I think Cisco has lost the plot. In the past 6 months I know 7 or 8 people (myself included) who have resigned - some of whom had been there over 18 years.
Not one of them received an exit interview, phone call from HR or anything. No attempt at all to understand WHY people are leaving.
I find it very surprising that there's no desire to find out why high performers are leaving the company... Probably very related as to why it's in such a mess!
Concur, no exit interview for me either inspite of spending 8 years at Cisco. But all for the best. To be honest while I am at 30% plus Comp now I do miss some amazing colleagues I had worldwide at Cisco.
Same here. I resigned to take a fantastic new position and Cisco didn't care at all. Everything about being an employee there is self service including the resignation. You just go in and fill out a form on the internal website and it sends you a list of instructions for how to terminate employment. Nobody even knows why or cares to ask
@LKK6Lbg-1uxa whilst there's plenty of dead wood in the organization, there's also a lot of extremely qualified people with long tenures. Just like some of the grade 7 grads are amazing (and many pretty awful).
Back in the day Cisco had a proper graduate scheme where they were trained and nurtured - it was intensive and attracted top talent. They were allowed to grow in to rock star SEs. Now the scheme attracts TSN call center workers and exists to save money by replacing outgoing 10s, 11s and 12s with 7s and 8s.
AS had the same problem years ago - it used to be expensive but worth it. Now it's expensive with inexperienced grads thrown under the bus each time they go on site because they don't have any experience or mentoring.
There are lots of reasons why Cisco is falling apart (lack of execution being a big one) but extreme cost saving, poor recruitment and dwindling numbers of experienced, quality SEs are massive contributions to its demise.
As I think has already been said, HR are too busy laying people off, getting ready to lay more people off and trying to build defenses for court cases against people they have unfairly laid off to be bothered with exit interviews and that nonsense. Why would they care why you are leaving? They would only care if (like a normal company) they wanted to determine if there was an underlying problem causing attrition that they wanted to address, and we all know they certainly don't want to do that! The more of us that leave, the better!
With all due respect, a lot of the "overperformers" who have been with Cisco over 18 years ARE the problem... overpaid, entitlement mentalities who have risen to a pay grade that demands more than brown nosing and institutional knowledge. The reality of business is if someone 3 pay grades below you can do the job better than you can... you're not needed.
Don't get me wrong, I hate the constant LRs as much as anyone but if these veterans were truly carrying their weight the company would be growing and the purge wouldn't be necessary...
I know someone who resigned from HR last year. She said the millennial 'sunshine' couldn't make up for the constant LR's. Was starting to wear on her health.
HR does not have the resources to talk to people have left only for people who will be let go.
---> Not a single call from anyone above my direct manager. No HR questions, no forms to fill in or anything.
This was my experience as well. No HR involvement whatsoever, and no communication from or with anyone from my organization above my direct manager. A couple of weeks after I left, I DID receive a very nice email from the guy who originally hired me. (He's still at Cisco.) News of my departure had reached him, and he wanted to thank me for my contributions and wish me well.
Very telling.
I handed in my papers last year after a very, very long time at Cisco. I was Sales Champion several times, worked my a-- off and risen fast through the Cisco ranks... I'd even been given a 10% raise a month or so before I resigned.
Not a single call from anyone above my direct manager. No HR questions, no forms to fill in or anything. It really was a case of "Seeya!"
It's a shame as my manager was a decent guy. It's the rest of them that I don't trust, the strategy that's uninspiring and the fact that everywhere else looked like better places to work! Money wasn't a factor.
I wanted an HR interview to explain my reasons, back my manager etc... Turns out no one cares. That's not the company I started at all those years ago. I miss it, but it's not coming back.
That is a laugh. Turn up at Cisco on day-1 and you would at least expect that they are "expecting" you. No F-ing way. No laptop, no phone, no welcome, no direction not even a damned logon.
@1elc - Hilarious take on entrance interviews, sums up the mood.
What does SJC and Cisco have in common? Both are booooring!!!! I moved back to LA now making 10% less but I'm loving it! So dead nothing to do and the food gets old after a few months.
I just said my reason for leaving was "too many arseholes from San Jose and too many Powerpoints". Needless to say their silly faces dropped.
Btw, where are you folks going? Any pointers would be helpful.
I left recently and was given an exit interview. It was a bit of a joke if I'm honest as the interviewer spent most the time talking.
The thing that got me was the arrogance of the management "oh you want to leave, OK. Not sure why you would do that". What? It's as if they believe Cisco is the best place you can possibly work.
I am so glad I left after 8 years and didn't waste anymore time there. The new company I'm at is amazing. At first I was suspicious as everyone was so nice, but that's what it's like outside Cisco. I'm making more money, surrounded by great people and finally feel motivated again. The people that hang around at Cisco are either too scared to try something new or know they're not that good.
Is it really necessary for HR to have exit interviews? Everyone know what is wrong in the organization:
Incompetent ELT that the employee base does not trust or respect. Rampant nepotism. Complete lack of accountability within the organization. Continuous layoffs. Declining market share in growing markets. Lack of a major, organic (or acquisition) new product hit. Rising product defect backlogs. Declining product and service quality. Rapidly declining quality and skill of employee base. Customers fleeing to newer technologies from more nimble competitors. Attempting to win by bully competitors with law suits instead of out performing them with products.
Instead of exit interviews, HR is probably concentrating on entrance interviews. What is wrong with you that prevents you from being employed at a better company? Why have you applied to work at Cisco under such poor circumstances? Why are you willing to accept this kind of constant abuse? Why can't you do better than Cisco?
Leaving , LR all fine. Just attitude of managers and the treatment closer to the exit is what bothers .Being in Cisco for 15 years and having to go through that kind of treatment was a little rash. I am sure it affects morale of lot of people staying back there. Hope managers and ELT understands that. World outside Cisco is beautiful. People who are stuck in Cisco for long ,thinking might be difficult - nope not atall. I am in a group where there is no politics and importance is to the work you do and not the BS talks you do. Feels heaven .
Has anyone witnessed a manager creating fake roles to justify their own job? I'm witnessing a great deal of scrambling, yet the ELT is too incompetent to realize the rampant unethical behavior occurring within Cisco Operations.
They are only delighted when people leave on their own accord as it means they don't have to pay as many people to leave via the LR process and they only have to report a lower number of effected people when they complete mass layoffs. Just do your handovers as quickly as possible and leave your laptop, badge, and cards at reception. I know of very senior people who expected a play from Cisco to keep them after they informed management of their intentions to leavd but didn't even get a thank-you for their years of hard graft, let alone an exit interview. People just need to adjust their expectations southwards by several levels. Then they are at least approaching what Cisco really think about their staff. You are just a line on a bean counters spreadsheet, and even if you don't want to hear it, the sooner you realise that fact the better you'll be when the next big restructuring comes around. Not long to wait now it seems.
Make room for the new guard? University hires are resigning in droves. To combat this issue, the middle managers/directors are hiring unambitious millennials to help with attrition rates.
Lets just say, we aren't recruiting the best and brightest.
They don't care why you're leaving, so why should they bother with an exit interview. They want to get rid of as many existing employees as fast as they can in order to make room for the new guard.
I left 4 months ago, I did not have an exit interview either.
I was planning on what to talk in the exit interview like bringing up what went wrong, what could have avoided this, etc.
On the last day, my manager came, asked me to sign some papers, took my badge and laptop and said I am free to leave.
Probably they already know why people are leaving.