This wasn't always an issue at Cisco but it certainly is now. Since we lost almost half of our team in the past two years, I don't have enough hours in a day to get everything done. How is everybody else dealing with this, since I'm going to assume that this is not a unique issue?
15 replies (most recent on top)
Don't complain, join supply chain ...fu-k with work life balance...this term can't even bring up to management because they will fire or get rid of you for being too soft
Everyone needs to set boundaries to stay mentally and physically healthy.
I work hard and work long days in general, but if I have a dinner with friends, this dinner gets prioritized over work. Every time.
I don't work past a certain hour, I have never done all the things I wanted to do when I stop, and it's fine.
Remember this is not your decision to let a lot of people go, so do your best, but don't ruin your familiy, your life, your health or lose your friends.
If this gets you laid off, so be it.
Don't fall for it. This useless ELT is convinced the company can run with incessant layoffs, prove them wrong. Do the strict minimum and let work accumulate till it all crumbles down. It eventually will.
@1mgy+1tiyJKwM, any current/former TAC engineer can feel your pain, buddy. MM aka v2MaMa has permanently destroyed TAC
Most of TACs got high blood pressure, anxiety, depression and lack of sleep due to harassment by Indian TAC managers and HTOMs and salespeople.
Most of the TAC engineers work in survival mode and by the time they start working through the backlog, the damn Queue starts and Sev and HO pile up like crazy.
TAC pay is su*ks big time, Only G8 and G10 in RTP and RCDN are getting some "okay" pay. Cisco has been paying $500 pre-tax for weekend BICs since 2003 while Palo Alto pays around $1200.
lol: @1mya+1tiyJKwM
“I wish I could have created more… share holder… value.”
On one's death bed and/or looking back on one's life in their golden years, "I should've worked harder" SAID NO ONE EVER.
Posting my history as guessing others going through same. I was LR'd five years ago and it was the best thing that ever happened to my health.
Always have been a hard worker, but average intelligence. Can master tasks but takes me much longer than most. But when I get good at something, am really good.
I am not really good however at keeping healthy. It is easy to do at Cisco. Worked many days 8 AM to 8 PM, easy to do if on east coast and most of team in San Jose.
I put on a bunch of weight because I did not exercise and sat all day. Drank lots of alcohol, coffee, and soda. Successful at Cisco, but a major health price. Anxiety. High blood pressure. Pre-diabetic. I could indeed work hard, but it was by channelling my physical strength to Cisco work ethic. Stupid on my part.
Well the day I was LR'd, I was on three blood pressure medicines, two anxiety medicines, and two other meds. That was five years ago. Since then, I lost 50 pounds and run almost every day. I got a much less stressful job where I have to be physically active; but mostly stopped eating like a pig.
Was it Cisco? To a point. It was a combination of Cisco, plus me. Early Cisco was not like this (2000s). We joked openly about eating like crud (TAC), and stress, but worked on stress management as a team. Something really broke later (maybe because a different toxic team and leaders), but last few years really were lousy.
Point is, once I got away from it, I recovered (or I guess normalized), but it was only getting out of the situation for good that did it for me.
Hang in there.
Same work culture at Apple and Amazon ! There’s a lot of competition for jobs now.
you guys are full of sh-t, terrible work life balance?. I personally know a lot of people at Cisco who does nothing but cruise all day working maybe two hours a day top and getting paid the big bucks. These are the same people who go back to India for a month or two every year and most of them doesn't even submit PTO. If people are allowed to do this, how can you say its terrible work life balance?
Don’t let them steal your time! I worked a ton of hours. Didn’t take care of me first. My blood pressure skyrocketed and my blood sugar too. Gained weight. Deprioritized exercise, nutrition and hydration.
It so toxic because everyone around you is losing their job and you think you have to work harder to keep your job. Cisco is a sick place. Don’t fall into the trap. They will take and take and take.
Take care of yourself. Prioritize yourself. You did nothing to get into this over worked situation. Cisco laid off people, it was a business decision they made. Don’t pick up the slack. You aren’t the crazy one.
So far SBG is the worse place to work in Cisco. Pls just find internal position and get a better balanced life. My 300lbs mgr using engineer to against engineer, people poking each other for survive.
Same here. I've been working for Security TAC for more than five years, and I already feel old. I look at my six-year-old son, and it's like seeing a stranger. I've missed his birthdays, his first steps, and so many of his precious moments. The job demanded the work of 2.5 engineers, leaving me to juggle three or four cases a day. And with more contracts and sales representatives promising the best solutions—though their promises often feel hollow—our workload keeps increasing.
Every day, the physical toll grows heavier. My back aches constantly, I'm losing my hair, and carpal tunnel syndrome makes every keystroke painful. My eyesight has deteriorated to the point where I need to wear glasses permanently. HTOMS, account managers, managers, systems engineers—they all just point fingers, completely unaware of the burnout we endure.
I used to read a lot, watch good movies, and go to the cinema. Those simple pleasures have disappeared from my life. My work is supposed to be eight hours, EST business hours, but sometimes it's 1:00 AM, and I'm still working on sending an update on a case. It's always because of some important contract we need to keep, fearing the customer might move to a competitor. Everything is about money.
Sometimes, I wonder if life would be easier and if a better work-life balance could be found in Palo Alto, Fortinet, or somewhere else. I dream of a place where I can be more than just a ghost in my own home, where I can watch my son grow up and be there for all the moments that truly matter.
The hiring on my team has been pretty much frozen for the past few years. Even though we keep getting more and more responsibilities and trying to split the team across several projects, it has been becoming increasingly stressful. I’m basically at a point where I’m constantly interviewing for my next opportunity because Cisco isn’t worth the mediocre comp with everything considered.
SVPs have been trained very well to tell the staff to embrace the challenge. Just know they are also looking for opportunities outside of csco.
Same feeling in emerging markets
Caffeine
Lots of overtime
Frankly things get missed as not everything can be prioritised