Who said it's No. 1 workplace in the world? What source? How come it can ever be ranked as No. 1?
Having worked at several tech companies, it's the WORST and LOWEST company I've ever worked. No skill or experience required for any role at Cisco. Extremely political. Very immature and childish.
Not just the US offices, but also UK, Japan, AU, SG offices.
@qbpy CX was a horrible place during Maria Martinez reign. Her "nosers" are still around and hold key positions throughout the CX organization even to this day. Especially in TAC. TAC's been going downhill ever since and after Maria Martinez.
@mctd This is very subjective. Most individual contributors are discouraged to contribute unless you and the managers are buddies or something equivalent.
@qbpy Gaslighting by peers are norm. Managers are clueless and they often get their positions through connections and not because of their merit. They always tries to pretend that they are doing the right now.
I have worked in CX for short while and you are right. This is the most toxic place I have ever worked. There’s one person in particular that is the worse in my group but many others are shaky.
The thing that gets me is that they constantly keep telling each other how great the group is compared to the other groups. That’s a scary thought.
There was even a big presentation in September about culture and improving culture. The guy sounded like he just came from church and was preaching to the masses. It felt so weird being on that meeting.
If you are being ignored, then others see you as a 'taker' not a 'giver'.
Make sure that others can see that your success helps their success and then they will engage with you.
The ignore culture is based on this comment from another thread "The incompetent get to stay, the good ones get the boot."
Every time you help an incompetent colleague, they achieve more, and you achieve less. You improve your chances of being made redundant and their chances of getting promoted.
I just mute those who are trying to get me to do their work for them and respond to those who work with me for 'win-win'.
I guess I practice a bit of "ignore culture" when it comes to emails. I read ones addressed to me and those where my name is mentioned. I run rules to file everything else without reading. It's rare that I miss anything relevant. Ignoring noise boosts productivity.
Yeah the ignore culture is insane!!
To quote the false god of many at Cisco, John Chambers, "don't fall into the trap of helping other people." VPs clarified this by saying no one in management knew what people did and didn't want to, and they made judgements by how they felt which means if you help someone and management feels better about the person you helped you're the one getting laid off.
You get what you incentivize.
Yeah the ignore culture is insane!!
Anecdote, I know, but I have shared many stories with friends/family that work for other tech companies about interactions I've had with coworkers at Cisco.
The common reactions I get are "Person X would get fired for saying that where I work" and "We simply do not talk to each other like that where I work." I agree with your observation that people at Cisco are very immature and childish.
Also, I do not understand the "Ignore Culture" of Cisco. It's commonplace to simply ignore coworker's emails, calls, and pings. Again, very immature and childish behavior.
Cisco match my counter offer, so accepting the offer, starting Nov 1
HR is terrible! They have no integrity. All they do is try to control leaders, work on LRs, and try to convince everyone it is a great place to work. Sometimes I want the pu-e when I see the ELT on a check-in. They just sit around and joke among themselves as they are good buddies, getting rich, and laying people off. It is really a messed up leadership team, but the best in the industry in brainwashing workers.
In the US, Cisco needs a union to keep the ELT under control or a good class action employment lawsuit!
Cisco is the most toxic company - especially in HR - I have ever seen. It was a nightmare to work there and until leaving for another company, I didn't realize how bad it was. Do not work here - there is life outside of this place!!!!!
One of my managers at Lenovo told my team that "at IBM, you can be promoted to 'manager' title with no one below to manage and with no management training".
I've never worked anywhere where my managers had any formal training. Most of the software engineers I worked with at big companies learned nothing from the training they did get. There is something called "management without portfolio" where someone manages a function rather than people, but the large companies I worked for (including Cisco) had managers, directors and vice presidents with no reports and no functions to manage. There are a lot of aspiring Chief Golf Officers out there.
"Global company" beholden to woke marxists.
Private ownership of for profit industry is known as "capitalism." Before republicans went full Red they called us capitalists "Job creators."
Ah, but even though Lenovo is a Chinese company, many of the brown nosing @ss kissers have a background of having worked at Big Blue = IBM for years. My retired IBM friends who I have spoken with all tell me "that company is not the same as it was in the old days". There are others reporting the political "managing up" strategy at IBM on sites such as Glassdoor. One of my managers at Lenovo told my team that "at IBM, you can be promoted to 'manager' title with no one below to manage and with no management training". I thought, "their organization structure must look like a lava lamp shape!".
Having worked at Lenovo for over 10 years, I can tell you some departments over there are a LOT worse as far as politics go. I saw a director make T-shirts with his boss' name (the executive director) printed on the back for us subordinates to wear. He also promoted the favorites, regardless of seniority or accomplishments. He also held raffles during the holidays where he would see who had the winning ticket first, and then decided what gift you'd get (if you were a favorite, you could get something nice such as an iPad, if you weren't a favorite, you'd get a gag gift like a wooden board with nails). If you were a favorite, you could consistently show up late and leave early or you could regularly harass other coworkers and not have to worry about getting in trouble for it.
When I joined 14 years ago, this company was legit feared, now we have gone away from the ki-ler mentality.
Toxicity is measured inward towards the employees. 14 years ago managers were putting up "walls of shame" and threatening to fire anyone who used the word "week" in a schedule. This is not a useful "ki-ler mentality," it's toxicity.
This company is not toxic, it's gone soft. When I joined 14 years ago, this company was legit feared, now we have gone away from the ki-ler mentality. We have jumped the "shark."
Cisco is the least toxic place I’ve worked at.
While not a question, the correct response is:
...you need to work more in tech.
Honestly, if you think Cisco is the most toxic company in tech, you need to work more in tech. Cisco is the least toxic place I’ve worked at. Mind you, that’s a bit like saying of the possible toxins you can drink that arsenic goes down a lot smoother than sodium cyanide.
I see the UK boys are at it again. Please leave this forum and take your cr-ppy tea with you.
Its the Tribal work culture. Once a great company ruined like many others.
It was never a great work culture. People were happy because "the stock returns were so great the salary was merely a bonus." As the stocks dropped by 90% the Ferraris, Lamborghinis, etc... left for good and the parking lots which were more than half full at midnight were empty by 7pm.
Its the Tribal work culture. Once a great company ruined like many others.
The Most Toxic Company I've Ever Worked......
but did you resign ?
It's a shame. It was once a fun, innovative place to work.
You both seem to be experts in this matter. Please clarify.
I'm neither commenter. Run the code from before we had high speed links to every "corner of the globe" through static analysis and see that long before what people are calling "tribalism" hit Cisco people still couldn't write quality software. It didn't get better as we grew in countries around the planet. There are plenty of more advanced metrics that Cisco doesn't take and I'm confident they'd reveal the same high degree of failure throughout time.
Most of those being political are h1bs from 3rd wold countries where this is normal
vs
Not just the US offices, but also UK, Japan, AU, SG offices.
Do these political H1Bs also work in the UK, Japan, AU and SG offices?
You both seem to be experts in this matter. Please clarify.
The list is more interesting for the equally messed up countries it fails to list than the ones it does list.
Not just the US offices, but also UK, Japan, AU, SG offices.
You can say this from first-hands experience? Man, you came around.