Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

What to do with a manager that is racist and sexist?

Just for fun I won't name the managers race or s-x, but what to do when the only good assignments go to only people of that persons race and gender (not to mention bonuses and promotions)? Is leaving the only option? Everyone else on team is doing busy work. I'm not the only one that has noticed

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Post ID: @OP+1cwuCuR7

23 replies (most recent on top)

i was at cisco for over a decade and hr used to be helpful.

we had a real issue of someone putting the time and producing results.

took evidence to HR who said just move them elsewhere.

same HR that makes up a performance issue for people with medical issues or older and lets them go without a proper pip. with the ekimination of any documented perf review by a manager with employee gives company ability to discriminate and lie.

no the cisco it used to be.

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Post ID: @scdv+1cwuCuR7

If your manager is female nothing will happen except you getting pip and laid off. White male and you are female or minority he's getting fired. Simple.

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Post ID: @7kvl+1cwuCuR7

@6vwn+1cwuCuR7

I'm not wrong. HR's role is to protect Cisco. Open a case to create an audit trail. The audit will show that they found no substantiating evidence and case is closed. Then you get terminated for some bogus reason. Maybe the manager gets terminated before or after you, if you're lucky.

As to the reason I got put on a PIP and later binned, the reasons were completely personal on the part of the manager & director. After leaving for a year, I came back to another team that I worked with while under the original director and manager. I've been back at Cisco for over 10 yrs with NO issues. Both the director and manager are no longer with Cisco. Director cut and ran and the manager had to leave to avoid his own performance issues he could no longer hide or blame on his underlings. Evidence speaks for itself.

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Post ID: @6qtl+1cwuCuR7

Silly, you think more than half the posters ever worked at Cisco? Doubt it.

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Post ID: @6xwp+1cwuCuR7

@5odh+1cwuCuR7

You are wrong. Just raise a case. I didn't say they were friends did I? If you raise a case there is an audit trail. HR have to act. These cases are then audited. Often by externals so the company can maintain its positive rating with clients. Problem with a lot of posters here is that you are all so negative. OK, so you got binned and put on a PIP. Maybe there was a reason for that? Two sides for every story after all.

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Post ID: @6vwn+1cwuCuR7
Last time I checked, we still have the great majority of the leaders at Cisco - and everywhere - being white males.

I don’t think you’ve checked for a while. Maybe some of the exec teams, but my BU is about 300 people and exactly three of them are white, US born males. Some of the sales teams are probably paler, but what do you expect in a sales team in Warsaw, Martians?

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Post ID: @5svp+1cwuCuR7
Just contact HR. Cisco is conscious of this type of stuff they will bend over themselves to help you.

@5qgl+1cwuCuR7, you are so naive. HR is not your _friend_ and is not there to "help" you with anything other than payroll issues or benefits questions.

HR is there to protect the company from lawsuits. If it's easier to make you disappear instead of correcting the manager's behaviors or removing the manger, then you are gone.

I had a director who was temporarily managing me when a manger quit and it took a while to backfill. The Director made a comment about me in a team staff meeting, nothing racist or se-----y harassing, but it tied into negative feedback he'd suddenly provided in my year-end performance review when all my other reviews were positive. I sent him an email saying I didn't understand what to do for him when he'd say one thing to me privately and another in front of the team and I needed clarification. Next thing I know, I receive a meeting invite from HR to discuss my email to the director in order to protect him from me. Suddenly I was on a performance improvement plan (PIP) and was out the door 9 mo later when they had the first big work force reduction back in '11.

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Post ID: @5odh+1cwuCuR7

Listen to yourselves. Pathetic. Just contact HR. Cisco is conscious of this type of stuff they will bend over themselves to help you.

Stop being so negative about the company you work for. If you don't like it...leave. Its not rocket science.

If you manager is racist / sexist then escalate to HR via a case. Then its in writing and there is an audit trail. They have to take it seriously. Put up or shut otherwise nothing gets done.

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Post ID: @5qgl+1cwuCuR7

If you cannot prove it factually, it is not possible. However, if you can prove it you have a very large civil suit against the company. It is highly unlikely you have factual proof that would hold up in a lawsuit.

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Post ID: @5ozq+1cwuCuR7

To the ones saying that "unless it's a white male, nothing will happen" are clearly clueless. We've seen white male leaders protecting their own for ages, nothing happens to them and where were you when that was happening? Oh, getting the privilege and since you are entitled, you think that was fair.

