Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

If you have a frequent 1:1 with your manager it isn’t a reflection of your performance. It’s a check box for under qualified managers.

Leaders don’t waste their time or yours. Leaders vs Managers.

"We all, of course, do have biweekly 1-1. Maybe you are just too bad to even have one on one with your boss. It's YOU who have a problem... "

Magarac!

"I don’t have biweekly 1-1. Why do you? Maybe you are not good at job?"

We all, of course, do have biweekly 1-1. Maybe you are just too bad to even have one on one with your boss. It's YOU who have a problem...

I've been laid off twice. I'm hoping the 3rd time I can retire. Du-b sucke-s just keep rehiring us as the great resignation means they can't get or keep good professionals.

I don’t have biweekly 1-1. Why do you? Maybe you are not good at job?

Full of yourself aren't you? I doubt you're a real Cisco employee.

Fran's "People Deal" shifted from annual performance reviews to regular conversations to provide continual feedback.

Most managers do the bi-weekly 1:1's, but some are busy and "hands-off" and just tell their team to ask for a 1:1 whenever needed and ignore the regularly scheduled ones.

When you suck at your job, or your manager wants to "manage" you out instead of putting you up for an LR, you get put onto a performance improvement plan (PIP) and you have weekly 1:1's.

I don’t have biweekly 1-1. Why do you? Maybe you are not good at job?

Uncle B, They do it all the time. It just isn't classified as a technical (legal) layoff as it falls under a given percentage. There are budgets allotted to handle that.
Ater the first 8% highly public layoff, Cisco learned not to do that again. Now it goes by stealth. The formal LRs happen when they just screwed up again on a larger scale. In either case, Numbers are numbers and Wall Street wants them. So, if a (ok, whale) shark keeps acquiring in the mouth, the shark must excrete some amount out the back.
#Math

There is no corporate-wide budget set aside for LRs right now. It's possible certain entities secured money for exit packages but there's no global-scale layoffs. At least not right now. With this ELT in place though, all bets are off for what happens at the end of the next quarter(s).

My last company laid people off via email. At least they will tell it to your face.
I expect Cisco will do layoffs again soon, however I haven't heard whispers, yet!

Uncle Ben, your first sentence makes a strident claim, and the rest of the post offers evidence to directly refute your claim?

"Layoff can happen to any individual at any time, not just by group/team."

That is simply not true. LRs are backed by a budget that's been set aside in preparation. The money for the severance package comes from a global pool, not from your department.

Why do you keep going back, and more importantly why do you keep getting LR’d and who keeps hiring you back!

I keep going back because I get more $ every time I return and I get six months of pay when I leave. Pretty damn profitable to me.

My first LR was due to office politics and the second LR was because I was making more as a grade 8 than I was as a grade 9 the first time around.

As to who keeps hiring me back, managers and teams I work with who recognize the quality of my work and skills want me on their team. Not every person who is LR'd is for poor performance. Most of the people I know who've been LR'd in the two largest of Cisco's LRs have been great performers, but they were expensive/older senior level workers who were replaced with younger, cheaper mid-career workers.

The next, and last, time that Cisco shows me the door again I'll be eligible for whatever retirement benefits they still offer and if they offer an early retirement again with the same criteria as the most recent one, I'll be eligible for that one too.

While reading many of the posts here, I see many people don't get to work on good teams, but other than that one manager that took over my first team, every team and manager I've been fortunate enough to work with have been great people. The jobs I've had between Cisco roles have been less than great. Terrible work/life balance, micromanagement or poor benefits.

"In which group are the layoffs happening currently ?"

Layoff can happen to any individual at any time, not just by group/team.

e.g. If your manager doesn't like you, or if he/she thinks that you're not doing well, or if he/she thinks that you don't fit in the team, your manager will speak to HR and they will proceed to separation agreement without you really knowing it. So be careful. It can happen to anyone, anytime.

“ Those were my LR notices…”

Why do you keep going back, and more importantly why do you keep getting LR’d and who keeps hiring you back!

I've never had HR show up in a bi-weekly 1:1. It's always just been me and my manager.

What alerts me is when my next regularly scheduled 1:1 is cancelled and I get a replacement 1:1 invite for first thing the next morning. Those were my LR notices and it still was just me and my manager reading from an HR prepared script.

In which group are the layoffs happening currently ?

Do you really care about keeping a job at cisco? If yes, just tell them you belong to a “minority” and they will keep you.

Don't sweat it. So many companies are not diversifying their employees out of productive pursuits. Cisco doesn't even believe the BS they tell themselves about themselves.
Have value. Save money. Bounce and be happy.

Yeah, I'd never had such a cowardly thing happen until I was at my last gig. I was running about 1 minute late to my last 1:1, as was my boss, apparently. HR dude though... he was Johnny on the spot. I saw the Teams notification that "HRdude has started the meeting" and I told my wife, "Hey, I'm about to get fired" as I was joining. What a wonderful day that was. (Actually, it sucked, but here I am, a year and a half later, working 100% remotely for an amazing group of folks)