I wonder if it will take a long time for top management to realize how bad the situation is TAC at the moment? Permanent short-staffed teams and overloaded engineers who extend sick leaves just to get out from this madness, people leaving the team since no motivation and hope, constant escalations and lack of ppl in team. The problem is even PTO planning because the manager is not able to approve the leave without having enough people on shift. Ridiculous. Does this only apply to the EMEA TAC or do other regions as well?
23 replies (most recent on top)
@gbfu+1aOShzcM - TAC used to pay way better than that and you could have a career there. But it's all gone together with Joe's leaving the ship. Now to progress above GR8 you have to leave TAC and become a Tech Lead who does not support TAC effort but "works" on some fluffy ideas for the VP to put on their PPT to show their bosses, but are otherwise next to useless. And the V2Momma is messing up everything for which Cisco was successful before. Leave, there is no hope and no future in TAC. Unless you happen to leave close to one of the new "centers".
@gxux+1aOShzcM - Leave. Ops people aren't worth much more than 70k if that as it is.
Totally boned in US too. Over worked, underpaid, lack of leadership and help. It’s a grind and Cisco is too stupid to pay people more to stay longer and give a good customer experience. I have to change teams to get more than 5k raise which is an insult. TAC is ki----g me. I am cut out for the work and somewhat enjoy cases that aren’t d-mb a-s platform bugs but I want to be paid accordingly. I’m trying to change teams to break 70k base salary and if I can’t get it soon I’m leaving Cisco.
@7jda+1aOShzcM I used to work in the "cloud" (smart) licensing piece and the disconnect was unbelievable. People speaking to clients from a support capacity were never involved in decisions or heard when passing on feedback. They would present items for enhancement or consideration and not be heard by the solutions architects. There was a core drive to copy Ray Allen ITAM model that Cisco is trying for but it's such a mess. I fe sorry for customers and sorry that TAC has to deal with poor strategic decisions being thrust into customers.
@clvl+1aOShzcM no offense but it just sounds like you weren’t that good.
Ex emea tac here. Incompetent managers that are treating highly educated tac engineers like cattle, tech leads that only look how to increase visibility and don't give a sh-t about tac overload or lack of skills, piling up keywords, poorly and d-mbly created npi's, incompetent AS engineers that open tac case when they are too d-mb to rtfm, managers (again) that Do Not protect engineers.... You name it. At least there were some perks in tac before to compensate for sh---y job, but they are cutting them as well. 6 years spent in tac, learned nothing new, received zero trainings, managed to get along due to pre-cisco life.
Again, worst part are incompetent (not to say stupid) managers and initiatives that are insulting engineers intelligence (f2s for example).
Sad, sad, sad.
Bring back Joe Pinto!!
As a customer i agree TAC is indeed the backbone of Cisco, Quality has varied over the years, however there are no miracles if the product quality has been decreasing steadily and features no one asked for.
This B.S Cloud Licensing model does not help either, it was never a good idea to start with but it was shoved down customers throats regardless.
Why does a piece of chassis needs to connect to the cloud to validate licenses, it completely defeats the purpose of installing network equipment on security conscious customers or industrial type environments.
Regarding:
"TAC is the backbone of this company"
Maybe sadly the more appropriate syntax:
"TAC was the backbone of this company"
Hope things change
BS. TAC doesn’t work when they are on shift. No way they work nights and weekends.
As a TAC engineer I am very happy that the community outside of Cisco has gone the extra mile and has tried to find out exactly why TAC's performance has downgraded.
I agree with all the comments presented here and I can assure you most of us are frustrated with everything that is happening and at the same time, we have tried to give 200% by working on our evenings or weekends (even when not on shift) because we would hate to leave a customer not attended.
Nonetheless I do agree the leadership must concentrate on how Cisco products improve our customer's network, how we can give the best support to our customers and not their diversity or . I am a firm believer that Cisco must stay out of politics, period.
Thank you everyone for all your comments and I wish you all a great weekend!
