converted employee when the new manager took over.
He was "cleaning house" and building a new "empire" of yes men and a$$ kissers.
Cisco made it too difficult to nail him for wrongful termination and the package was too good to pass up with a near certainty of failure trying to win a lawsuit. I took the money and found a replacement job in 45 days. The 18 weeks of severance pay remaining plus my 200+ hours of accrued PTO pretty much equaled the annual bonuses I would have received for 3 years if I'd been an employee plus the 2 bonuses I didn't get as an employee due to being in the bottom 10% and on a PIP due to the new manager.
The best thing about it: Hearing that he got LR'd a few years ago. Karma is a b–ch.
At least in CA, Cisco has a pretty standard process where they “lay off” a person thought to be a performance problem rather than going thru the HR administrative process to document the issues and fire the person. That’s too much work and risks lawsuits.
Instead an employee is given the choice to either go on a performance improvement plan or agree to resign. If they agree to resign they got the standard 6 months pay package. Since it’s clear the manager involved has issues with the employee, most people take the money and get a new job elsewhere.
But my manager got the guy LR'd without it actually getting reported as a LR. He forced him to quit.
I had just the opposite situation. My manager was remote from his team, but he ran interference for us from his boss so we could get work done. He got fed up with the hassle of running interference and being remote so he quit. When a replacement manager was found, he didn't run any interference and quickly figured out who his boss liked and who he didn't like. From that point on, it was his mission to make us all quit or get us fired. This was back in the days when we actually had annual performance reviews.
My first (mid-year) review under the new manager went from previously being in the top 20% to suddenly being in the bottom 10%. I ended up on a performance improvement plan (PIP) and was having weekly 1-on-1 meetings to set weekly goals to accomplish that kept getting harder and harder and further away from my job description and core skills. Before the year-end review could come out, Cisco announced the '11 Early Retirement plan and my new boss's boss took the ER. They had also announced that there would be an LR that Aug. Suddenly my 1-on-1 weekly goals became almost non-existent. I suddenly wasn't on my boss's radar every day. I was pretty sure I was still on the sh– list instead of suddenly back in my manager's good graces, but I wasn't 100% positive so I kept on doing my job, keeping my head down and avoiding giving my boss any excuses. Then the week impacted employees were supposed to be notified between Tue and Thurs, my Thurs afternoon 1-on-1 got canceled and I received an invite Mon afternoon for a 8:30 1-on-1 for Tue morning. That's when it was confirmed that he took the easy way out and got me on the LR list instead of making up some BS excuse to fire me. I cleaned out my desk Monday night after everyone had gone home and let him read his script Tue morning and walked out. b–tard couldn't even do me the courtesy of showing up on time to terminate me, like he had better things to do like stopping at Starbuck's to get his damn coffee.
Keep coming back here guess as habit. Probably lots of folks out there on needles and pins. Going through LR can be one of the best things that happens. Painful but life lesson. We paid off all our debts and and completely changed the way we live life. Took two years of tough work. The big thing I have learned is talk is cheap and BS'ing my way through a job is even cheaper. Hone your skills, cut out the BS, build a good reputation outside of Cisco and people will want to work with you. Cisco really helped us raise a family and was always there financially, but I am glad to have moved on. Push yourself and you will never have to worry. No BS. Work.
yep , exactly right, you could disagree respectfully and have a opinion at Cisco systems, not at Cisco, you have to be one of the quiet lemming, dont complain, just kiss up and stay in fetal position and they may pass your over . How do these tired , no talent , account managers become directors, by kissing up and politics, not due to performance. So head down, buy ESPP, spend all day looking for a job or going to gym.
Funny story about LR - I had a colleague (who was also a close friend) back in 2016 who was a technical lead (G11) and we happened to both report to the same manager (also same grade as him). For some time, my manager and my colleague had differences in opinion about various things and it was beginning to show in various 1-1s they were having. The tech lead wanted more responsibilities but he wasn't getting a lot apart from being an individual contributor to a project. The G11 used to tell me everything so hence I know about their tussle.
One day my manager got fed up and asked him to resign. He apparently wasn't ready to talk about anything else with the G11. By this time, the G11 had served more than 10 years at Cisco so if he was LR'd he would have a got a nice severance package. But my manager got the guy LR'd without it actually getting reported as a LR. He forced him to quit. Since then, i've been on high alert and learned never to argue or get into a tussle with your manager for whatever reason.
I miss the guy, he was great.
As the company cuts to 65K employees, it's going to be a rough 12-18 months.
the worst outcome is you turn down an ER package and they drive you out for free by making you so unsure about your job over the next few weeks
The anticipation of being LR'd is far worse than the actual LR itself.
My advice is to start jogging a few miles a day. Runner's high fights LR worry.
your fate was long ago decided my friend
Hahahaha
Or as my old boss used to tell me: You can always quit!