Hearing the news about this layoff today at Cisco. Here we go again. As an independent sales person, the company has no idea or does not care how this impacts my world every time this is done.... which is more and more frequent. I will pull every other product of of my bag before I offer Cisco to my clients unless it is all that's left in the bag.
Apparently employees were told more than 6 weeks ago there would be a 7% work force reduction in the US only. Since the layoff was 'leaked' earlier than intended, senior management would still require 6 to 7 weeks to determine 'who' was to go. There was a call for all associates who were told to 'do there job'. There was more weight put on the fact that there was a leak, than the cruel and extremely unusual impact on the workforce. YES, READ THAT AGAIN !
After seeing how the C suite handled COVID, there were a lot of kudos placed especially on the CEO and the Chief People Officer. What happened to those big hearted, common sense behaviors? For this failure, the Chief People Officer should have been included on the list of 7% let go. This terrible behavior, both cruel and unusual should be jumped on by many business schools looking for good case studies.
The BOD should take a very close look at how and why this occurred in this manner, and apply similar tactics to those earning the big dollars making these stupid decisions. Cisco has lost it's luster and SHAREHOLDERS should hear how human capital is treated at this company. The 7% workforce reduction is a drop in the bucket to overall variable admin expenses and even a smaller impact to the bottom line. It should be seen and told LOUDLY for what it was... Unnecessary and extremely cruel to have people sit and wait to see if they have 'been selected'. Chief People Officer should be released immediately per this investor!!!!!!