Why not Cisco ELT and HR looking into the Directors with less than 8 direct reports ?
Those directors should be fired and consolidate the head count. It looks like a total filth crunching investors money and laying of engineers sincerely working on the direction of these so called Directors. Where Cisco is heading ? has opportunity to cut 30-40% Directors and Sr. Mangers eating Cisco's free money
16 replies (most recent on top)
Some Director took it offensive and accepted the fact that his engineers take less than 8 ddts per week and this Director is managing those enigneers :)
There are so many directors, senior directors, senior managers who were just analysts, or contractors last year and now just manage a couple of weekly status meetings and pass the order from the top. Amazing how the quality of the organizations has gone downhill so quickly.
@2hww+1sQHmFMZ Yes I was late bloomer. Been around for a long time. Not super smart candidly.
That is exactly what is happening. I was one of them. Started making serious money after G10 promo, realized I had maybe a three year window of safety from that point of not being LR'd. Luckily it all worked out. Was eventually LR'd when my VP and other BU VP left; but by then did not care. Had a good three years of major bucks, and was over 50; so did not care.
You got promoted to G10 (Senior Engineer) when you were around 50???
That is exactly what is happening. I was one of them. Started making serious money after G10 promo, realized I had maybe a three year window of safety from that point of not being LR'd. Luckily it all worked out. Was eventually LR'd when my VP and other BU VP left; but by then did not care. Had a good three years of major bucks, and was over 50; so did not care.
Cisco really needs to evaluate the senior positions. I worked about one-third as hard at the last three years as I did early in career. Objectively, I was paid about double, for the last three years, to what the job demanded.
It is not fair to the younger generation, but heck, if Cisco is going to pay it, take the money and run.
making them Director was the only way to pay market rate for that job.
This is absolutely what's happening. Since the "cost of living crisis" Cisco is struggling to meet salary expectations. One way around this is title inflation. I'm simply shocked at the number of people now running around as PE and Dir.
My whole group are PE and Dir, except for 1, who's a DE.
In SBG, there are even VP levels who have a few direct reports. Also in SBG there are many useless architects that do nothing but attend every meeting and BSing. They have no accountability, no deliverables, no nothing. They just hold a title of principal engineer but stay at Cisco by being principal of politics. Amazing waste of time and money. Cisco keeps politicians and lays off talent. That is why the company has been going downhill.
This is a cyclical problem. Remember Gary Moore? He deferred retirement to address that specific issue, too many senior staffers with no direct reports. There was a massive purge of Directors and above where the ‘span of control’ was less than eight.
I left Cisco three years ago but within my department at that time we had IC Directors reporting to IC Directors, simply because making them Director was the only way to pay market rate for that job.
"they also plug their college kids starting from freshman till senior year make 22-25K per annum as intern. Take the report from the interns hire, 50% are all internal directors and VPs college kids. White collar corruption"
they also help friends and family land jobs with consulting companies at Cisco. this happens at every corporation... not just Cisco
You are indeed correct. I helped run a team in that opportunistic scenario, for a good three years. This was a good decade ago, so not sure how much things have changed.
Here's how it worked: our little team was essentially the "PMO" for a large, multi-year product roll-out. Well, I guess you could call it a product, it overall was a piece-of-sh!t waste of funding, but was popular. My team's job was to "PMO" the release-cycle, coordinate with other teams (operations, marketing, finance); and to, most importantly, create the powerpoints and collateral that VPs used, including with discussions with customers.
The overall lifecycle was bogged down from the start, due to "resourcing" and "lack of funding". Luckily, we did have some good VPs who were good at getting funded, so money was aplenty. The project went from a three years to five year timeframe, mostly because of development backlog.
Our job from "PMO" side was to make the project look good, and to squash naysayers who questions lifecycle or deliverables. Many people had valid complaints about the deliverables, but we would spin their complaints into change requests and next version "enhancements".
At the end of the lifecycle, and once everything was mostly "delivered", the three of us that had been on the team for the whole lifecycle had a realization moment that we ran a PMO for a piece-of-sh!t product/platform, and by then our original VP left to the company, and our team now worked for a new boss who was more no-nonsense. We knew this would eventually happen, so our Senior Director offered me and a co-worker the LR. We willingly accepted. The next quarter, my Senior Director took the LR.
I am the poster of the note just before @vrr+1sQHmFMZ's note, and this is a typical story of Cisco waste. I am not proud of it, and do not feel I was wrong, because while there, I did do a "great job", in that I was rewarded with great salary, options, and bonuses. I did not try to purposefully go against the grain, it was all just a poorly ran, but highly funded project; that ran for years. I like to think that most people would have done the same.
The reason for my confession I guess is to say I do feel sorry for the others who did not draw the same straw I did, it all was financially rewarding, but an incredible waste; and I like to think most would have done the same.
"Those directors are useless and incompetent. The only reason they have a job is because someone in SLT or ELT just likes them personally or they are friends and family of an SLT and ELT. There is a lot of corruption going on at Cisco"
I totally concur and echo your thoughts and facts inside Cisco. It is not just the salary, bonus, ESPP and profit sharing but they also plug their college kids starting from freshman till senior year make 22-25K per annum as intern. Take the report from the interns hire, 50% are all internal directors and VPs college kids. White collar corruption
Kudos ! are accepting the fact that their slacker engineers have no work and fixing less than 8 ddts LOL. When engineers have no work/slackers then how it justifies the work for directors.... LOL :) :) :)
Engingeers follow the direction of those directors who are brainless just take orders from top and work like circus ring masters and kindergarten teachers. They neither have business acumen nor the technical skills. On top of all, bad attitude and discrimination towards non-Asians
You are indeed correct. Worked for a Senior Director for years, who had just a few reports. Our whole team was connected and well liked by several VPs. We did work hard, but mostly powerpoint crud. Three of us, including my boss, floated on out on LR, but at our own self-chosen timeframes.
We all had been around since early 2000s, and had a bunch of options, ESPP, and RSUs. We pretty much all day traded and would bounce investment strategies off of each other at least a few times a week.
We are now all retired in our mid 50s. I admit I did milk the system, but did work hard about 35% of my time at Cisco. I do feel guilty, because I am no more intelligent than most, I guess I know how to bullsh!t and do good powerpoints for VPs though. I am sorry because there are many good people that did not experience the same gravy train that we did.
If you look around you can still see the lazy well-to-do folks still milking it, like I did.
Not proud of my story. Think about it, would you have done the same?
There are many directors with less than 8 or even less than 5 direct reports all over Cisco. Those directors are useless and incompetent. The only reason they have a job is because someone in SLT or ELT just likes them personally or they are friends and family of an SLT and ELT. There is a lot of corruption going on at Cisco.
You are thinking logically. The layers and bureaucracy are strategically there for a reason.
The ELT needs chaos, reorgs, dysfunction to distract from their own failures.
"Authority, without accountability"
I see engineers fixing less than 8 ddts per week. These so-called engineers should be fired! Were are we heading? We will have the opportunity to cut 30-40% of such slackers eating Cisco's free money.