Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Not all of us know who has been laid off until their picture goes dark in WebEx teams. That doesn’t happen until they exit. It’s not something that is publicized.

That may be true for people that you don't work with on the daily, but you should certainly know who's been impacted if you interact with them on a daily/weekly basis.

In all my yrs at Cisco, I have seen lots of people sending out their "farewell" email saying that today/tomorrow is their last day, how to contact them if you want to stay in touch, who to reach out to after they're gone, and lastly, thanking all the great people they worked with for the good times.

About the only people whose picture goes dark in Webex that I didn't know was leaving are the people who've been assigned to work an IT case for me and reached out via Webex to ask questions about the case. If I don't leave the space immediately upon the case being closed, it moves downward in the list pretty quickly and then I'll notice it switches from an active user to an inactive user.

Main problem is, that if they reach out and/or "accidently" offend someone, they could lose their job as well. Woke Cisco rules.

No many team works in cisco，we just think others stupid

Not normal IMO. At least in our area , region. Most are empathetic and try to share potential opportunities, pass resumes, etc. Maybe it’s the culture in the Midwest/south or maybe it’s the culture in sales, but I don’t see those impacted being ignored.

"but I found the Cisco employees very, very cold. Unfriendly, evasive, distant, estranged"

Consequence of years and years of layoffs. Some people see newcomers as a threat to their job. Chambers and Robbins have ruined the culture in absolute bliss ignorance.

I'll do the same as @2cst+1nVhFa73.

Cisco is weird with their layoffs for sure.

Not all of us know who has been laid off until their picture goes dark in WebEx teams. That doesn’t happen until they exit. It’s not something that is publicized. If I’m ever LR’d, I’m going to change my status in WebEx teams to IMPACTED. Couldn’t hurt and might get me a referral to a job opening.

I'm not sure how long you've been at Cisco or perhaps it's your first company with no job experience outside Cisco, but what you described is very Cisco! It's very typical Cisco behavior.

Before I joined Cisco, I worked for several tech companies, but I found the Cisco employees very, very cold. Unfriendly, evasive, distant, estranged.

I often see them just like a robot with no emotion, no facial expression. They look very weird to me. I hate them so much. Never have I felt this way at other tech companies.

No, that is not normal.

It is normal for well-adjusted, mature adults to show simple kindness (ack your msg at the very least), wish you well, and offer to be a professional reference for you. If you're in a dysfunctional environment with a cowardly manager who avoids uncomfortable discussions, then it sounds about right.

These people are the worst, be happy you are leaving.

This is common. Leaders know what they are doing is very wrong, and then avoid people that are LRed. There are few if any going away parties, it is more like you are shunned. It is sad, but that is the Cisco culture. Nobody will speak up as they don't want to be next. I have seen people that speak up mysteriously show up in the next LR.

Yeah, it really su-ks. Our whole department is impacted, colleagues in other departments and other sites I used to work closely just pretend that they don't know and hope you disappear completely from their life. What's more, some of them come to ask me questions about things I work on, and don't even have the courtesy start the conversation with something like "I'm so sorry to hear about the bad news, but I need your help on something...."

So, why would I help these guys? They are going to figure things out themselves.

OP, I don't know that it's "normal", but it does happen. Read @1lkw+1nVhFa73 reply and you'll see that they think it's normal.

I've been laid off more than a few times. I like to think it's not me, or that I was a bottom performer, but who knows. I can say, that I've had companies treat me like you've described after being laid off or after quitting. I've had other companies treat me much better. I can honestly say that I've been LR'd from Cisco twice and I wasn't treated like that either time.

I interviewed w/ a company that was currently, unknown to me, in negotiations to be bought out by another company. I was offered a chance to be kept on if I'd agree to relocate to Tucson, AZ and I didn't want to go because it was further from family and had a higher cost of living, but the company wasn't going to adjust my pay accordingly so I took the severance package. While many of us who took the package stayed in contact, we didn't help anyone find new roles until we landed ours first as they were our competition. I had a co-worker from that company I stayed in touch with several times a year until they retired 10 yrs later.

I later took a chance w/ a company that was going to go public after 20 yrs as a private company and thought it would be great to get in before the IPO. Turns out, the new investors weren't interested in improving what the company did, they sold off the best parts of it and I was gone before my IPO shares could vest. Then they were out of business in 18 months. I wasn't there long enough to make "friends", and they ghosted me as soon as I was escorted out the door. Laugh's on them as I got a severance package and they didn't as the company was broke by the time they were terminated.

