The time has come. I didn't show up in my London office for last four weeks, but I will come on the last day. Will try to get a webex with our director in US. I would just tell him "I hope you're happy now, once you destroyed this group". If I can't get webex, I'll at least drop him an email. Not that I think he would care.
17 replies (most recent on top)
@JUJx5Xm-3neh 100% spot on. The burden put on the GMs and directors' plates is to reduce OpEx. Given that most of the losable OpEx is tied up in headcount, that's what happens. The GMs and directors don't want to get rid of as many people as they're asked to, but that is what they are required to do.
Why? Because the business isn't growing and hasn't been for years and Chuckie and the ELT want to place macro bets in certain areas that require decimating others, year-by-year. Cisco isn't a place where you interview to be a good employee of type X and then get moved around as needs change. Cisco is a place where you interview to do a specific job, and if you are still sitting in that chair when the music ends, you're history. No "realignment" - just liquidation and rehiring.
Now all that said, there is an attitude that some (all?) execs take about this kind of purging: yes, I threw up my whole lunch, which I otherwise enjoyed, but I did get rid of some bad eggs in there. Staffing bulimia.
@JUJx5Xm-3vby - I agree with you. The VP of our organization made the selection, I believe without input from anybody, purely based on OPEX (in my case) or in some cases entire groups were whacked as the product was reaching EOL, etc.
@3ifw : yes Karma exists. If you dont believe it, sit back and follow the employment-tragectory of the manager/employee, who did the bad Karma to you. And wait. All Actions have karma, infact, I have found that, Karma gets them good, compared to what we can even comprehend :)
he sold it's soul to the evil! he is responsible of what he is doing , but he prefers great benefits. If he disagree with what his boss is asking, he can resign!
@JUJx5Xm-2hdf Here is my perspective:
There is no upside to "calling out a director" on your last day at work. First of all it is extremely unlikely that the director had much of a say in whether there would be an impact or not. He might have had some input into who was impacted but in all likelihood he had little say. It is far easier to justify in an lay-off eliminating an entire team, or all individuals in a geography than it is to cherry pick individuals.
In all likelihood the director was told to either eliminate a team, or reduce OpEx/HC by x. Given that very bad job he did the best he could to make the best decision possible given the constraints. To call him out for "destroying the group" is calling him out for something he had very little choice on.
I'm all for holding people accountable for bad decisions. However, calling out anyone below the ELT level is foolish. VPs etc are just trying to do the best they can given a really stupid decision made at a senior level. If you want to call someone out call out Chuck for not changing the mindset that says the easiest way to move OpEx around is to lay people off and then hire in other groups. Call Chuck out for buying into the mindset that experienced workers are easily replaced with college hires. Call Chuck out for not realizing that there is a qualitative difference in the output of the teams in BLR compared to RTP, and that the cost savings when you take everything into account of putting people in BLR is insignificant when you look at total costs in RTP.
Put the blame where it is deserved, don't go out in a "blaze of glory" berating a director who has zero power.
I would love to be an Indian as they believe in Karma.
Reality is that the world belongs to people with elbows.
@2imk & @2hro: I have to say I'm really surprised by the responses on this thread. While I usually appreciate your perspective, Former Long Time Cisco Manager, I have to agree with @hro on this one. Too often at Cisco, problems are swept under the rug in an attempt to take the high road, focus on the positive, avoid burning bridges... The fact is that we have too many incompetent leaders making ill-informed management decisions that are literally destroying high-performing, mission-critical teams, putting Cisco business at risk. While I wouldn't waste my time or energy dressing down my manager if I were to be LR'ed -- I prefer to let karma work its magic -- I agree that it's time people started speaking out and holding bad managers accountable.
sometime we have to say what we feel!
may be that's not professional, but we are also human not robot!
yes we have to say f--- you to the management, it's a necessity!
all folks speaking off maturity etc, never understand popular explosion, they are poor leaders!
What a petulant little child. Just like a blind squirrel sometimes finds an acorn, sometimes lay-off rounds actually weed out a bad apple.
Anyone with that level of immaturity has no business in the workplace, anywhere.
I would encourage the OP to take a good hard look at himself/herself and consider whether he/she was impacted for a good reason.
Director level might not have a say into the group that are being impacted or the people that were LR-ed.
Agreed with OP, this is exactly how Cisco treated those who were laidoff after many years of dedication and harf work.
So childish. With that kind of attitude, you will not be successful in other place too. The type of negative energy, your coworkers and friends would want to distance you away.
Have to agree with what's being said by other folks here. What's to be gained by burning bridges? The IT world can be incredibly small place so would urge you to strongly reconsider and walk out of the place with dignity. You'd never know, this might be the best thing that ever happened in your Cisco career. At least, that's what I'm telling myself as I am in the same boat and looking forward to a new challenge with the comfort of a fat cheque in my back pocket. There are several people in my site who have confided in me that they are envious of not getting selected for redundancy and have to slog it out for another year (or Q2 depending who you believe).
Ditto , my last day . My Director was in the job for a matter of days , so in my case he would not know me even if he ran over me let alone give a reference. In your case moan to some one who cares.
Seconding what aqx said. Don't burn bridges with your Director, who - let's be honest - doesn't have the authority to "destroy the group" without orders from above.
Take the high road.
Don't burn bridges. Move on. Leave the smoking hulk of Cisco. Embrace your brighter future.
Burning (London?) bridges never does any good.
You're a fool. Leave with dignity. If you REALLY wanted a Web-Ex with your US Director, you would have scheduled it several weeks ago. I seriously doubt any Director has an opening on their calendar for a last min meeting, especially with a disgruntled employee.
I said my goodbye in person to my Director the day I got my notice. I guess that's because his office was 100 feet away, but even if not, I'd have found a way to have a meeting that first week. I said my final goodbye to my boss my last day when I turned in my badge & laptop.
I'll be able to work with or for either of them again in the future. If someone asks them about me via LinkedIn, they'll remember I left with class instead of disgruntled. All to often, I've run into people on the job or while interviewing that I either worked with at a different company or worked with someone who knew them. In some cases, we followed each other from company to company.