Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I did not check in for as long as I remember, i.e last 5 years

Sorry, but you will pay in the bonus amount at year end and maybe even with your job. They are not going to let the checkins drop. Everyone is going to get dinged so if you are costing me $ because you are too lazy to do a one minute task, or you think that you run the show I would say you need to think differently as the next 2 quarters are going to be something. If you can't help me out while I stick my neck out for you then it tells me I am misplacing my trust so therefore I have no issues with getting rid of that problem.

What happens if you stop checking in in Team Space? Simple, your name goes on the list that gets pulled out for the next round of LR.

Play the game, it takes less than a minute.

@4eiz+1fot7tTG

Kudos to you and your team. My reporting chain treats it like the bureaucratic red-tape that it is. We were recently reminded by our SVP to do it just to make the BU's metrics look good because looking good prevents budget cuts and keeps people working. We don't spend more than 2-5 min on it.

Now, if only we could ignore the V2MOM as that takes much more than 120 min, or 2 min x 52 wks a year that check-in's do.

I find check-ins to be a waste of time. Of course it depends on the team, but I haven’t filled one out for over a year. No one has told me to fill it out so far.

The best one I saw was when an employee quit after about 15 years.

Team Space - "What's the best thing that happened to you this week ?"
Employee - "I QUIT !"

It is the equivalent of calling your parents on the weekend, while you were in college.

You tell your parents the exact opposite of what is really going on.

Both parties really know what is truly going on beyond that phone call.

"That didn't sound like someone pushing back,"

Oh I'm pushing back alright. I've explained countless times check-ins don't work because nobody sees what's in it for them. My spineless SVP doesn't care and demands his minions check in like a Swiss clock. I won't lose my job over that, so there's fighting and fighting. He knows what I think about it, and he knows I won't chase my staff to check in.

Follow the trail. Who sells the “Team Space” product? Who owns them? Who’s got a seat on that board?

First, get a new manager. Outside Cisco if needed.
Second, Repeat the first suggestion until you find your place. That clearly is not it.

If anything at your work is making you physically ill -the your own body is telling you to leave. Don't listen if you want but go ahead and look up a good cardiologist.

"Why aren't you telling your VP, or your SVP during skip levels, that it's BS and a waste of everyone's time for no gain?"

What makes you believe I'm not doing that?

Because you didn't say you were doing that. All you said was "And I couldn't care less." and "I've been asked to encourage people to check in. I send the usual uninspired mail asking people to play the game, and that works for a couple of weeks then people don't bother."

That didn't sound like someone pushing back, but someone just playing the same game I play.

Why are you a$$clowns working in the corporate world if you don't want to play the game. How about just get a new job. You must be fun at parties.

"Why aren't you telling your VP, or your SVP during skip levels, that it's BS and a waste of everyone's time for no gain?"

What makes you believe I'm not doing that?

I’ve never filled one in. Team space is a profiling tool, and I don’t want to be constantly profiled. My SVP has, on multiple occasions, threatened every manager that it was mandatory for them. Like “if you want to work here, then it’s not an option”. They strongly encourage ICs to do it, but no more than that.

When employees are being forced to do something that keeps an HR executive happy but that adds no value to them or the company, the organization is simply destroying the employees' souls.

Team Space weekly check-ins were once considered mandatory, but are they really? So many managers don't bother to reply, hence, many employees don't do them anymore. It's just a people-pleaser initiated by HR and I agree, a waste of time.

What the he-l is a “check-in”?
Is it a new b-sh!t invented by chuckie?

Please explain, I’m curious

I'm not sure who brought it in, but it wasn't Chuck. It's an HR thing, so it probably came from Fran or one of her underlings sold her on the idea.

There's a web portal for "Team Space" that basically documents a virtual 1:1 w/ your manager. You select if you've been using your strengths and if you feel valued, list your priorities, talk about what you loved & loathed this week, etc.

It's all BS to keep someone in the ELT happy. (Hint: She smiles during every Cisco Check-In, i.e. All-hands or townhall, regardless of what the topic is. And everyone tells her how great her hair looks or how great her new office is in the chat board for the Check-In. It's nauseating.

Senior director here with multiple teams reporting to me. ... Why? There's simply no value. It's pure process overhead to please whoever is the current EVP of HR, and that's useless. We're not working to make some temporary EVP happy. EVPs come and go with the wind. Pulse surveys are much more interesting to get a proper idea of the overall morale.

So, you're part of the problem then. Why aren't you telling your VP, or your SVP during skip levels, that it's BS and a waste of everyone's time for no gain?

I agree that it's of no value, but if wasting my time completing it keeps my boss's boss off my boss's back then I'm not adding to my boss's headaches. It's just part of playing the game.

Now if only someone would push back on the whole V2MOM process that MM is forcing on the company. That's a major time suck and you can't NOT do it because you show up on a list and the sh-t rolls downhill getting everyone in your reporting chain negative visibility until you get it done.

What the he-l is a “check-in”?
Is it a new b-sh!t invented by chuckie?

(I left fiasco system a while ago, but I regularly come here to see how the circus keeps standing...)

Please explain, I’m curious

"my manager always replies to me on Saturday night saying something very unfavorable/disagreeable, which makes me sick on Saturday night and Sunday."

Yeah, this is a self-induced issue. STOP looking for replies to work emails on your weekend. If there's something you need to worry about for work, on a weekend, your phone needs to ring.