Because I was able to establish relationships that were slightly better than just work acquaintances, unlike @1lkw+1nVhFa73, I've been asked to come back to work under different managers at several companies who've laid me off or just failed to renew my contract if I was a contractor. Cisco is one of those companies. I've switched BU's with every role, but my current department got moved over to my original BU. Now, when I attend all-hands or end-of-quarter/year celebrations, I bump into people that I originally worked with 15 yrs ago who remember me and cross a room to greet me. While some of them never kept in touch when I was first LR'd, they certainly didn't treat me like @1lkw+1nVhFa73 did. How you leave a company is more important than how the surviving people treat you. Your paths will probably cross again and next time, they may wish they'd treated you better when they find themselves in your shoes. I know that, when someone on my team is impacted, if someone on my team ghosts them, then when it's that person's turn, I will treat them the way they treated the others before them. For those on the team that shared prospective job openings with a departing team member, I'll do the same for them.

It’s just a job, don’t take it personal and move on. If they don’t care why should you.

Wow, @1lkw+1nVhFa73, you are a douche bag. I hope you've heard of this thing called "karma".

I'll engage in small talk here and there, have lunch with some of them once in a blue moon, but I'm under no illusion that any of these people are my genuine friends.

Exactly, they're not genuine friends. But they are "associates". You know them and they know you. Instead of ghosting them, it doesn't hurt to offer to make a recommendation on their LinkedIn profile and say something nice about their work or professionalism, assuming they were a productive member of the team.

This person is no longer my "work friend", this person is a dead man walking.

They are. But you don't have to make it worse than it is. You don't have to let them cry on your shoulder, or vent about how bad the boss and/or company is. A simple "Hey, that su-ks that you got impacted. I feel for you. If I have any recruiters contact me about similar roles, I'll pass them on to you if you give me your contact info." goes a long way. You can toss their contact info in the trash as soon as you walk away and never forward any recruiter contacts and they'll never know you did or didn't get any contacts from recruiters. But now, when they've landed somewhere else, they don't negatively talk about you if your resume ever comes across their new team's desk.

Does he want to go have a beer and ask me if there is someone in my network who can hook him up with a job? Not interested in hearing it.

Why not? I hope you don't expect anyone else to help "hook you up" with a job. After 10 yrs in the industry, three of my last five jobs were because someone I worked with before got my foot in the door w/ a company. And, I've blocked people who were dead weight from joining a team I was on at two places just because I didn't want to have to carry their load because they didn't work.

I compartmentalize people, it makes life much less stressful. No being friends with ex girlfriends, no mixing business with family, no hanging out with colleagues. When you get LR'd from the company you are LR'd from my life.

Do you treat people who quit for better roles the same way you treat people who are LR'd?

While I don't think my co-workers are my "friends", I have made friendships with one or two people from almost every job I've had and I managed to stay in contact with them for anywhere from three to ten years after they or I left a role. If we stayed in the same town, we'd meet for a beer or dinner, if we moved it was just brief emails back and forth. Like I said above, keeping a good network helps get jobs. If someone has zero recommendations from co-workers on their LinkedIn profile, it's a big red flag for me as an interviewer.

I guess I'm not really sure what you're expecting here.

At the company I currently work for I'm fortunate enough to be great "work friends" with everybody in my group. I'll engage in small talk here and there, have lunch with some of them once in a blue moon, but I'm under no illusion that any of these people are my genuine friends.

Suppose one of these guys gets laid off tomorrow and lets me know, then what? Now the whole foundation of this flimsy pseudo relationship has been completely destroyed. This person is no longer my "work friend", this person is a dead man walking.

Does he want to commiserate? Not interested in hearing it.

Does he want to get things off his chest and whine about the boss, how he was treated unfairly, etc? Not interested in hearing it.

Does he want to talk about his grandiose pie in the sky plans for his future? Not interested in hearing it.

Does he want to go have a beer and ask me if there is someone in my network who can hook him up with a job? Not interested in hearing it.

I compartmentalize people, it makes life much less stressful. No being friends with ex girlfriends, no mixing business with family, no hanging out with colleagues. When you get LR'd from the company you are LR'd from my life.

Some people are at a loss for words and not very good at dealing with this type of situation. Your manager should know better. In fact, there should be a manager script for he/she to follow. You could be the better person and interact with coworkers as normal until you leave. Leave on a high note. Best of luck.

OP here - thank you both so much for your responses. It means a lot to hear a more humane viewpoint to this all. I appreciate it more than I can express.

It’s sh---y…I’m sorry hang in there. Just know it’s not personal it happens at most companies. People move on and don’t look back. Hang in there and remember this so you don’t do this to someone else at your next gig. Good luck

Back in the 1980s it was called "lions and zebras." The lions take the zebras at the back and the rest of the zebras keep moving forward afraid to look back.

Even back then and even in smaller companies id--t CEOs would say "each group needs to lay off X% of their staff" so if you put together a world class team X% still have to go, and if another team are all disasters ( 100 - X )% get to stay, so it's rarely about getting rid of the bottom performers. Even after seeing so many good people go through this over the decades too many still take it that everyone who was laid off deserved it.