Regarding the mentioned "expected trim of the bottom 5 percent," that is not how layoffs at Cisco work nor have they ever.
Every single round of layoffs has cut some of the best people who have been with the company long enough to earn a decent pay. Every single time.
A few on the bottom might get trimmed simply to make sure there is no ground to claim age discrimination.
So if you know layoffs are coming, trust me that it will not be strictly or even predominantly the bottom 5 percent.