Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I agree this is doesn't qualify as advice as it is a personal choice, and in my opinion making a choice to do as little as possible and wait to get fired is terrible advice even if it did qualified as such.

I have worked outside of Cisco for the majority of my career, and it's my experience the complex nature of the issues and the scope of work performed, by the CSEs and TLs specifically, is beyond anything you will ever face outside of Cisco.

Imagine if everyone at Cisco was expected to 'deliver' as you perceive to be the case 'outside' of Cisco? It would be nice to see Cisco stop ignoring the issue and and stop trying to compensate by hiring more people instead of dealing with the real issue - you.

IF you're going to hang around and do the minimum, spend your time getting new skills to pad your resume. I don't recommend waiting for the hammer to fall so you can get paid to leave unless you can survive on your spouse's pay until you find another job. If you're like me and a single income family, the uncertainty of when you'll find the next job isn't worth being paid to leave. Find a job while you work, save your PTO, and quit so that you start your next job without a break in income.

You definitely have to work harder outside Cisco, and I don't mind that. But, managers outside Cisco can be just as bad as Cisco's, if in an entirely different way. My director fired a co-worker who couldn't perform. I got called in and informed that I would be responsible for picking up this person's work. I know nothing about the technology he was supposed to setup. Someone from our parent company with 3 yrs experience with this technology came out for a week to help with setting this new technology up, but couldn't finish the task in a week. Now I, with no experience in this, have to complete the things he couldn't figure out during his week here. I'm hoping they don't expect it to be done in another week.

Would echo @pjm comments. Use your time to build a decent resume, build network, work on your LinkedIn profile, get acquainted with recruiters, get some certifications if you are in Engineering and get some exposure to new technologies that are being used at other organisations. Don't think that having Cisco on your resume will be enough to get you a new position outside of it. It wont! That way, when the hammer does drop then you are not starting from scratch and you can hit the ground running when you decide you want another job. There may not be a lot of positives working at Cisco just now but at least there is a wealth of free online training at your disposal. What else would you be spending your days doing?

My only regret leaving Cisco is that I waited too long. Life would have been better sooner if I had moved quicker.

Great advice. No point leaving when there is a paycheck to collect on your way out. It's also nearly impossible to be fired at Cisco, so the best thing to do is enjoy a year or 2 putting your feet up, maybe focus on networking outside Cisco and wait for the gift of LR to come to your door.

I knew my LR was coming last August, so I hung around and had Cisco pay me to leave. Now that I'm in a real job and having to perform at my highest level, I'm happy to do so. The management of my new employer is not the belly-up-to-the-trough type, so if you don't produce, you'll be gone in no time. The upside is that I love working hard knowing that my contributions are appreciated. Cisco is the 600-lb, morbidly obese man who can't get out of bed yet can't seem to stop eating endless buckets of fried chicken.

I left cisco several times, always come back, and it was for the threat of being LR or reorgs that didnt make any sense, COE -Practice ,but those VPs are now gone because of those awful ideas.

While you may work from home and get to take calls from dr office or wherever, most of us spend 30 hours a week in webex calls. I rather work 80 hours a week for the horrible base pay Cisco provides than go set at a customer and do nothing every day, want to jump out the window.

How exactly is one expected to transition from "do as little as you get away with" to "outside of Cisco you have to work ... In other businesses you're expected to deliver", when you get LR'd? That doesn't sound like good advise at all in my opinion.

If you are on the fence about the likelihood of being LR'd and want to ride the Cisco paycheck as long as possible, that's a personal choice and nothing wrong with it. However, don't choose to be a slacker. Keep your skills up - use that "free time" to learn/study/develop in other areas. Be ready for when you are hit with a redundancy LR.

A year of 70 hour weeks from "the best" at Cisco often isn't competitive with three months of 40 hour weeks from the average at other companies. The worst part is they still think they're competitive when whatever skills they had atrophied beyond resuscitation. Be thankful you are learning how to deliver.