Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I cannot agree enough with this poster. I too was affected by an LR and a bit older in my career when it happened. I experienced much worry, and a bit of time to find a role as I was coming from a senior position at Cisco, but when I landed - my gosh it was amazing. We are hiring hand over fist, opening headcount is only limited by HR throughput, technology is so far ahead of where I was working... I came to realize how far behind Cisco had fallen. I say this as a long time Cisco former employee, with a great appreciation for all those I worked with and who helped me grow - great friendships. But I feel a bit of sadness when I see how they are just not present in conversations on many of these new technologies (not in standards and theory - but actually having product today). I will always look back fondly on my lengthy time there.

One of the best posts and comments I've read on this page in a long time. I spent 14 years at Cisco....but was really only brainwashed the first few years. I came to Cisco via an acquisition and thought I'd hit the job jackpot......which was true at the time (back when Cisco was truly admired in the industry). After a few years, my first LR hit but I found 4 internal jobs within a week....back when Cisco actually made an effort to keep LR'd folks within the company. That was my first wakeup call but I stayed bullish on the company. But that didn't last long. Watching good friends/employees get LR'd every year wore me down. By the time my whole dept got LR'd at year 14, I was totally burned out and had very little respect for Cisco management. LRs are very bad for company culture.

We ARE . Cisco, Family, Best of Breed, Innovators, etc. It's all propaganda to lull you into a sense of peace and belonging. It's a mind trap.

This should be obvious to anyone who worked at a major fast food chain in high school. For anyone who has painted their face in their team's colors to see a sporting event or spouted they believe in a peaceful religion which has carried out all manner of atrocities, they have a need to fit in and to resolve the cognitive dissonance by ignoring or denying anything that questions the group.

Getting a promotion is not a performance based action. ...forget the promotion and working your *** off to get one.

At any decent company it's not hours worked but level of contribution. If you are working at a smaller company where you not only can but have to take on a lot of different responsibilities you can grow far faster than being a Technical Leader 39 at Cisco fixing the same bugs year after year after year. If anything Cisco has far too many titles and gives far too many promotions to people who do not meet the requirements of the new title because they aren't given tasks and guidance to grow those skills, and they "you're already the best" speeches have convinced them they don't need to learn on their own time.

You might be that rare person that can alter a BU trajectory, but probably not.

For those that genuinely know how to make things better it's worth fighting that fight. If you fail there is always another company that will value your skills. If you don't try you'll give in to the idea that doing things poorly is acceptable and your own value will decay.

Think about what you are part of. Essentially this is a shell game; where a small band of well connected people have figured out how to successfully insulate themselves at very senior levels. With their insulation, they reap the financial rewards of an increasingly outdated swath of technology; that was once bleeding-edge necessary to the world, but is now more antiquated than relevant. Yes Cisco will be ports and hardware for years to come, but anyone that does not see it already on the same extinction track as Nortel, is blind. Yes you can choose to ride it out, if you don't mind not being in charge of your own destiny. Your choice.

OP here -- Thanks for the supportive feedback and all. None of what I wrote is earth shattering, and I know it's not unique to just Cisco. However, Cisco was unlike any other place that I had worked. For many years, I worked so hard -- happily too! -- and missed many proverbial "life parades" along the way.

Why? It took me a long while to figure that out, post separation.

I was encouraged to, by my SEM/RM, up the ladder to John and Chuck. This was all under the pretense that it would all pay off in money, promotion, notoriety, recognition, etc. The leaders at Cisco know how to feast on our most primitive and innate social needs -- Think GSX! -- and the corporate propaganda is meant to push those buttons. Our jokes about the yearly "brainwashing" turned out to be truer than we thought!!

Mind you, I'm proud of the work I put in, so no regrets. However, really standing out at Cisco and winning all the goodies is akin to buying a ticket in the 2B powerball. Just make sure YOU maintain work/life balance. Take your PTO, smell the roses, and take time to reevaluate your happiness, all things most of us old timers took for granted.

I’ve seen this so many times in my long working life where people give their all to their job and “career”. The company can never do any wrong in their eyes and they work every hour in the day and night forgoing many of life’s precious and limited moments. Yet, when the numbers don’t stack up, they are thrown on the LR heap as if they were nothing. I counsel anyone working like this; stop it and take stock. You are a number in an excel somewhere and they will drop you without blinking an eye without a thought to you and your loyalty. There is no loyalty at all, be warned.

+1 on all the above of the OP. I was on the list after 15+ years in July. I was working my hiney off, long hours, over committed to Cisco, wasn’t getting exercise, had low level depression and was missing kids sports games. I did all this over-pivoting because I didn’t want to get LRd. What a waste.

Now that the “Cisco mist” has cleared (great term BTW from the OP) I’m so much better. Cisco is not family, it’s a job. That’s it….a job. We all find other jobs. Everyone will be fine or even better. There is a really good life after Cisco.

Curious what the execs think they have best of breed? Firewalls - trash, Networking - No longer with Arista on the war path, Collaboration - Zoom and Teams crushed Cisco. Maybe its licensing - Haha!

I know what it is - Best of breed in Marketing!