Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

...the comment was about "religious" holidays.

Have a fifth grader explain this to you:

...but that's really a federal holiday they have to celebrate.

For that poor fifth grader, focus on the words "have to celebrate" in the context of all federal holidays.

Or New Years, or Memorial Day, or Labor Day, or Thanksgiving, or...

@allz+1ogs1tvM, the comment was about "religious" holidays. What religious holiday is celebrated on New Year's, Memorial Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, or ...?

I was not to hire Indian males, HM here…supposedly they are not creative enough engineers or PMs…I don’t get why it can’t just be about merit

Sure, Cisco "celebrates" Christmas, but that's really a federal holiday they have to celebrate. There's no celebration for Good Friday or Easter.

Or New Years, or Memorial Day, or Labor Day, or Thanksgiving, or...

and there is no problem bringing the wife to social events with other employees outside of work. Cisco even used to fund offsite Christmas parties.

I'm not in Sales, and in the 17 yrs I've been at/with Cisco, I don't recall hardly any social events where we were allowed to bring spouses or children. I've never seen offsite Christmas parties. At best, the managers would pitch in and buy several Honeybaked hams and everyone would be asked to bring in side dishes & desserts for a "pot luck" lunch. We may or may not do the white elephant gift exchange, which usually su-ks because some people bring absolute sh-t like cr-p they grabbed out of a green bin while others bring odd, but actually worth what they paid for them, and a few would actually bring nice gifts.

But someone's point about celebrating other group's holiday's or recognition day/month and not celebrating any Christian holidays is a bit unequal. Sure, Cisco "celebrates" Christmas, but that's really a federal holiday they have to celebrate. There's no celebration for Good Friday or Easter.

“People I've known who aren't all of the above cannot say the same. I've seen what they've had to go through and I both appreciate what I have and want everyone else to be allowed to rise to the same basic level of civil interaction I've had all my life.”

You’ve been scammed and duped. Certain people manipulate your guilt and are playing you like a fiddle. But hey, if your guilt runs that deep, do what you gotta do.

Hr gave minorities on my team extra equity. They were the highest comped already. When asked why they said it was part of a intentional leadership program

I left because of the bias against white straight men.

I'm a straight white man of Christian heritage and every day is a party. I'm never told I don't deserve my job, everyone celebrates wedding bands and pictures of the kids, no one on the street has ever accosted me for what I am, and there is no problem bringing the wife to social events with other employees outside of work. Cisco even used to fund offsite Christmas parties.

People I've known who aren't all of the above cannot say the same. I've seen what they've had to go through and I both appreciate what I have and want everyone else to be allowed to rise to the same basic level of civil interaction I've had all my life.

...several years of dedication and hard work but all of my colleagues who were not white received 20 to 30% increases...

Given your complete lack of awareness I doubt you are close enough to others to get such information, and there are people at Cisco who put in several decades of "dedication and hard work" but they were still worse than useless. Many of them were also straight white males. Without something both objective and meaningful to gauge your performance relative to your peers your statement carries no weight.

I left because of the bias against white straight men. Cisco never celebrates anything that reflects our culture or heritage, no straight nuclear family day or month. When I made grade 10 they gave me a whopping 4k as a raise after several years of dedication and hard work but all of my colleagues who were not white received 20 to 30% increases when they reached this milestone.

Cisco is toxic toward white straight men and their policies are designed to keep you back to right the perceived social injustice through ESG. Ciscos chief DEI officer is an activist and during the plandemic Title 7 was ignored and State laws were not followed but Cisco continues on with the same behaviors today. Best place to work is just psyche opps so you drink the koolaide.

After leaving that toxic culture I can honestly say I am glad to be away from it. My stress levels of are we going to make through these layoff are gone. There is life and life abundantly after Cisco so you don’t have to stay there. Forgiveness is key to living a well rounded happy life so I took they good stuff from my time there. It is just sad that they preach inclusiveness for all except straight white men.

You are mandated to hire a female? Women posting that they are women but are seeing this and are against it? I call it FAKE.

If this is really happening, then go ahead and file a lawsuit. You have the data, you have the proof, go on and do it. Oh yeah, you won't because this is not true and cannot stand in a court of law.

Saying you need to have women or minorities in the interview panel is neither illegal nor wrong. You serve a diverse set of customers, then you need a diverse set of employees.

You whiners about minorities and women being hired and stealing your jobs deserve to be permanently unemployed. For those with privileges, any step toward equality sound like a personal attack.

In the US both employers and individual managers are bound to comply with EEOC. "My employer told me to do it" will not innoculate you from either EEOC or employer action. You better understand this if you hire and fire people.
https://www.eeoc.gov/youth/your-responsibilities-manager-1

To do less is [..] a breach of the law.