TAC (just keep the name because it became a Cisco sub-brand) was and still could be one of the best things about Cisco in the eyes of the customers. But leadership needs to embrace the value of TAC engineers learning through 'trial by fire'. The best TAC engineers often became very good engineers, or technical sales SMEs. The initiatives launched long ago by TAC to grow software skills, expand multi-vendor expertise, and create customer loyalty were critical and should be re-ignited. Separating Customer Success from TAC was a mistake. Integrating AS and TS together was a mistake. Pushing too much into low-cost centers without a concerted effort on skills development, effective customer engagement/soft skills, was a mistake. So today's TAC looks vastly different. The reliance on TAC/TS to cover the margin failures of AS (despite sky high prices to customers) was an early indicator where they were headed. Layer that on the slow dilution of stocks and promotions and salary, and the emergence of other "old Cisco" type cultures at rising competition, and you get what you see today. It has been a failure of leadership since 2014-2015 or so. Is it unrecoverable? Perhaps, and sadly, likely. Does it have to be that way? No. The ship may have sailed but a good captain could theorteically right the course. Unless MM and her V2SQUAD is still there.
"Until they get the woke crowd out of control of the board, quit hiring boneheads like MM, AB, and the support teams to meet eeoc numbers it won't get any better."
The woke crowd is there to distract from lackluster product offerings. It's 2021 and Cisco has zero cloud or enterprise software solutions. The ELT doesn't care about diversity... they don't want the discussion to be on products, services, and revenue
"TAC is the backbone of this company"
TAC support has gone into the toilet since they off-shored a lot of it years ago. india supplies an endless source of incompetent more ons. The same incompetence is brought in via visas. They use the same buffoons to write and "support" garbage code. Then they don't have enough staff to support the install base. The centers are another sore point since it is mainly new to career light weights with inexperienced individuals mentoring them. cisco isn't the company it was 10-15 years ago. Until they get the woke crowd out of control of the board, quit hiring boneheads like MM, AB, and the support teams to meet eeoc numbers it won't get any better. They should also can chuckie boy as soon as possible. He is a big part of the problem, not a solution.
“ Nope. Networks are complex systems and protocols are not perfect by itself, even if the products running these protocols would be perfect then issues would still need competent support to get them sorted out. Your post shows that you have no clue about TAC.”
Lol no way you are d-mb enough to actually believe that.
As a customer, the TAC sways me to buy Cisco over another vendor (all else being equal). I am hoping they nurture this side of the business. I have noticed a degradation in performance though in time taken to close cases and a pattern of engineers going on leave mid case and the case not being assignes to another engineer, Sometimes it takes 2 different engineer changes to get the right one.
Which TAC team are you talking about ? BRU, KRK or some satellite sites like AMM ?
"TAC would be irrelevant if the product was better."
Nope. Networks are complex systems and protocols are not perfect by itself, even if the products running these protocols would be perfect then issues would still need competent support to get them sorted out. Your post shows that you have no clue about TAC.
TAC would be irrelevant if the product was better.
The thing that made it worth long days back in the 2000s was the cash.
Cisco was very generous on stock options for the masses back then. We would cash options in and day trade during on shift times. Some smart engineers and proficient day traders on our team. Also some very good musicians also.
The good news on those long days in 2000s plus the options and day trading contests is that many of my friends from that timeframe did very well in the market. Those long days were stressful but the stock options made them worthwhile hopefully.
Hope they still are generous on the RSUs. Not sure if I would have gone through that experience without the extra incentive.
TAC is the backbone of this company.
TAC was just as tough indeed in 2000s.
Many do develop health problems. Nature of the beast.
Takes a special mindset to last long term.
Worked many 65+ hours in 2000s. Not sure how I survived that. Good experience though. Good stepping stone up the chain. Hopefully still the same opportunities.
I started in TAC in early 2000s. It was a tough place to be even back then. You'd feel guilt for even taking lunch or even going to the bathroom because of an incoming Sev 1 ( we called it P1 back in the day) and shortage of people to take them. My coworker developed health problems and it took it's toll on me as well . We both left to join a different part of Cisco.
Welcome to tac, err CX something new style. But no need to worry, there are open positions in some teams so it seems , if your team is part of it,summer of 2023 might be better and you can take PTO, if people have not left by then. As to when it will change, when people do not keep on constantly going the extra mile to cover for this leadership with reigns with fear of layoff and squeezing the lemon. (Hint, there is no lemonade in this story )