Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

A sham with millions spent on marketing it. Get real. And when is the new tool coming mr vp for talent?

The old system, whilst not perfect, let you set out in writing what you wanted to achieve and get a rank against that. IF you took it seriously then it was a wonderful way to document to the business what you were doing.

It was instead replaced by a 'sync-up' system which involves you manager calling you from his car when he's bored to chat about the weather. In the background you get put on the 9-block, a secret chart with no use other than to shut you up.

It was obvious that this new deal removes all people accountability. The layoffs were a master stroke, dump people out on 'performance' even if those effectively fired had no idea it was coming. Much less messy from HRs perspective eh?

The worst part of it all is knowing that behind closed doors, the stack ranking continues. I have first hand experience on this and can confirm that in those management meetings where raises and layoffs are discussed, we are all part of an insensitive, heartless, horse trade.

That has never and will never change.

The People Deal - more of the same corporate soul crushing, different label.

That's a perfect summation OP. People had been able to point at their strong/exceptional ranking when they were LR'd so this became an issue for HR when these people created a fuss when they were invited to leave during LR. This cost Cisco more cash than originally budgeted to buy their silence. The solution? Drop that transparet system in favour of an invisible, closed door system with no records so they cannot be used against you during LR season. Genius! So the People Deal is, in essence, a manifesto of how to Deal with People you want to LR at some point in the future! Hats off to Fran. Nailed it.

Brad - you should be in Sales. You effectively cut through the nonsense and accurately characterized HR in a beautifully consise paragraph. Brilliant.

Even after the people deal launched management was still comparing us to others in the group in the same pay grade. When I was told that I got x bonus and I asked how they arrived at that IPF they said it was compared to others in my pay grade. So the stack ranking is alive and well since there has to be a distribution of bonus money across the board. To have some get higher aome need lower.

And I also asked what the IPF was of those I was being compared to. Of course they didn't give it to me, but it stopped them from b---s---ting for a minute because they knew they were being called on their nonsense.

Teamspace ... catchy ... like myspace. We know where that went.

The people deal : no more RSUs for the working IC

@KtWgh0N-uyw Completely agree with you. When they first implemented the 'People Deal' the first thing I thought of was that it was done to take away any argument that an LR'ed employee might have regarding their performance relative to any other people in their group. Regarding the 'Teamspace' BS, I'm not sure what purpose that served. I suspect some nefarious purpose by management to self-incriminate the employees with their input to Teamspace. Who knows? In any case, I'm out of that sh--hole now since the LR in September. Hopefully, Cisco will do a 'Nortel' (after all the good employees and managers are long gone).

Removing employee performance reviews was a brilliant move by the ELT.....it removed a key argument point to the whole LR process. If you don't know how you rank against others in your organization, how can you argue when you get LR'd? Of course the ranking still occurs in the same way it always did...behind closed doors by the management team in your organization. Even when Cisco had performance reviews, there was still the secret version behind the scenes, where you would get ranked according to performance, salary to the midpoint, and whether the mgmt team liked you, or not. It's really toxic to building any kind of culture.

Hi Brad, good to hear from you. You're exactly right, the manager's no longer give performance reviews and don't inform the employees how they stand with respect to the group. All rankings are done and kept secretly. It has nothing more than irritate employees even more than they already were.

Yeah and team space is the most useless application. We get forced to update it each week just to show compliance. No manager seems to use it or even read it.how are you feeling this week ? Have you used you're strengths this week ? Give me a fx!?ing break.

You're not missing a thing. You got t.

I don't think you're missing anything. That sums it up nicely.