Link, please.

If you are a manager, a leader of people, and you are told to hire or fire against EEOC rules you are obligated to gather evidence and report it to the EEOC. To do less is both gutless and a breach of the law. Complaining about it on this forum is insufficient.

100% agree with OP, it's happening all the time, diversity seems to be the main hiring criteria these days.

Someone mentioned it's illegal, and this is the reason why it's never written, we get pressured by people above us to focus on diversity so that it looks good for their whole org, they can tick the box. Because they get measured on that

What really annoys me is that nowadays every time someone "diverse" -whatever that means, to me every dingle individual is diverse- is hired people think that's the only reason they were hired, nothing to do with talent.... when many of them actually were the most talented and fully deserved the job.

As a manager I just want to be able to pick the top talent, I don't care about gender, skin color, s-xuality... talent is what will make Cisco successful.

"Cisco is burning out their employees and management is ok with that" - Don't believe all of the managers are, not even remotely.

"Cisco is burning out their employees and management is ok with that."
The ELT down to sr director is alright with the nonsense. Believe me, most others are at the end of their sanity with the dei stupidity of this place now.

based on race, color, religion, s-x (including pregnancy, se-ual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age (40 or older), disability and genetic information

It is allowed to discriminate on eye color, then? :P

If this is truly happening it's illegal, at least in the US. Report it to the EEOC.
From the EEOC website: Applicants, employees and former employees are protected from employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, s-x (including pregnancy, se-ual orientation, or gender identity), national origin, age (40 or older), disability and genetic information (including family medical history).

In IT they hired diversity VPs, at least one 14 and several 13s and 12s.

This didn’t work well.

...you get what you measure.

So N check-ins per week which didn't pass the compiler and therefore didn't pass ISO9000 requirements which aren't measured. The code was garbage since well before the whole diversity thing and high speed intercontinental data links so clearly it doesn't matter who or where you hire.

When you measure and goal people on their diversity quotient, what do you think they are going to do? The old saying, you don’t measure what you get, you get what you measure.
Frankly, old news, been going on for a while.

"In the end we ended up sponsoring a guy from India. Great guy, but what’s the end game here."

The guy from India is most likely on a work visa. Much more controllable and easily exploitable. Why pay an American that can easily leave or expects inflation based raises?

I watched a nice guy on H1B given the responsibility of 3 FTE at Cisco. He burned out from the stress and got hit by a layoff. Ironically, the Americans that hired him to be the worker received numerous promotions from his work.

But truly, there is less female interest in coding (a very logic driven career), and less male interest in program management (a very socially driven career), ...

There is a heck of a lot more to software development than "coding" and much of it requires social skills. Program management in many poorly managed technical companies is nothing more than a person in a cubical entering data into a spreadsheet which is antisocially driven, and where it is done well at scale it requires exceptional technical skills among other skills. Cisco's engineering and managerial leadership lack all these skills which is why Cisco produces such poor quality software so far behind schedule.

Been in the same boat. Manager told me you’re going to help me interview. HR says this is going to be a diversity hire. And so it was. Only resumes of minorities. Kinda weird and felt racist honestly. In the end we ended up sponsoring a guy from India. Great guy, but what’s the end game here.

I've done the diversity research at Cisco - and we actually don't have enough white males to be equal with the general population. Also a female here, probably a diversity hire myself, but I don't agree with the practice.

If we are really going to work on being a diverse company, we should at least try to match the general population statistics.

But truly, there is less female interest in coding (a very logic driven career), and less male interest in program management (a very socially driven career), can't we all just agree to work with male and female strengths and weaknesses? And hire the right folks for the job?

It'd be nice if folks would acknowledge the differences in genders and cultures with a positive mindset, instead of trying to pretend they don't exist.

I’ve never seen anything like this.

This is fake.

How do you know if your interviewing a Male or a Female? I'm serious - you can't ask their Gender and they may decide to identify differently than you view them. Play the game by the rules and win.

Cisco is very woke! This is no surprise. I've seen it in layoffs too.

How do you think you got hired ?
Merit ?

I manage a team and I question who you were working with. Is this an internal only req?
I’ve never had any demands like that.

I feel something is missing here or to stir up.

You don’t have to be happy you didn’t get a promotion or you feel so and so is a diversity hire but really?

Not trying to be an a hole, but you didn’t know this is how it works? It’s all to get numbers. I know numerous minorities at Cisco who do nothing and laugh about it because they know they can’t get fired. If they do, they can simply cry racism and sue. This is where we are as a country.

This has been going on for a decade, where have you been?

Cisco is burning out their employees and management is ok with that.