Senior director here with multiple teams reporting to me. My direct reports almost never check in, only one consistently does. And I couldn't care less. My teams use multiple spaces and communicate continuously. I don't check in myself, because I talk to my boss several times a week. I've been asked to encourage people to check in. I send the usual uninspired mail asking people to play the game, and that works for a couple of weeks then people don't bother. Why? There's simply no value. It's pure process overhead to please whoever is the current EVP of HR, and that's useless. We're not working to make some temporary EVP happy. EVPs come and go with the wind. Pulse surveys are much more interesting to get a proper idea of the overall morale.

Oh man, reading these posts brings back memories of the dreaded Check-Ins when I was still with Cisco.

Back then, my manager attended a multi day training session for Team Space. He loved it, was so amazed at what that tool can provide. I asked him what but he could not explain.

The only benefit I got from that too was making keeping tracks of what I accomplished for the EPM much easier, since I logged it every week. But the rest of the stuff was definitely a waste of time. Not that it mattered much for the EPM, anyhow. Never got a raise or anything, just was thankful you were not laid off for that cycle.

Once that early retirement package in 2020 hit, and I made the cutoff at 51, I gladly took it.

I'm just trolling this forum to see if there is another layoff/ER package coming. My wife is still at Cisco and she will definitely take it if it comes.

I copy pasted the prev one to current .. whenever I did it.. half the time I didn't do that too.. let them keep pinging .. keep saying ill do it..

Btw I did leave Cisco few months back. The checkins didn't give them any clue !

Just list your priorities. Filling out anything in the "loves" and "loathes" sections is just asking for trouble. WTF? Everybody has things they love and loathe. It doesn't matter. WORK is a four letter word. You do what your are paid to do. You exchange your time for money, that's it.

There was a conversation in my BU by it's leader about the Team Space Check-Ins. It's a metric enforced on the leaders at every level, so if you don't do it, they get sh-t on by their manager. And you know that sh-t rolls down hill.

OP, why do you check the responses on a Saturday? That's your time off. Get some life/work balance.

I'm wondering if it's better not to check in on Fridays so I don't have to feel so disgusted every weekend because of my manager's negative comments.

During our BU's all-hands, the BU leader said that your response window runs through Thurs for it to count for the manager's metrics, but recommended that you check-in by Tue. So don't do it on Fri and wait until late on Mon.

We're SUPPOSED to check in every week, but I don't think not doing so would have any impact on anything.

It will have an impact on your manager's metrics, and s/he has to answer up to their manager as to why it's not getting done. You fu-k with their performance bonus, they fu-k with yours. It only takes a min or two to complete and keep your manager happy.

Are you guys doing "Check-in" on Fridays without fail?

Yes. By COB Monday.

If stopped, has your manager or HR contacted you and urged again?

Our BU leader called out every manager during the last all-hands to ensure that everyone does it "to make our metrics look good".

OP, what are you putting in your "check-in" that your manager responds to? Simply leave the "loves" and "loathes" sections empty, check that your manager has checked in with you (that's what's important to MY manager and we have a bi-weekly 1:1 so that covers that box), and list your priorities for the week. Then you mark off the completed tasks and add new ones next week. Easy peasy. Don't put anything in the last text field asking if there's anything you need from your manager as that will cause them to need to respond. Unless you do need something. But depending on your situation, it may be better to not document those discussions unless you need to cover your a-s, in which case your manager is probably covering their a-s too.

I recently had a conversation with my manager about Team Space and it's need. We have weekly team staff meetings where everyone goes around discussing what they're working on this week, the Team Space weekly check-in, bi-weekly 1:1 and our team uses a mix of ServiceNow stories and Asana "tasks" to track work. It's a ton of duplication and I wanted to know which of these was most important to him instead of wasting time on all of them.

His response was that the weekly team staff meeting was more for the team to know what the others were working on (why? I don't care what they're working on.). That Team Space was required by the BU for metrics, but he didn't really care about the tasks and rarely looked at them. ServiceNow stories were the "source of truth" of what we were doing, but that the BU had looked into Asana to see if it was a better fit when suddenly Jira was mandated "from on high" so we'll be migrating stories from ServiceNow to Jira and dropping the use of Asana. Some of us want to keep Asana & will probably use it at the free plan level because it's easier to use than Jira.

Send your mgr's reply email to junk folder automatically. Tell him/her that the email went to junk folder and that you believe this is due to his/her negative comments. I wish there was an a-ho-e folder in my outlook email client (tried to create one, but outlook rejected it).

If you really what to upset the apple cart do the following. Tell the truth - did your manager check with you on your priorities this week...just say NO and for what did you loath this week just place in "I loath this weekly check-in". Having done that I can tell you that your phone will ring

Yes. It is not healthy to follow that cycle.

Just reading that made me glad I am away from that cr@p.

Once you are away from it, you will realize what a waste of your time it was worrying about trivial things that have no bearing whatsoever on anything meaningful.

The sad part is all the wasted time you will spend (as I did during my time) worrying.

Thought Cisco was operating a conscious culture working environment, that was Frans initiative when I was there… guess that was BS as well.

Not to read till Monday doesn't make any difference. That's even worse. Who wants a new week to start with his/her manager's negative comment?

How about you don't read the comment till Monday morning and keep the negativity in work space.