Just wondering what the situation is at Cisco right now in regards to hiring older employees who were laid off in one of the previous layoffs rounds?
Is it even provided as an option to them? Or are people simply blacklisted by the company once they are shown the door?
I emailed my former manager to see if he will hire me back. His response was: "NO".
If you are LR'ed or quit, you can come back as long as you are under 50, but the younger the better.
I'll echo the younger the better statement, but I managed to come back at 51. Doubtful I'd get to come back again now that I've been back 2 yrs. If I were to go this year, I wouldn't be able to come back until I was 55+, so it would be very hard. But it will also be hard to find a new job ANYWHERE at 55 or older.
When I mentioned I was part of an LR, there was an uncomfortable pause and the conversation seemed to wind down... . I think some hiring managers and others at Cisco see being LR'd as a firing vs lay off.
It used to be true during the early LR's when Cisco based the LR's on the bottom 5% based on performance reviews. Since the people deal, they don't have to document performance and it can be purely based on personality likes & dislikes, age or cost (wages).
Viewing LR's as a way of firing is true of many companies. I interviewed with a company that sells a product that competes with Cisco's TelePresence and things were going well. They were really interested in me because of what I knew about Cisco, but when I said I was LR'd, you could tell their interest went down. Then, they mentioned that I'd have to attend daily 7:15 AM video conference meetings from the office and I asked why couldn't I take those from home and then come in so that I wouldn't be stressed out about making sure I was at work on time due to traffic, you could tell I'd just k–led all chances of getting the job. They were located right off a busy interstate which frequently had accidents and traffic delays, but their idea of work/life balance was to never work from home and work a strict 7-4 workday in the office. Yet they sell a collaboration productivity tool. Go figure.
If you are LR'ed or quit, you can come back as long as you are under 50, but the younger the better.
I like typing the CLI "sh ip int brief" and that's why I like working at Cisco. I got LR'ed 7 months ago ( 3rd time) and wanna come back again. I really miss that CLI.
Part of LR some time back - have interviewed with Cisco again. The interview with the hiring manager seemed to be going great until I was asked why I left in the first place. When I mentioned I was part of an LR, there was an uncomfortable pause and the conversation seemed to wind down... . I think some hiring managers and others at Cisco see being LR'd as a firing vs lay off.
I can personally attest that you can come back to Cisco after being laid off. I've done it twice.
@1yjd - You can't come back during the 6-mo blacklist period even if you wanted to pay back the severance. I had a manager of a different team contact me about an FTE position on his team and ask me to contact HR to see if I could return the severance to return and the answer was no. A year later, that same manager hired me.
@1vqi - My animosity was more directed at the manager who targeted me. The first layoff, I knew I was going to be let go because I'd gotten on the manager's bad side and he put me on a performance improvement plan (PIP) and prevented me from applying to other positions within the company to get out from under his review. When I came back, I received full bonuses every year until I was laid off the second time, so I know my first layoff was not performance related, but personality related. The second time was a surprise, and another guy who was a top-performer got let go too. We're both back at Cisco now.
I enjoy my work & I enjoy working w/ my peers. My pay is good and my working conditions are great. I've worked at other companies and I was not nearly as happy. Maybe I've drunk too much of the Cisco cool aide, but I found the other companies had all the same problems that Cisco has and more, so why not work where I have over 10 yrs experience in getting things done at Cisco? While I hope they convert me to an employee a third time, I'll enjoy my time as a red-badge and no people deal and pocket all the $ I'm getting paid.
I’ve known several people that have been rehired in similar positions - but we are outside of the US where the offices are small
I took a voluntary severance from Cisco a few years ago and in theory I can be rehired but when I apply for jobs that I'm qualified for I get a reply mail that they don't have any positions open for which I am qualified. Strange that is.
Cool-down period is usually 6months. There might be slight variations from country to country but 6 is a good number to keep in mind.
As long as you haven't been fired for cause but just laid off, there's nothing keeping you from being re-hired after 6 months.
Yes. I know a few that came back after their severance package ran out and pretty much came back to the same position. Such a joke.
Only a masochist would return.
There's a non-hiring period you'd have to wait. IIRC, it's six months. You could return earlier, but then you'd have to pay back your severance package, adjusted for the time that has passed. So, if you'd rejoin three months after getting laid off, you'd have to pay back 50%.
Cisco is not Mahindra. You can get rehired.
Several people here on this website re-joined Cisco after having been laid off.
Don't you have any negativity towards a company that laid you off? Why do you want to come back?
@czi -- Could you please repost your comments so that people will understand what you're trying to say?
Thankfully the conservancy workers could reply and validate the claims below.
That's rich, a vella posting that India set the standard for american business practices.
Most of big tech companies are blacklisted fired staff as false evidence is created to show them as less competent or outdated etc. this helps avoid future legal risks.
The practice has roots in India and originated in the leading mahindra and mahindra group company tech mahindra and quickly adopted by other big IT outsourcing firms in India and later spread to IBM, accenture etc.
In the last 4 years atleast 400000 techies in india found their careers end abruptly just because of the fact they were laid off, it took some time as companies has an informal arrangement thro they were not re-hiring any laid off proessional mutually.... sad that it is spread to USA.
see the post below for more details.. https://www.thelayoff.com/t/RpxPiEe