Last time I checked, we still have the great majority of the leaders at Cisco - and everywhere - being white males. But let's go and blame the other races, women and immigrants for the issues that are all across the board.

Reality check: The culture at Cisco sucks. It's all about who you know and like someone said, people will naturally go and protect/promote their own. It doesn't matter the gender, race, age of the manager or employee getting impacted. And nothing will happen to then. HR will protect the company and employees are all expendable. If you didn't know that, you weren't paying attention.

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Post ID: @4wbb+1cwuCuR7

Leave and leave quickly. HR will not protect you. They will protect the aggressor if you raise a complaint.

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Post ID: @2qoi+1cwuCuR7

Like many have said if it is an older white conservative male report it and you will get some relief. Otherwise you are wasting your time. Find a new gig.

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Post ID: @2uvm+1cwuCuR7

If the problem manager is an older, white male, report him to HR and you will probably see some action. Otherwise, just move on.

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Post ID: @1ehf+1cwuCuR7

We had many complaints against a leader in the spns group and the female employees eventually left. The leader is moving up with his new sonic responsibilities and nothing has improved; so leaving seems to be the only option

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Post ID: @1vzx+1cwuCuR7

Switch teams. Best thing that you can do. You can find an excuse for anything in the world. The manager, when cornered can just say, " i didnt mean it that way", and move on.

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Post ID: @1xnc+1cwuCuR7

You can submit an anonymous complaint through the Ethics office.

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Post ID: @dff+1cwuCuR7

fire her

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Post ID: @qyh+1cwuCuR7

Leave...no other solution.

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Post ID: @evr+1cwuCuR7
also toxic managers can make it difficult to transfer internally

This! I had a manager who liked my performance and converted me from contractor to employee and then quit just after my mid-year performance review. Before they could backfill my manager, my director had to give my annual performance review and I went from a you're-doing-perfect mid-year review to you're-doing-nothing-right bottom 10% year-end review. Along comes the new manager and because I'm on the director's sh-t list, it was his mission to get rid of me to make his boss happy.

At the next mid-year review, I was put on a PIP and told I was moving towards a bottom 5% rating if things didn't improve, yet I was doing everything they asked. I had another manager in a different BU that I collaborated with because of upstream/downstream application dependencies between the BU's and this manager wanted to hire me to fill a spot on his team, but my manager blocked it to prevent me from leaving. Then the first big LR was announced and my weekly 1-on-1's became pro-forma and no longer had new goals every week so I knew I'd be laid off in a couple of months and to no surprise, my Thur afternoon PIP 1:1 was cancelled and rescheduled for first thing Tue morning the day Cisco had announced that impacted employees would be notified.

The hilarious thing about it was that the manager who wanted to hire me managed to hire me 9 months after I was LR'd. I got to keep the 6 months severance package, had found a short-term gig that started within 30 days of being LR'd, so I only lived off one month's severance and banked the other five months, then gave my 2 weeks notice to the short-term gig when the other manager was able to get the req approved. Best damn team switch I'd ever made. Oh, and I got a pay raise out of it too, whereas if I'd done the internal switch instead of being LR'd and re-hired, I'd have moved laterally at the same pay. And, the replacement manager and the director; the director took the first early retirement and the replacement manager was LR'd two years later. Karma.

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Post ID: @kph+1cwuCuR7
  • also toxic managers can make it difficult to transfer internally
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Post ID: @swl+1cwuCuR7

Switch companies. This happens everyday at Cisco.

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Post ID: @amy+1cwuCuR7

Subjective perspective; the same experience can be one person's heaven, yet another person's he-l.

Diversity and equality is important, but in nature, species take advantage of their environment and other species.

Humans are no different. If we were, we wouldn't have learned to dominate all other planetary species.

The irony is humans think we are above nature and can somehow ultimately influence nature in the long term. In the end, we are in control of none of it. Just as we have no control over situations such as you describe.

I would accept the reality and make your own choices to get away from the situation. That much you can control.

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Post ID: @htt+1cwuCuR7

You could call ER but that will get you nothing and nowhere fast. If it isn't a white male causing the issue then there's no benefit to cisco to follow up on that, nor to punish false claims.

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Post ID: @mhl+1cwuCuR7

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