Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

I got the call from my vendor of my last day. It is a shock to your system and with no real warning it really hits you hard. So on our team , all the red badges (contract) were told buh-bye. More teams were impacted this go around as I heard from other teams doing the same red badge cuts.

@10c My vendor called me with the bad news. A total of 4 people on my team, all last day april 3rd. Cisco reduction in red badge vs blue ratio

Yes there’s a red badge purge happening globally. Entire teams are being let go. All of the work falls on the blue badges who are already drowning due to the last LR.

Just another case of poor planning by executive leadership. These red badges are doing the same work as us so how are they different? Great performers too! Makes zero sense. Truly sad.

@103 sh-t! Well in that case I’m sorry you had to receive such! Are you apart of SBG? When you say you got the call, can you maybe share a little, is it from your leader explaining the bad news?

@zg Yes, April 3rd is last day.

@yj Can you Stop with the vague “I got the call.” What call? You got the “you are being fired call? It helps all of us here!

It's true, I just got the call.

@v5 ?????

@nc Well it happened today

@tc thanks for sharing. Yes, we do know that. If Q3 goes south, we know 💩 will for sure hit the fan. It’s why there is no answer for CX attending GEX this year. The problem with CX is they expect everyone to practically be an Engineer and there for will gut people not certified with technical experience. Bottom line. There will be a cut for sure but it may not be May, it will be announced and then lead to those cut to be cut. It’s been confirmed across the entire organization

@sk+1km4nf8ga WARN doesn't cover red badges.

@p8 That 2025 situation did have WARN filings for the larger Bay Area cuts—it just wasn’t obvious because it was filed right around the same time as the announcement. Smaller or spread-out cuts don’t always trigger WARN, which is probably what people are thinking of

But it did trigger a legal investigation because of how it was handled.
https://straussborrelli.com/2025/08/19/cisco-warn-act-investigation/

@nn see link. Cisco has recently issued the warn notices essentially simultaneously with layoff notices to affected employees. Not ahead.

https://www.peoplematters.in/news/strategic-hr/cisco-announces-layoffs-days-after-ceo-denied-ai-job-cuts-43067

@nh Yes, but this only applies for smaller / structured layoffs at 50 and below. Anything over that is a state law by a lot of states! So either this will happen in structured way affecting each state with small increments keeping it under the radar as they’ve been doing, or there will be a WARN notice at some point. I’m speculating that if Cisco does not hit their next quarter number making up for losses last quarter, they will start to make larger cuts there afterwards.

@n8 incorrect. Layoffs come with 60 day "in lieu of notice". Even if they are technically in violation of the warn act, the remedy under the act is exactly the same as what Cisco gives which is 60 days pay and benefits.

@hc The problem with this page is that we get some version of this post every single quarter and its truth is completely uncertain

@hc the only caveat to this entire story of such a LARG cut to come, there has been no WARN act filing for the Bay Area,which is a 60 day WARN act, California has in place. And the same goes for a lot of other US states. That means this would have to have been done already in March for anything to happen in May and the public monitoring WARN notices would have seen this already. This is why I speculate this is all pre planning right now for Cisco, then finalizing by June and then WARN notice goes out. Followed by the bad news to cut people by July or August. At this point it’s all Smokey mirrors. Maybe this is all offshore the large majority. 🤷‍♂️

@hc Thanks for sharing. Do you know if it’s going to be CX that’s in this bucket? What verticals? Or is it every leader as I’ve not heard nothing yet and I’m a leader!

I’m a leader, I can 100% confirm that Blue Badge LR’s and Red Badge cuts incoming for May. Many leaders of other teams I work with and myself have been asked to make a list to cut from our team. Some teams will merge as a result. I’m not CX or sales. I’m in U.S.

@dz thanks for sharing. If this is true, 15% of 80K + people, is 12K people. Thats a large bleed. There’s not even enough people in CX to account for this many cuts. This 12% would have to come from the overall size of the company across multiple orgs. It’s sound you are saying the majority of cuts are going to come from that CX side of the house, correct? That’s the Customer Success side, correct? Splitting it into two, there is tech and security. Which bucket is the majority of this coming from?

1. This Redbadge Layoff is necessory for the execs to justify the AI investment that was made during the past two years.
2. In CX centres, ie Dallion,Bangalore,Pune etc there were exorbitant amount of Redbadges. Since CX centres are not directly responsible for Project Delivery. The 75% cut there was the lowest hanging fruit.
3. After last year's Grade hike for almost everyone in the CX the margin figures in CX had plummeted. So it was time for the execs to act.
4. In the delivery managers have already given cap on the PO they can raise. So maximum a redbadge gets in 110 days of contract. Not even a single day more!!
   This is to give six months time for the delivery centres to reassess how deep tehy can cut
5. Efforts are on to bring in a centralised system for streamlining the approval of redbadges from San Jose
6. Rather tahn having different vendors in various geographies, they are planning a single vendor system something like infosys or HCL or accenture
7. Once the redbadge carnage is over in delivery centres 15% blue badge cut is coming.
   Rainy days are coming guys. Our execs are seeing a clear downturn in the economy and they want to prepare and tighten the belt.

@OP how do you know this? Hate to sound rude but are you blowing smoke up our as--s? Not asking your title? But if you know this much then you’d be expected to know what divisions are getting hit and there for can help us with that much on blue badges. There’s a lot of chatter each month, each year of crazy things being said and nearly half of them ever happen! Help us all out that are a bit stressed here.

People are saying Finance is making the next rounds of cuts for May. Does anyone know what divisions? Tech, Security, etc?

Makes sense. Cisco stuff is so good it deploys and troubleshoots itself.

Can not confirm the percentage of cuts but it has already started.

I heard about the red badges cuts on our staff call this morning.

I don’t know about the percentages but I can confirm that a number of red badges in our group were told that this month would be the last month. Now all of the work and projects they were working on are now assigned to the blue badges with little room to negotiate. It’s happening for sure.

This is the "we all runout of pills, let's all vent out here" thread of the week.
Hurry up, get it out of your chest.Speaking with others may easy your pain.

Bullsh-t. With out Red Badges little gets done.

How do you know?