i had not checked this forum in forever. I left Cisco in 2017, but close friends (a very quickly diminishing number) worked there, so I still hear about their angst. How a high tech company culture can have turned into what Cisco is today is bizarre... and saddening.
The institutionalization of layoffs as a new normal for what now is what, 8 years, is a parallel universe in the world of best practices to keep or attract the best and brightest. face it - they left the ship, and they ain't joining. people can tell and smell a slow, painful and orchestrated semi-shutdown. the quarterly layoff practice is unparalleled, and the cultural denial about its obnoxious reality and effect on morale is just... bipolar? bizarre?
When a company no longer makes any innovative market bets, and simply survives by architecting number through self-destruction... you know you're witnessing a future case study in business su----e. when Chuck writes a book, it should be the anti-Andy Grove book... instead of "Only the Paranoid Survive" is should be "Only the Bipolar Steer Towards Certain Death While Pretending To Be Doing Great"... bleeding talent, only attracting failed execs as a last desperate career step... mismanaging every open opportunity (Webex totally had the edge before it was condemned to operate under on-prem hardware-centric UC etc etc) and allowing internal politics to eff up stuff (why collaborate and integrate? i'd rather compete and beat the id--t BU working in my periphery!).
What an amazingly toxic culture, top to bottom, left to right.