Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I agree! I have best code for team and no recognition for library and speed optimization in the MIG or whatever we now call with new org. Even free snacks when complain, the manager does not recognize!

@1oyi+1jvfo9Rc At Cisco, nobody cares about your skills or previous work experience. Take your skills to Tesla/Google/Arista/Palo Alto/etc instead. In fact, some folks at Cisco are so bored, they have picked up a 2nd fulltime gig while still milking the Cisco cash cow.

"1 Just do your job tasks,
2 Get paid,
3 Go home to your family.
4 Goto 1."

What if you want to improve your knowledge or skills? That's a great mentality if you work at a grocery store.

1 Just do your job tasks,
2 Get paid,
3 Go home to your family.
4 Goto 1.

"That's so true. Then I wonder why in the world Cisco keeps hiring experienced people."

Cisco culture also focuses on empire building, which requires annual headcount increases. A VP or Senior Director probably won a political battle for more headcount and doesn't care about your skills, experience, or knowledge.

That's so true. Then I wonder why in the world Cisco keeps hiring experienced people.

They should hire new grads only.

Respectfully, the issue is you. At this point in career, it is time to stop caring so much about work and focus on the time left on this earth. I am at a similar point in career, and was taking life so seriously I had to seek counseling.

Focus on trying to enjoy this time, pursue a hobby and heck strive to work just to pay the bills for just enjoying life.

I made the above transition at 56, only took me 38 years of working. I will definitely work, but really, honestly, finally, do not remotely care what anyone thinks. Took a long time. Much happier though.

Go live your lives.

Work is work, that's all it is.

Shouldn't you know how to address that if your 30 years of experience are actually worth something? I've met people whose decades of experience can literally be summarized in a three-hour tech talk. You are generalizing your problem as if it's something everybody does across the company. You aren't able to get heard, that's the gist of the problem.

You have to forge a path into areas that need help, and offer your skills.
This is not impossible to do, but it is not easy. Assist where people are working, and pitch in. Be persistent.
What alternative do you have? If you sit back and wait for a project, you will end up with little to nothing. If you are asked not to bu-t in, then let management know it has been the only way to contribute since he/she isn't assigning anything.

Cisco is in managed decline. This means the company is going downhill and laying people off every year.

Because we are on a downhill trajectory - management doesn't care about skills, abilities, or doing productive things. They just care about jeeping themselves off the next LR list.

So people stay quiet, do thier best not to make waves, and hide as best they can.

The more stuff you try to do and change and work on - the more you are making waves and being seen. Which has a tendancy to get whole teams cut.

This is a company for people that want to do 2 hours of work a day and focus on outside priorities. Not a company to build something cool or do something fun with people who care.

Startups are pretty good for that environment. Best to stay out of stoggy old corps if you want to do something worth while. Most cops now are just aquisition companys.

Cisco is. We just buy up smaller companies. Gobble up anything useful and throw away the people, processes, and setups that made those start ups successful.

Then those startups we bought fail, but it takes a few years and by that time we have bought the next thing.

We are just a junk company of tech. Like a chop shop.

You don't need skill at a chop shop or junk shop. You just need to be the kind of person who shuts up and does what they are told with as little hassle as possible.

Cisco is a relationship, not a performance based culture. Your lack of strategic relationships at the company will hurt your career. Research the corporate culture before joining a new company next time.

What pearls of wisdom are you looking to drop exactly?

Has it occurred to you that maybe your manager and colleagues don't want to listen to somebody flap his lips all day?

Seen the same. I think some people are afraid their skills are becoming irrelevant and somehow project that onto you. Same with people joining through acquisitions or any transformational agents introduced - "how dare you come here and talk about the outside world!"

Welcome