Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Cisco employees worldwide comprise three types. So why?

  1. Almost all managers, directors, VPs at Cisco throughout the world are over 20-year to 30-year tenured employees who have no motivation, no expert or no skill, hence no longer able to work at any other company. They're STILL at Cisco just because they've been having no motivation in their career for decades that just resulted in very long tenure. But they're supposed to be respected and admired at Cisco by their subordinates and team members. So as long as they are at Cisco, they feel great and boast themselves.
  1. Naïve meek new grads and quasi-new grads with no or almost no work experience unconditionally respect those people above, and just follow their orders and instructions without expressing or saying any opinion.
  1. Other professional/skilled employees (perhaps less than 10%) who joined with a passion from another tech company are not appreciated, not valued, just ignored at Cisco. Those people get shocked, disappointed, upset, tired of it, and soon leave for another company, realizing it's just a waste of time or their career/skills are damaged/marred. These people obviously have much higher/better experiences and skills, and are far more knowledgeable than Type 1 people. But they're so reluctant to follow Type 1 people and work under them. But they would ONLY IF they want to stay at Cisco.

So, why does the company still hire Type 3 people? Doesn't make sense, does it?

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @OP+1iWBNUKt
Comment! It's anonymous!

8 replies (most recent on top)

I joined in 1996 and the first 5 years there were great. CAP awards given out frequently…

The compensation was great. On the software side the quality was always extremely poor but people worth millions on paper didn’t care. I know people who have to work to this day as they cashed out nothing as the stock went to 82 and nothing again as it went to 8.

Does anyone remember the news articles about the guy who tried to sue Cisco for not telling him to diversify so when he bought and held his options and they lost almost all their value he still owed taxes on the extremely high exercise price? Those really were the days…

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @6zkj+1iWBNUKt

vpj+1iWBNUKt It's been more than a decade long downward spiral. I joined in 1996 and the first 5 years there were great. CAP awards given out frequently (I believe they cut them out completely and started giving gift cards with a $300 maximum value). My view is that things really started going downhill after the first big layoff in 2001. In JC's words (as close as I can remember them) "we're going to make this one really big so we will never have to do this again". Prior to that he was frequently fond of saying "Layoffs are a failure of management". It would appear that Cisco has gone through a 2+ decade downward spiral/series of management failures.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @5pdt+1iWBNUKt

Most companies are like that. That is why you need to work for yourself or not get emotionally involved in a company you do not have a major stake in.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @4spq+1iWBNUKt

This is why good schools require students to take electives in sociology and psychology.

Failing that there is common sense: if these were unique to Cisco and there are many tech job openings no one would work at Cisco.

Failing that:

  1. Elected members of the US government
  2. Monica Lewinsky
  3. The unelectable whose names will never be known

It’s not a matter of sense, it’s the human condition.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @1jey+1iWBNUKt

@rzi+1iWBNUKt

I think most type 3 see being valued as a means to being highly compensated. Type 1 are the ultimate validation seekers. I’ve literally heard type 1s tell me they don’t mind being underpaid because they get head pats from upper management.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @kre+1iWBNUKt

The Type 1 people are the ones thinking intelligently and I would suspect they are the ones who age the most gracefully. Money is fungible, not like those silly little tokens. That means the cheddar in my paycheck is worth the same whether I work a 55+ hour week or whether I'm a lazy, unmotivated sloth.

I suppose I could be a Type 3 and care about being valued. Except the idea of finding value in being a cog in the corporate machine and enriching my overlords is an affront to my sensibilities. In case you haven't looked there is a big, beautiful world outside those four walls out there.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @rzi+1iWBNUKt

My VP literally held up my innovations as the standard the department was reaching for. Then declined my request to be compensated at the market rate (literally the 50th percentile of my position).

So I quit within 3 months and got a 40-50% raise. Of course the senior guys I’d been working with tried to talk me out of it. They said I could be looking at decent compensation down the road. Maybe that’s true but why the he-l would I wait when I can just walk out the door today and get decent compensation?

Cisco is a complete joke at this point.

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @vir+1iWBNUKt

Type 3's with great skills typically join via acquisitions
Any other Type 3's would never consider working for Cisco which is why Cisco will continue it's decade long downward spiral until they hire a new CEO that will finally clean house of all the useless Type 1 poison management

by Anonymous
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Post ID: @vpj+1iWBNUKt

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