Is Grade 6 - 8 non technical at risk for the next LR
Don’t say “everyone is at risk” , I’m trying to understand who is targeted the most
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The idea that you need zero “non-technical” employees is asinine. As someone who is technical, a good non-technical employee takes care of sh-t I don’t want to touch, like political bs from customers. I do not want to sit in calls with a customer auditing their install base and contracts or explaining Cisco policy to them when they’re pi---d. Are non-technical workers as important as technical ICs? No. But the real fat that needs to be trimmed is in leadership. No relationships with customers, no direct revenue generation, no technical skills. Why do we need 10 levels of leaders??
Everyone is at risk, although it would be insane to assume everyone is at equal risk. I'd expect more reasons than I list below, but these are the ones I saw when I was there.
Reasons people get picked off one by one:
- You just aren't meeting the job requirements - it seems obvious until you realize how many high level "engineers" are assigned low level bug fixing and therefore aren't actually allowed to meet those requirements
- You are meeting the job title requirements but raises move you out of the viable salary range for that level of work
- You aren't in favor of those with political power
- A manager decides they have an "in-group" and you aren't in it
Reasons people get picked off in whole groups:
- Your project is being cancelled
- You work at a lesser site on a project with teams at a primary site
- A political power play between teams where the winner keeps their own people to pick up the work of the losing team
- When projects reorganize they can package people for any of the reasons people get picked off one by one into a group and then let go of them as a group
Since the goal is typically a reduction in cost if you have a low rank and corresponding pay and you contribute above average on an important project with strong (politically speaking) management it's probably as good as it gets, but it's still no guarantee.
Don't underestimate the power of being under the wing of the powerful. Many people have sc--wed up costing Cisco fortunes and the punishment was a promotion,.
@ah Actually, this is unrelated to that. We have been informed that AI digital delivery is expected to save stockholders millions of dollars, with full implementation targeted for early 2027. This will be a completely digital delivery model.
@ch Are you really the only one working all day at Cisco? How do you manage to stay employed with that attitude?
@a8 Yeah they all have tragets on their backs.
@d6 Thank you! I will report!
Don’t say “everyone is at risk” ....
So every group would be given a target. It is up to the group leadership to come up with a plan to fit the new spending target. So, that is the reality.
@cz Nope. I have seen H1Bs getting cut off too. So there are some very clear examples of ppl who do not do anything, don't even bother to understand the technicalities & are useless. Still they survive, because of their proximity to dirs. This is not a general rule!
@cy so you're saying even though there's an org chart flattening that happens in the coming LR, and middle management is on the list, because they are an H1B they won't be let go.
So now it's just anyone not an H1B, >35 yrs old, non technical, middle manager, non core role.
@cj I ask the same question. I know some non non non tech managers in my group are due to their proximity with the dir, and get protected coz H1B. You can literally hear one of them typing into Claude as you are speaking and the response is very very formal too. Before all of this, that person had no clue about anything.
@cp what makes you think im mgmt or even employeed? You're just a twatt. History has shown Cisco rarely cuts the fat. They largely cut the ICs.
@cn you wish it wasn't true. MIDDLE MANAGEMENT targeted bud. Sorry if you lose your "sending emails for life" goal
@ch you just want this to be true. Cisco rarely shrinks mgmt layer with any measurable siginificance.
Anyone not bringing direct revenue is on chopping block. It can’t get any simpler.
@a7 "it again depends on how many non-tech you have in your org. If too many, they are the first ones to take a cut"
Why do you have non-technical anybody at a fu--ing tech company? - Arista asking
@a8 he-l no - what IS true is anything with "management" or "manager" after their bs title is at risk. There are 203 different types of them lol. Who do nothing. All fu--ing day. And cost a sh-t ton. Billions. And are automatable. They. Are. No. Longer. Needed
They don’t base decisions on grade. It’s budget period. Think of it as a math problem only solved by a combination of salary to hit the magic number.
No hard and fast rule ever. So the truth is everyone is at risk.
My guess is you are early in career. Sorry to tell you the truth.
Everyone NON mgmt is at risk. Jfc just deal with it. You and the rest of the 70K ICs are tragets..
The correct answer is "everyone is at risk". And the reason is that, every product/team has their own category & it really depends on the size of the team. Sometimes it might be purely poor performers, and other times it might be who is making the most money. Another times it could be that the company has decided to wrap up from a particular location. In my experience, performance has been a factor so far. A couple of my friends have had a different experience.
Who gets cut also depends on where the decisions are made in the org. If a director gets a target, he might have more insights into performance, if the director is not consulted, the LR might target high paying individuals.
As you mentioned non-technical, it again depends on how many non-tech you have in your org. If too many, they are the first ones to take a cut, if the team is appropriate size, you will not be impacted heavily.