Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

The thought has gone through my mind more than once that if there were dr-gs I could take to keep me focused, energized and less stressed then I would consider taking them regardless of consequences. Cisco’s #1 descriptor for its culture, by far, is that it does continuous layoffs and as long as that is the case then every decision made outside of an EVP level is going to be made taking that into consideration instead of what is necessarily best for Big-C. It is pathetic that leaders continue to talk about doing less, taking timeout and at the same time advertising that if we get one freaking d-a-m-n off quarter then we have to do more layoffs. There is no long term thinking. So under all these conditions we’re still expected to figure out how to solve the growth problem? It’s ridiculous and I hate how so many people feel trapped bc of the cr-ppy culture that has evolved like cancer in this company.

I wasn't stressed a decade ago but now I loathe presenting products to customers because I know how poor our quality is and how little desire or knowledge we have to improve the situation. Stuff barely works and continuous LRs mean we can't execute our roadmap. Robbins totally destroyed what once was the darling of Wall Street.

I joined in 2000 and quickly escaped getting between angry customers and id--t engineers who produced extremely poor quality software from well before then, and that was before 23 years of frequent layoffs, sometimes quarterly. Cisco stopped being a Wall St darling when the stock went from $82 to $8 more than a decade before Chuck took over and when he did he nearly doubled the stock.

Long before Chuck, customers would frequently come in to lecture us on how you can't test your way to quality as they sometimes had to spend years testing images at their expense before trying to deploy them only to have them fail almost immediately upon deployment. Not only did Cisco not have to account for those costs but they made a profit center out of those failures by selling "support services." Cisco like most companies was never pure and virtuous.

Cisco employees: is there anything you can get right?

I hear you. I wasn't stressed a decade ago but now I loathe presenting products to customers because I know how poor our quality is and how little desire or knowledge we have to improve the situation. Stuff barely works and continuous LRs mean we can't execute our roadmap. Robbins totally destroyed what once was the darling of Wall Street.

The golden handcuffs and generally good pay and stocks also create a culture of too many people living outside their means. I'm saddened by all the 20+ year folks being let go who are suffering depression or anxiety because "they don't know how they're going to survive" - smart financial management over 20+ years of Cisco life -should- leave folks in decent shape with choices post-Cisco. But keeping up with the Joneses snuck up on them.

To the OP , I think you are spot on.
Problem comes with

1. local management and every one having new initiatives every 10 minutes. Like a kid being on sugar rush. And we promote this behaviour. Because change is good … zum kotzen like the Germans would say.
2. there is no goal to work towards. Look at our stats at best you work to keep market share. There is no real growth. There is just sustaining. For engineers it is not good we want to create and make stuff and atleast have some form of impact.
3. we have become a company of talkers. Which reflects in our numbers. The number of useless meetings I am in as a technical person is too much. People love to hear themselves talk without saying anything. The eternal grind. Some days you feel like closing the laptop before the day even begins.

But with all of above. I stopped trying to change the world. So i live from paycheck to paycheck. Hour useless meeting now works for me. I browse some pron on the mobile or see places I can go on holiday to.

It is the nature of technology work.

Have had a long good history at Cisco, and was glad their health insurance was good to help cover all the anxiety and blood pressure medication I was on.

Thought after LR it was Cisco, but it was not. It is me. New job, same issues.

Only way the above changed for me was getting completely out of technology and semi-retiring; and getting a $20 an hour job just doing physical work.

Sitting all day, thinking all day, worrying all day; that is my problem. Tech work just makes it tough.

Super healthy now semi-retired; but too physically pushed now (on purpose), to think and worry like I did at Cisco and other tech companies after.

Tough thing is, took a long time and much planning to get here. Fortunate.

Only thing I can recommend if one has anxiety to the level I have (it is in the genes) is to get on meds and try to do the best you can to manage it; if you have to stay for the money.

Am sure this resonates strong with more than a few. You aren't the only one. Be good to yourself and manage what gifts you have been given. You were smart enough to get this job, now do your best to find your next step.

I have now managed to find a job at another company where the pace and pressure are much lower.

As an engineer no company I ever worked for didn't have high pressure. Cisco like the other incompetent companies had a glacial pace. When you spend 3 minutes to identify the problem in code you had nothing to do with and develop the 2 line fix and it's 6 weeks of process to complete the check in you need to replace the entire leadership.

I think you'll find it's similar in many other segments. Finance, biotech, you name it and you'll find employees burning out and going through depression. The capitalist machine eats humans like they're just convenient resources to achieve eternal growth.

I think Cisco hides behind DEI and left leaning ideologies in the hope no one notices that the leadership practices the exact opposite. The leadership in CX is the worst. I worked a long time but never experienced a group like this bunch. As long as they continue to get away with bad behavior nothing with change. Look for the leader(s) who claims to be the most benevolent champion of all, especially women, minorities social justice, DEI, etc., and there you will find the snakes. I guess that helps them sleep at night.

There might even be a su----e eternal yeet problem

Employee Assistance (EA) program is advertised every opportunity including many leadership calls. EA is with sole purpose of helping employees with mental health and depression issues.

No one wants to help root cause of mental health (the work) but EA has solutions that could be utilized.

I would agree with you. I was a cisco’er for over two decades - thinking I was happy the final 5-7 years but in hindsight realizing every day included looking over my shoulder, prioritizing standing out, proving value and being seen as a “leader”. Taking calls at all hours, responding and creating emails 7x24 showed how dedicated I was. Working while on vacation made me invaluable. I recognized that people would do incredible things if we all did incredible things for each other. Yet.. as a manager I was never allocated equity or salary enough to reward my team. Nothing harder than rewarding great effort with only a $100 gift card, a stellar check-in write up and a virtual thanks. I’ve been away for several years now and the balance in life is so much better. Things are grounded in reality - no more posing - respecting the balance of hard work and life away from work.

Tough time to be in Sales or customer facing right now. DEI diluted the talent pool and put more pressure on the real talent. Cisco's been hiring more womexn over a number of years, who are statistically more likely to be on anti-depressants. MM broke CX and created a mental nightmare for ppl. Elsewhere in Cisco, the most vocal ppl and many of Cisco's policies have a blatant left-wing bias; lefties are also statistically more likely to be on anti-depressants.

So...yeah - I'd say your observations are spot-on, and since each of the items above appears to be intentional, I'd say the high % of anti-depressant (and more substances both legal and illegal) usage is a feature, not a bug.

Welcome to tech.

Absolutely. The stress continues to build with more complicated solutions, new account teams who have no experience and asked to scale to way more accounts than they can handle, and the old dogs not able to be aggressive anymore since they are largely rich and waiting for retirement. Takes its toll. Anything I missed?