Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

@3acx, great! So now Cisco quality woes are caused by Cisco major customers? The inability to execute is not about the duplication as you like to suggest. It is that you hire only your friends and relatives to be managers, Directors and VPs, those who have no technical / project management / people skills. All they can do the best is to whine they have limited development and test engineers. You guys got your jobs because of nepotism and villiagism. You have no idea how to plan and optimize the effort. There is no intention to do any quality job. All you care is to hire more of those who like yourselves. At the end all you do is to put the blame on the non-participants, especially those who are no longer with Cisco. You have no shame.

Wow. What 3acx just said. I'd say that this poster is in my group, but I know they are not because they used the word "whilst," which doesn't flow off the American English tongue.

In any case, different continents, same line of business, same horrible management.

@KpTiBC0-2hpi No, it's the timeframe. Earlier this year, we were asked to take another $80m cut. There was a large fight about it, and Kelly managed to get some of that money back. There was some hiring to replace people allowed again. But reqs don't just "open up" and you hire. They seem to open and close all the time depending on the whims of finance, HR and internal politics. There's frequently a rush to fill positions whilst the window is open, which leads to bad hiring decisions.

So, in Q1 we were allowed to hire a few replacements (we've been losing people like crazy) and we were trying to backfill departures and the reqs were there. But since Wednesday's results, it wouldn't surprise me if it's all halted again.

Your reasons show lack of understanding, but good populism. Some of our products are aging out, and we had no money to engineer a replacement. We had no money to design value added asics so we now use me-too merchant silicon. Our features in some important areas just aren't getting delivered. Much of our engineering resources are getting squandered on one-off features for major customers due to VP escalations. Our roadmaps are totally unbelievable, you just cannot trust one line on them, and the releases of -XR are sliding all the time. And the limited development and test engineers working on a feature means that the absolute minimum gets done, far too quickly, with poor quality. That's where we're at today.

Once the ELT woke up to what was happening (probably when K went) they decided to "save" us by freezing our resources from further cuts for FY17. Well, who knows if that will survive the Q1 results. Of course, they really wanted to "fix" the quality issue, since they don't like being dragged into customer CAP case calls, so now the number of features in a release is being cut even further so that the few that make it can be done "properly".

Is there some poor execution? Undoubtedly. A quick look at the org structure of SP would show a few glaring opportunities for duplication and unproductive competition. There is also the problem that some of the teams have grown up (and been promoted) during times of plenty and anybody can thrive in a gold rush. But these people don't have the skills to run a tighter ship. But we are talking at the margins. The core problem is long-term under investment. This is a business that our competitors would kill for, but we seem to be just killing it.

"But it's widely recognized that the main reason for SP slide is chronic under-investment".

If it is underinvestment then why the reqs are deleted? You can continue to change your stories. You guys are good at that. Let's face it. The slide is because of many years corruption, the inability to execute, and chronic poor product quality.

Long term under investment. Amen. Hit the nail on the head. And exactly right... When one of those big SP customers finally is fed up because they got another release of the product that fell a little short, they stop buying the product in all, and it looks like a cliff. Well said.

As an experienced person who has suffered this under-investment, I can only take so much. I've checked out. I do my job and not much more. Call me Mr. Deadwood. But a tree can only take so much severe pruning and lack of water and fertilizer.

SP was hiring until very recently. Maybe the reqs got deleted (again) in the last few days. SP really didn't get hit in the last couple of LR rounds, mainly because there was very little of us left. But it's widely recognized that the main reason for SP slide is chronic under-investment. You can savage the Opex short term and bumble along with a year or two of windfalls. But long-term underinvestment will lead to product revenues falling off a cliff. It's very dramatic, you wouldn't believe it unless you saw it. All of a sudden, "the market" almost as one decides one of your products is uncompetitive and its revenue will drop 30% or more in one quarter, and tail away from there. I haven't yet seen the Q1 numbers, but in Q4 that happened to a couple of our product lines, and I expect more of the same happened in Q1.

@2tos, either you as anonymous or the senior indian management is lying. Who should the employees believe?

Whoever wrote yesterday that the Service Provider sector is "actively hiring" - is flat wrong. In point of fact, all reqs pending approval are being deleted and only backfill reqs are currently open.

Uh, sorry about your LR, but "everybody" did not get a 5% raise.

@KpTiBC0-1gut - A hiring surge after layoffs is a true mark of the lunacy. I also thing giving everyone left a 5% raise is equally as douchey.

I got hit a couple of weeks ago as did about 20 in my group. Most that remained got raises. Good for them. However when I talk to them about it they are baffled as to why or what the message being sent is.

To their point, "We got 5% raise in hopes we'd feel better about our teammates getting laidoff and in hopes we won't feel the sting of 20% more work? Why didn't we just let go of 1/2 as many people as we did?!"

That's the Cisco way. Indiscriminate hiring and firing to suit short term needs.

It's not indiscriminate. They targeted older, more expensive staff so they can rehire younger, cheaper staff. It's short sighted because they won't stay long. Loyalty to companies is a thing of the past. It's getting where no one stays at a company 10 yrs, much less 15 or 20. One, you can't because they screw you over and two, there's no incentive to do so.

Hmmm! Interesting. Hiring right after layoffs. That's the Cisco way. Indiscriminate hiring and firing to suit short term needs.

Indeed, the service provider segment that has the biggest revenue decline is actively hiring. The argument these Indian executives used is that the revenue decline is due to this area is under funded. They get to bring in more their friends and relatives now.

No layoffs. It is hiring mode now.