It's pretty disturbing to see Cisco handling layoffs like this. We just lost two incredibly talented SEs, both of whom had outstanding performance reviews. The way all this went down really doesn't sit right with me. It's hard to believe that people performing so well could still end up being let go without a second thought.
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Agree with the enjoy your youth part. One day you too will wake up one day and think, how in the heck did I become 50? That's SO old! How did that happen?? It's a strange feeling that one day you'll go through. Enjoy life the best way you can now. Take it from someone who used to be 25.
I was treated horribly in the LR! They don't care about employees. Oh, but Cisco gives us mental health/counseling coverage so they feel better!!! Just unbelievable!!!
What a lousy way to go! I should have never taken a job at Cisco. Worst place to work!!!
Complaisant companies die away. Cisco will be another Northern Telecon.
There are too many overlapping bad products each headed by multiple SVPs who are good at justifying their presence - some in the name of business continuity. The truth is that these "leaders" will not be missed if let go. Instead of cutting these top-heavy positions, Cisco is cutting off engineering talent. You can guess how this will end.
If they were doing an expense reduction, they might have been the highest paid.. thinking it would be better to take out 2 higher compensated employees than 3 middle ranged..
I noticed when the economy was recovering from Covid, Cisco was actively pushing a DEI agenda in their recruiting for that ESG score. They even issued Cisco Supports DEI backpacks and Michelle Obama training programs for them. Now that DEI and ESG are viewed as a mistake, are these hires being laid off and do you think it contributed to other layoffs?
2 old SE dudes being let-go is business as usual. it don't matter if they super stars. i was let-go 2yrs ago, high flying SE in enterprise, male, 53yrs old. now i run my own business.
@ekb+1uFKnn7X You've been watching too many movies.
"get a gauge of what is acceptable minimal performance on your time and just enjoy life. If you want to work a ten-hour day, go off and start your own company, Cisco will never reward this effort and you can't hope to plug the hole in the hull anyway"
The only problem with this strategy is attempting to find external jobs. You need to constantly update your skills and work on marketable projects. Otherwise good luck finding another full-time job with benefits.
Work on too many low impact legacy projects at Cisco... and you are trapped
Cisco doesn't terminate people for performance afaict so conversely, we should not be surprised when decent performers are impacted by a layoff.
Agree with the other comment here - get a gauge of what is acceptable minimal performance on your time and just enjoy life. If you want to work a ten-hour day, go off and start your own company, Cisco will never reward this effort and you can't hope to plug the hole in the hull anyway.
Sorry to hear that. But the reality is the manager was probably threatened by their expertise and become a bigger name than the manager and their manager. It has happened to many of us
That's what's you get for working hard. This company is going down like the Titanic. Do the bare minimum and enjoy life. Cisco doesn't give a fuchk about its employees. The only thing that matters is cutting costs to make this quarter's books presentable. Kiss up to your VP. Create meaningless slides full of BS. Let the VP present your work like he created it. Rinse and repeat.
welcome to corporate america, dude.
to all those millennial's and gen-z's who thought their boss cared about them, and their team was like a "family": pay close attention.
we are all expendable cogs in the corporate machine. enjoy the good times while they last, because it won't always be good times.
look at how cisco is handling layoffs. look at amazon's mandate to bring everyone back to the office 5 days a week in 2025. remember during covid when all these companies were being liberal with their work from home policies and letting you expense anything you needed to work remote? low interest rates. government pumping the economy with stimulus money then.
fast forward. it's 2024. pandemic days are over. stimulus money gone. the interest rate is only now coming down below 5%, having been > 5% since april 2023. consumer debt is now well over a trillion dollars. we live in a debt based society. we are enticed to keep up with the jones in order to achieve a temporary plastic feeling of accomplishment and happiness.
(if you don't know what keeping up with the jones' means, please look it up)
the truth is, live within your means. treat yourself once and awhile. but live within your means. keep your finances under control where you can. don't let a manager at some corporation dictate who you are or what you can achieve. you know yourself better than anyone else.
don't give up on yourself. i don't care if you are 50+, married with kids, whatever. don't give up. just because you aren't 20 anymore doesn't mean you are incapable of learning new things. the transition from youth to middle age is a transfer of innocence and lack of common sense for experience. exchanging one set of abilities for another. and that's ok.
young people, go off and be young. do stupid things. be foolish. have fun. one day, you will be middle aged so go enjoy youth while you can.
middle aged people, don't let this world make you feel like you aren't successful because you don't have the salary of a jeff bezos or a mark zuckerberg. you are successful, and your life is important.
corporate america su-ks. interesting people with unique skills and a desire to help others and do good in this world are cool.
“We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one.”
― Confucius
Employees should get together and escalate it to higher or upper management.
SE affected by the LR should question the rationale behind this decision. They should stand up and expose the lack of good judgement displayed by the people who took this decision.
Cisco is brutal
Cisco is destroyed by these set of incompetent CEO, managers, directors and VP who look at cutting cost without looking into future impact on revenues, sales and leadership. This may be case.
Another scenario: They may have broken some company laws or code of conduct. Just a thought.