I wonder if Cisco can legally (as it's based in the US) monitor our work load efficiency/time on screen etc and make layoff decisions based on that. It would never be mentioned as an official reason, but I wonder..
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There was a directive years ago that managers were NOT to use presence or IM status tools to monitor activity. Probably gone the way of the dodo.
They can. But that would involve real data that supports the decision. It’s about politics and friends. Besides that, they don’t care.
I wonder if Cisco can legally (as it's based in the US) monitor our work load efficiency/time on screen etc and make layoff decisions based on that. It would never be mentioned as an official reason, but I wonder..
If this was accurate great employees wouldn’t be on a list before friends. Top talent would be retained more often than it is.
Of course there are measures of workload. Yes they are used in LR decisions
Are you sure they wouldn’t delete them for you? They have access and visibility to do it. They don’t need a recent approval to prevent downloading. They already have those documents in place.
“If you’re on the list they’ve already installed monitors to make sure you aren’t downloading data or confidential content somewhere off the network. If you get caught, they tell you to stop and set up a meeting and watch you to delete the files where ever you saved them. They will then make you sign a document stating you will not download any confidential information any where”
@2sna+1qSdsFGl, that is so true.
I hated when Instant Messaging started becoming a normal part of work/corporate culture over e-mails because it showed your online/offline/idle status.
I had a manager while working at Bank of America who felt it was his job to watch our status and ask us what we were doing or where we were if our status went idle for more than 15 min during the work day. If the app didn't have a way to disable reporting Idle time, I'd have had to quit just because there were multiple times per day that I'd be at a desktop computer that we used for builds doing a build, packaging it up & uploading it to test servers for QA to test and my laptop would be "idle".
Now IM's are the way of life and emails are "old-school", but thankfully the "idle" stigma hasn't really been a big thing at Cisco. And as someone pointed out, a mouse jiggler or a caffeine app is all it takes to not appear as idle.
If you're worried, just get a mouse jiggler. They're $10 on Amazon. If your naive enough to believe their basing LR decisions on how much you do on your computer it will be money well spent. Pro tip: They aren't.
If you're onsite, Ops and/or InfoSec can see everything you do, but they aren't looking, unless you've given them reason to.
There are enough companies like Cisco whose managers don't know how to manage that someone will make an AI product that can collect and process an entire company's data in real time to produce less than ideal metrics for management to abuse, so something will be looking at everything everyone does fairly soon. Anyone who has read any of the research on creativity knows this will be a great way to insure what little currently survives the Cisco culture will be squashed.
LRs have nothing to do with your work, it is about your pay and how may stock options you have.
This is an oversimplification. A while back Cisco had a lot of 60+ Engineer 4s and in terms of technical skills could easily be replaced by someone at an equivalent job title from another company three years out of college. The "I spent 30 years making the same mistakes and learned nothing new" excuse for why you should be employed forever doesn't fly despite protestations here to the contrary.
For the company to be profitable you have to produce more value than you cost. If the company isn't profitable eventually it dies and everyone is unemployed. Younger people who actually know things that have happened in the past 40 years of software have been shown to fossilize in months under Cisco's leadership so you aren't getting the benefit of the new skills and perspectives they bring. Cisco is losing market share in what is currently a fast growing market and unless they learn to both reduce costs and better leverage new talent that is still capable of change it will continue to cede ground to their competitors.
If you're onsite, Ops and/or InfoSec can see everything you do, but they aren't looking, unless you've given them reason to.
If you’re on the list they’ve already installed monitors to make sure you aren’t downloading data or confidential content somewhere off the network. If you get caught, they tell you to stop and set up a meeting and watch you to delete the files where ever you saved them. They will then make you sign a document stating you will not download any confidential information any where
To lay you off they don’t give a f- -k if you’re working or not. There is no rhyme or reason to how they make decisions. No one is safe.
Is stock options the same as RSUs? I think no but i have RSUs that have not been vested yet so im concern
I don’t do all my work on Cisco laptop. Many in our team have another dedicated machine linux at home to do various tasks.
My laptop may be not used for hours but I’m active on the other machine for few hours every day.
Laptop monitoring is not applicable in this situation. Hope the monitoring person or software are trained to consider this work pattern.
Sometimes humans are conditioned to think in one way !!
Post from TheLayoff.com
How at Cisco are you checking if a subordinate is browsing youtube or other non-productive tasks?
LRs have nothing to do with your work, it is about your pay and how may stock options you have. Cisco does LRs all the time to not have to pay out stock options. It is a sick way to do business, but it is true, and part of the Cisco culture. When your leader tells you they couldn't get you a raise, but they are giving you options, that's your 12-16 month warning you a high on the list to get LRed. Cisco is anything but the best place to work.
We can see everything.
Of course there are measures of workload. Yes they are used in LR decisions.
Mgr here: I have a way to tell if my employees are using their Cisco laptop. I can't tell if they are browsing youtube or busy doing productive Cisco work.
I think it would eventually come up one way or another. Someone would spill the beans that this is happening. Lists would have to be passed down to managers from the US. I don't think it's likely.