With AI doing most of work, no need for any middle managers. They become redundant and a cost burden. They get LRed, and loose jobs coming earnings date just like at most major IT shops - Amazon, Microsoft, Intel, Google, Meta…..
No one wants to be managed anymore. Managers are managed out.
The Cisco management chain is 100% PowerPoints all of the way down. Each level half-as detailed and accurate. 😂
@v0 hope they focus on the mid-managers in the U.K. market. Absolute wastes-of-space political specimens.
Really wish this would turn out to be true at least once. We hear this about mid-managers getting the sack before every LR cycle and in reality, most people who get affected are the ICs. The politically active, incompetent and corrupt mid-managers laugh all the way to preparing their next LR list. Total sh!t show. These people don’t bring anything to the business. Why are they here year after year - all 4-6 layers if them?
Why so many levels and layers ? Thousands and thousands of managers . Why all these people?
Cisco could double / triple profit margins by eliminating six layers in middle.
This is long overdue. I sincerely hope Cisco wisens up and trims this fat post this earnings
Seasoned managers handle judgment.
Not at all. Seasoned managers remaining at Cisco NEVER use judgement. Because you could make 10 wise calls and 1 bad one, and the underlings would get you crucified for that one bad call.
No, better the managerialist approach. Use spreadsheets to suggest best options, spread the decision around to deflect responsibility and never put your hand up if it goes wrong (blame a subordinate).
@a3
navigating ambiguity?
lived experience?
scaffolding?
this sounds like an AI generated PowerPoint from a Cisco middle manager desperate to keep his or her irrelevant job
After middle managers comes time to eliminate PM layer. It’s coming…
PM's are literally just human iCals.
Can most humans not manage their own calendars?
In addition, many have:
How do you work at a tech company with no background in IT or even a bachelors degree in CS?
Do the shareholders realise their potential sales project is handled not by domestic engineers but by an executive assistant?(traditionally known as a "secretary")
So now the question is, why did this take so long?
This site brings me so much joy! Hoping the useless poser who put me on the LR list last year is having a miserable summer while she waits for the 1:1 she so richly deserves!
ChatGPT
You said:
Write a note about how it is essentially useless to post to a discussion board anymore, as other users are essentially just using ChatGPT to write responses
ChatGPT said:
Sure, here's a concise, slightly sardonic note you could post to express that sentiment:
It’s becoming increasingly pointless to post on discussion boards these days. Most responses are no longer genuine exchanges of knowledge or perspective—they’re just ChatGPT regurgitations dressed up as original thought. You can practically see the copy-paste formatting. Ask a question, and instead of hearing from someone’s real experience, you get a neatly worded, vaguely helpful response that sounds like it was churned out by an AI in 3 seconds (because it was).
We’ve moved from peer-to-peer dialogue to AI-to-human outsourcing. The value of real discussion—actual insight, nuance, pushback—is fading fast. It's not a community anymore. It's a prompt and a bot parade.
managers at Cisco are useless
@a3 nice AI response!
Management is not just about oversight; it's about translating business goals into action, navigating ambiguity, and aligning diverse teams to work effectively toward strategic outcomes. These are not tasks that AI, no matter how advanced, can fully replicate. AI handles tasks. Seasoned managers handle judgment.
Younger professionals entering the workforce bring fresh energy and technical agility, which is invaluable. But deep business insight; the kind needed to recognize market signals, prevent costly missteps, and guide teams through complexity, comes from pattern recognition, which only years of lived experience can provide. It's no coincidence that the people steering companies through volatile markets are rarely in their 20s.
In truth, poor managers should be replaced; AI or not. But great managers aren’t just "necessary"; they’re the scaffolding that holds resilient organizations together. Management isn't dead. It's evolving. And those with experience, vision, and adaptability will always have a place, especially in guiding those just starting out.
Yay! Free me from this purgatory where I'm trapped between poor communication of vision / strategy, and the relentless need to deliver against the reality of understaffed and overworked teams.
Finally Cisco is doing the right thing!