Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I agree with @2zga - and I'm a filthy millennial (worked in engineering before being kicked out - pretty sure my job still exists within Cisco, too). I supported one of those pesky Cisco products that was already mature, already established, and already had many happy customers, so I had to go so that they could hire even cheaper millennials to make crap like Spark. No recurring revenue in the product I worked with, you see.

I also moved to a company where my (relevant and current) skills are far more appreciated, where there is far less politics, and where you have more job security - no worrying for 9 months of the year about whether you'll be made redundant in the other three months.

...I'm a millennial and I'm certainly not cheap. I've made over $250k a year, for the last 4 years at Cisco and I've not been laid off. Maybe who they are cutting is not the "old" but the lazy, has-been's who happen to be Gen X and baby boomers ... Go re-skill and get a course in what hard work is, and come back when you're ready to compete with what is clearly a brighter, harder working and more ambitious generation.

You must be in sales working on a commission basis. For those in Engineering and IT, you don't make nearly that much, and no matter how hard you work, you don't make extra money. You have a flat salary and any extra money comes from working on-call hours or your bonus, which is just a flat percentage of your base salary, assuming that you get a bonus and that it's the full percentage.

I've heard a lot of trash talk about how bad the Engineers are at Cisco and how bugs are counted in the millions, but I was in IT and we worked hard. We had to keep the systems up 24x7x365 so developers/engineers could work around the clock--for those teams that had staff on both sides of the globe, or for those that chose to work during the weekends, usually to meet deadlines they were behind on. My skills ARE current and I'm using the same skills at a new company where they're appreciated.

Age discrimination is real. They're keeping you around because you're young. And that huge money you made was based on commission, so Cisco made something in return for paying you extra. But if you make in the low 100's in IT, you're expensive for nothing in return to Cisco and you can be replaced with 2 kids out of school with 3-5 yrs experience for $55-60K each.

Sorry buster.....study after study show that millennials are whiny and far less work oriented than the boomers. Polish your "participation" award all you want but show a bit of empathy towards those in this unfortunate situation. Age discrimination is real and getting worse as our population ages.

Guys I'm sick of all this "millennial" bashing. I'm a millennial and I'm certainly not cheap. I've made over $250k a year, for the last 4 years at Cisco and I've not been laid off. Maybe who they are cutting is not the "old" but the lazy, has-been's who happen to be Gen X and baby boomers who had their whole life handed to them on a plate and didn't have to work for anything. Go re-skill and get a course in what hard work is, and come back when you're ready to compete with what is clearly a brighter, harder working and more ambitious generation.

I was surprised as Cisco is laying off per this site's comments!

Would you be surprised to read the news over the past many years to see there have been annual mass layoffs? There have been many layoffs, some large, some small, some noticed, many unnoticed since 2001. The previous CEO even made Forbes worst five CEO's list http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2014/08/29/5-worst-ceos-revisited-job-creators-or-killers-this-labor-day. He made the earlier version in 2012 http://www.forbes.com/sites/adamhartung/2012/05/12/oops-5-ceos-that-should-have-already-been-fired-cisco-ge-walmart-sears-microsoft as well.

Why would you be surprised that Cisco is hiring in the middle of lay-offs?

Chuck said during the FY16 year-end earnings call that Cisco--read ELT--was going to lay-off 5,500 employees and re-invest the savings--their wages--in whatever areas he mentioned. Those re-investments are all the people they're hiring. That means you're taking a job that someone else could have been transferred to and kept their job and supported their families.

The sad thing is that, rather than transfer us around to new positions which means Cisco would have had to keep paying us our current wages, Cisco let us go in order to hire younger, less experienced and less skilled millennials to pay a lower wage in order to decrease costs and increase profits.

How about they cut costs some other way? How about having more virtual meetings instead of traveling? Having manager off-sites is just a waste of money allowing managers to have a good time in Vegas or whatever cool place they host it that year. Granted that the cost of a single trip for a bunch of people, no matter how lavish, isn't equal to the wages of 5,500 people, but it's a start. And there are other ways to cut costs rather than kicking good people out of the company because they're too expensive just to rehire replacements at a lower wage.

It really feels like a knife in the back when some recruiter contacts you about a great opportunity, shows you a job description that reads like your old position, and then when you ask who the hiring manager is you find out it's your old team backfilling your position as a red badge for less than you made before.

I just wish I had a picture of Cisco in my rearview mirror, because it's definitely behind me now.

Why don't you sniff it and learn more about it. What area was the PM for?

Run. Fast.

Nothing groundbreaking. Cisco has never stopped hiring even though they do a yearly (or it appears, monthly) layoff.

They have to find people to replace those who failed the hunger games, whether it's the 40 or 50 year olds that Cisco wants out, or the unfortunate millennials who haven't played the game well enough.

That, or you're going to be hired as a red badge (contractor) with even less job security than real employees, trying to impress so much that one day you might get the coveted blue badge (and then you really start needing to play politics to keep it)

Cisco must be getting desperate as they were not able to attract people to apply. Who wants to work in such a toxic environment.