Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Very poorly managed layoffs

Maybe it's just my personal impression, but these are one of the worst managed layoffs so far. Couldn't they at least have managed it a little bit better?

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| 3322 views | | 15 replies (last August 3, 2023) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+1nNPDX3F

15 replies (most recent on top)

If you are ever offered a "earlier retirement" package. TAKE IT!

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Post ID: @8lmg+1nNPDX3F

That was my comment. I make no representation as to how the message was received. But these people are narcissistic and think their 💩 doesn’t stink. They think their actions are full of ❤️-felt warmth and kindness. Telling them that they eff’ed up might upset their karma, because I’m sure they are all telling themselves they did brilliantly (again, as always). But again, they are narcissists…

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Post ID: @4ifc+1nNPDX3F

“Two things in talking to our management: 1) we made it very clear that this LR was appallingly done and they assured us that this feedback was fed “up the chain”.

Not to be negative here, but do you think they care? These people have done this so many times that it’s like brushing their teeth in the morning. I mean do you think Chuck and Fran are going to say “Ya know, we have been mishandling these LRs. Let’s do these differently moving forward!”

If you think they are going to change a thing, you are sadly mistaken. Them telling you that your feedback was “fed up the chain” means “yeah yeah, go away”. Don’t be fooled.

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Post ID: @4aol+1nNPDX3F

But what about Fran's gorgeous hair? I wonder how many of the brainless brown-nosers who used to regurlarly make that comment on Check-ins got LRd. How cold do you like your shower?

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Post ID: @4spg+1nNPDX3F

You’d think they’d be good at it, considering they’ve done about a thousand of them at this point.

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Post ID: @4woy+1nNPDX3F

As a sales leader that was part of the LR in January of this year (happily), I personally received someone else’s Docusign package on three separate occasions in the 4 weeks following my notification date. I didn’t know who these three people were and alerted the HR team as soon as I discovered the error. After 10+ years at Cisco, I have seen over 25,000 people be LR’d at Cisco - you’d think that HR would be better at this with that vast amount of termination experience!

FYI, the packages that I received in error were for employees all in the same Geo as myself and confirmed that there is no “standard” in terms of how Cisco pays out in situations like this. Fight for every penny folks because Chuck and Fran will be shortchanging you if they have the chance.

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Post ID: @4qho+1nNPDX3F

Two things in talking to our management: 1) we made it very clear that this LR was appallingly done and they assured us that this feedback was fed “up the chain”. 2) this layoff was to align our resources to our FY24 budget. It was nothing to do with November, or strategic alignment or whatever poor story they came up with to excuse their shoddy execution.

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Post ID: @3pzn+1nNPDX3F

"That only describes how people are decided, not how it's managed, communicated, and executed."

Does it make a difference how grunt workers are executed? Managed, communicated? Hire McKinsey or BCG for a layoff playbook, and eliminate a few thousand people with families. Wait a bit and do it again.

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Post ID: @2dhh+1nNPDX3F

@1pgf+1nNPDX3F, your comment has nothing to do with how the layoff was managed. That only describes how people are decided, not how it's managed, communicated, and executed.

Supposedly they had a cost/goal in mind, but some BU's couldn't execute on that cost/goal in Nov, so they said people in some BU's would be notified in Jan. Then they said in Mar that the LR was done and there'd be no more (this year since we know there will always be more LRs). Then nothing was said until suddenly people were notified and it's the last month of the fiscal year and they're saying that it's just the continuation of the Nov LR that supposedly was done in Mar. It was so poorly managed that they failed to even plan to have time in the Check-in to answer all the questions/comments that were obviously going to up up after they suddenly notified employees out of the blue.

The real answer about LR's was given in a Q&A answer when they said that "In order to transform fast, we are constantly evaluating our growth opportunities and prioritizing accordingly. While restructuring is our last resort, and only happens in areas where we've leveraged all available workforce planning options, restructuring is always a possibility."

They added a lot of extra terms to make it sound good, but the bottom line was "... we are constantly evaluating ... and prioritizing ... ..., restructuring is always a possibility." Everything else was just noise/lies.

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Post ID: @2fgx+1nNPDX3F

I've been involved in layoff meetings. The VP and their inner circle just align employees to future projects with funding. Anyone not aligned to a project of importance is axed.

It's not performance based. The inner circle protects their friends by aligning them to funded projects.

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Post ID: @1pgf+1nNPDX3F

Last November's was a do----o show.

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Post ID: @1pqv+1nNPDX3F

Especially when they claim this is a continuation of last Nov. So dishonest.

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Post ID: @1lut+1nNPDX3F

Fail early, fail often!

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Post ID: @1hjz+1nNPDX3F

Fran is so hot!

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Post ID: @1ejh+1nNPDX3F

Fran can add this an area for improvement when she has her performance review with Chuck.

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Post ID: @1lnr+1nNPDX3F

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