I'm a director based out of SJC. I can confirm that there is a meeting in two week to discuss an upcoming LR. Rumor amongst leadership is it will focus on jobs deemed no longer necessary thanks to what was learned from covid. Will try to share more post meeting.
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@5dev which bu?
Our BU is pushing through reorgs all over the place. People losing direct reports and being moved around. It’s very clear they are lining things up for something substantial.
Trolling! Directors level in Cisco never knows this confidential information.
@OP+1bjhZ4go no director that hasn't already been laid off or has been told they are going to get laid off would be on this board posting. If by some miracle you really are one and not on the list then you should be. It would save to jobs for real workers and I'm certain it would be no loss.
I am mostly interested in the date so I don't take any vacation time beforehand.
@3mqy+1bjhZ4go when HR joins the conversation and tries to explain you are not a number to the company. Numbers on user names are disrespectful to the employees and should be changed immediately. Time to act like the leader of change.
@2ghc+1bjhZ4go - if you don't know there is a LR coming - and I can confirm from several sources that yes, there is one coming like the OP says - then it's probably because you are on the list.
Not that it's anything unexpected anyways - the August LR is already a Cisco tradition.
A friend left because her user name had a number on it, she said she felt embarrassed every time she sent an email outside the company.
Then she had one of those common names like Jones or Smith in the US or Patel or Reddy in India.
How many combinations of John Doe can you make without resorting to numbers? This is common at lots of companies. I'd rather have a number with my name than have a totally generic user id like u1234567, which was the format for user id's a Capital One back in the early 2000's.
All of you are numbers to the point where some of you have numbers in your user IDs. A friend left because her user name had a number on it, she said she felt embarrassed every time she sent an email outside the company.
I have more faith in this forum than the garbage info from within the company.
As a director, I can confirm this is nonsense.
Don't believe everything you read here. The OP is full of it. Director-level is really nothing special. There are thousands and thousands in the company. Directors certainly don't have access to any sort of company-confidential information of that nature. VPs don't either. This is disclosed a on need-to-know SVP and above.
While my a lot of my colleagues were getting LR's during the pandemic, there would be congratulatory Teams messages for unworthy people getting promos. So much for cost cutting.
I think that 5500 was more like 7500 to 11K based on things I had heard. And don't forget the prior 2500 early retirement folks that c'mon was really just an age based layoff. Total sh-t show.
@1qux+1bjhZ4go must be a part of the so-called ELT
I'm not sure how Cisco is being "transparent" about LR's any more. Used to, they announced a WFR/LR 60+ days before the impacted people were notified. That announcement usually included the approximate numbers, 5,500, 1,500, 6,500, 3,000, etc.
I recall that there was a small reduction, mostly in SJC in '10 that resulted in a lot of new hiring in RTP & India to replace the expensive jobs cut in the Bay area. It was announced in June or July and the axe fell in Aug. Then the early retirement offer and either 5,500 or 6,500 WFR of '11 was announced in May/June and the axe fell in Aug. I don't recall any announcements ahead of time hitting the news between '12 - '14, but looking back I'm sure there were LR's. Then, in celebration of CR's start as CEO in '15, there was no announced LR, but it was followed by a mass LR in '16. It was either 5,500 or 6,500 --I keep getting the total #'s confused between the '11 WFR and '16 LR--and it was announced during the year-end financial call and impacted employees were notified the very next day.
Since then, under CR's tenure, LR's are announced but no numbers are given under the guise of "transparency". Seems less transparent to me. They cut $900M in OpEx in '20, but how many jobs is that? I heard the number who took the optional early retirement was what they expected, and it was about 1/3 of the eligible people, but I don't know how many actually took it. I recall hearing a number of about 1,100 or 1,300, but I don't know if that was the number that took it or the number that was eligible. I certainly haven't heard the numbers for those who took the voluntary separation (at-risk) that were not eligible for the voluntary early retirement or the numbers of those who were involuntarily terminated.
What I don't understand is how all the ELT continue to get their "bonuses" every year when the company has to do restructuring each year. They're not leading the company properly if they continually need to restructure and focus on core functions, that seem to change from year to year. I can see changing or updating short term goals each year, but our long term goals should be just that, long term. If they can't meet either the short term or long term goals and can't avoid restructuring and lay-offs, then they shouldn't get a bonus. If they want their bonus, they should be trying to keep the company growing, not cutting. And, if they need to cut, then they should share in those families' pain by not getting a bonus. The ELT would work a lot harder at preventing cuts and randomly throwing sh-t against a wall to see what sticks as a plan if they had skin in the game, i.e. their pay.
If Cisco would be transparent and stop lying we wouldn’t need threads like this. First no one is getting LR’d during the pandemic and over 5500 lose their jobs. Next, we are going to be on a hiring freeze to ensure no layoffs and somehow now there is a confidential meeting to discuss LR’s? All this occurred in a years time. Cisco ELT is the problem. Don’t blame the messenger. Blame the BS’ing lying a-s Leadership.
Why are you so mad that someone cares enough to alert the “little man” that radical changes might be made. It’s the little man that will face foreclosure, unemployment and financial devastation. I appreciate the heads up and I’m grateful for the information. Cisco has never been transparent and ETHICAL is outside of their wheelhouse as well. Do us all a favor and scroll on by when someone shows care and concern for our wellbeing! Signed “the little people” with children, families, student loans, taxes and mortgages to pay!
You are director at Cisco and you are sharing details in public forum on what would be considered borderline confidential and also unethical and then we all wonder what is wrong with Cisco ?
This sucks! But the good news is that many other companies are on a hiring freenzy. Cisco’s loss-yet again!
I swear it was just last week that they froze new hiring and told us it was to try to avoid an LR. I didn't really believe them, but they should probably pretend to try before scheduling the LR meeting.
"Deem no longer necessary" sounds pretty arbitrary.
IOT overlay team.
Which org are you in?
Many of the levels of management (especially those that have few reports), CX TTG, CX Customer Success bloat I would expect to be on the list. From the Sales side, people who are seen very rarely, but turn up when 90% of the deal is already guaranteed (a few hundred there for sure)