This is not the same company it was five years ago, not to mention a decade ago. The culture has changed drastically, the compensation is not nearly as competitive as it once was, and layoffs are always present, whether small, continuous ones, or major rounds. So what's keeping you here? For me, it's my health. I can't risk my health insurance right now or afford the added stress of switching jobs. But if not for that, I'd be long gone.
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Less than one year to retirement age. ER, LR, I don’t care. Too many unvested RSUs to leave early.
Because everyone dies in the end and it's just a job. We ain't changing the world. We're cattle. Take care of your health and your loved ones. Nobody cares about the prestige of your job.
It's ranked the #1 place to work - that's why you are still here.
@1uox+1pVPGMic, I assume you're asking me (@qgu+1pVPGMic) why I went back.
The answer was that I was very unhappy at the smaller company I had joined after being LR'd. They were bought out by a much larger company and it was very painful as they tried to implement the larger company's policies onto the much smaller company. No one was looking at what it would take to make the changes and the deadlines to comply were ridiculously short. I was also being micro-managed by a Director who kept tasking me w/ performing very junior level tasks when she could not find the guy whose responsibility those tasks were. And she wanted them done "right now" and would literally stand at my desk and watch me do the work just to ensure that I didn't pass the work onto the guy who's job it was when he got back to his desk. They also micro-managed our time and expected everyone to log 35+ hrs into "tickets" so that our time could be billed to the customers--ok, that's fine--but then they wanted us to "estimate" our hours for the last 3 business days of the month while the reports were being generated and sent to the customers on the 1st. But when you're being micro-managed and pulled off your planned work to do someone else's job, then you're either working overtime to get back to your job or you're billing your customer for work you didn't do and then adding time next month to actually do that work and then you have to face questions of why so many hrs were spend on customer X?
I just hated the micro-management and culture. I've been on great teams at Cisco, and the work/life balance is much better and less stressful. Besides, I managed to find that terrible job w/in the first 30 days of my notification while still a Cisco employee, so I got to keep 100% of my severance package and start the new job the next business day after my last day at Cisco. I would have left said sh---y company except that I'd have to pay back the $15K signing bonus I received after the first 30 days if I left before completing 12 months and it wasn't prorated like the signing bonus I received to return to Cisco. If Cisco wants to LR me again, well, I'll just pocket that money as well.
I stay because I have $8m in unvested RSU!!
Directors don’t have much power within Cisco, my direct manager is a director, he takes orders from above and executes
No ERs, those are a thing of the past when we had an ethical ELT.
"Woke politics" from execs is spot on! We all jumped on some things right away, and sent lots of money to people that didn't deserve it! Now we don't want to take sides.
I only stay to get a laugh and I love my team. Leadership, however, are becoming all wimps expecting HR to make all their decisions for them. I leave when my team is gone. Directors & Sr Directors are the only ones that do anything. If you kiss up to SVP you get promoted. if you don't, you get laid off.
After you left Cisco, why did you even go back especially after LR'd ?
I left Cisco on my own have no plan to going back.
53 and will be gone (retiring) at 56 - only here for money for 3 years. Nothing else. Besides all the woke politics from execs being shoved down our throats, it's a good place to work and I like the team.
For me, it's part of being part of a team that I respect, and that respects my skills and talents. I was LR'd many yrs ago and went to work at a small company.
They didn't document on-call troubleshooting because "everyone just knew" what AWS account and what AWS region that account was in, so the guys that had been there forever just knew where to go, but the new guys had to waste time looking in each account and every region associated w/ that account before they could even begin to start any sort of normal troubleshooting steps. I get that you can't document how to troubleshoot any/all errors, but having some basic info like what alert goes with what account/host and any specific customizations that client or customer has that are unique compared to the standard config is a great start when you're woken up at 3AM.
At first, they didn't see any value in documenting this type of stuff, but as they started adding new people after me, it was amazing how much faster they were able to come up to speed and take on on-call duties w/ this info. Having to "prove" myself all over again and fight the "but we've always done it this way" was annoying.
I had an opportunity to return to Cisco a little over a year later and joined another great team, some of whom I'd worked with before as a team I'd interfaced with, and I was able to work w/o having to prove myself. At my age and seniority, I don't want to be made to feel like I'm either too old to keep up, or have my experience & skills dismissed just because you don't know my background. The small company's team was all Windows users and the company was just expanding into creating mobile apps and needed to support Apple devices instead of just Android, so they were having to start using Macs and Xcode, and their UNIX skills su-ked. But because I hadn't used a Windows system in a decade, and didn't know how to do some basic Windows stuff, I was considered "unproven" even though I was mentoring them on Unix/macOS and everything I was showing them was so much easier than the way they thought they had to go about doing it.
I'll be at Cisco until I get LR'd again, and then I'll have to decide if I can join a new company at my age and continue working in my field, or if I have to start working a lower-paying jobs that I find "fun" and "stimulating" so that I have something to do in my retirement years other than sitting around doing nothing.
Late fifties so sticking it out for a LR. To leave on my own accord will potentially lose me six months or more of free pay. Will do so though when I hit 60 for my own sanity. I wish the company no harm but I’m sick of it now and can’t keep up with everything at my age.
I stay at Cisco for the reason nobody wants me.
I stay because their aren’t many companies hiring I won’t quit until I have another job in hand. It’s tough out here and jobs are not plentiful. Be smart.
Cisco is an amazing company
You’re correct Cisco is great when buying 1 house in San Jose is same price as buying 10 houses in Dallas
I think you see so many people still here because its still a great company and a great place to work....oh and I am pulling down over $230k a year in total comp and i work remote from TX...so nah....im good.
Late 50's. Got a couple more years until I have enough money to retire. Age discrimination makes it unlikely I could get another job. So, I dye my hair and stick it out here.
It’s all about who is your direct manager, has nothing to do with the company. I had 1 bad manager, rest of them were very decent
I'm good at what I do but career is not important to me; it's just a job. Cisco pays well all things considered. Will probably do something unrelated to tech if/when I get laid off - until then it's a good place to work (for me).
The people (I’m on a great team), the tech, and the flexibility. Overall benefits are above average IMO.
Early ER!
Bread and circuses
Waiting for the payoff! So feels like I’m waving goodbye to 6-12 months of money if I leave if my own accord
No choice ,I'm rubbish
These walls are funny. First you hate 'em, then you get used to 'em. Enough time passes, you get so you depend on them.