I am part of the Splunk organization and our team has been handed over to the most toxic manager I have had in my entire working career. We couldn't tell if they were exceptionally stupid or if this was a strategy to get our entire team to quit without severance. On the .Conf floor, I learned there are other teams facing the same situation with their management. We've already had two folks quit that I have worked with for 10+ years. Did John Morgan instruct his management teams to find ways to get us all to quit so they don't have to pay out, or is the company culture to just hire trash directors now? Wondering how many other people are facing this.
20 replies (most recent on top)
I'm a WebEx OG. Yes what you are experiencing is the Cisco strategy. They leave you alone for a year or two. Then they talk about "harmonizing" you into Cisco. Then they bring in d-mb a$$ Cisco management (cycle through a few). Then they bring in toxic management. Then who ever is left, they lay you off.
Welcome to Cisco, Splunk!
toxic company
did you see jeera/onion smelling people with mgmt positions ? time to run... most bay area is like that...
Cisco is the most toxic company I ever worked at.
What were the other companies? That would help ...
Cisco is the most toxic company I ever worked at. I retired early to get the he-l out. Management are clueless sycophants.
This is the current GES strategy.
SBG has the most toxic managers and directors.
to avoid having to give another WARN notice?
What is bad about WARN notices? That signals the stock market change, progress, efficiency, chopping inefficiency.
Have you tried name dropping that you know Dave Z? Literally every Splunk person I have come I contact with somehow has to lead with some explanation of how they know Dave, like their proximity to him is their only worthwhile attribute. Literally the weakest group of “leaders” I’ve ever been exposed to. The amount of a-s kissing witnessed at GSX and .Conf was off the charts.
I have noticed an uptick of this too.
As a new SDE in JM’s dept, the culture feels toxic. Deadlines are brutal, cross-team collab is a total mess. Zero time for proper QA , just a mad rush to push code out of door to meet dates. And it’s up in the air what the rewards or promos even look like for all this stress.
@d0 dont forget it doesn't matter what skill you learn... in the next 6 months you'll be placed into another different role that you don't have the skill(s) to propely accel at. They are using us all to train their super secret AI LLMs.. Meanwhile continuing to prodvide our customers with an abosolut sh-t support system.
Cycle of incompetence keeps evolving. Change, failure. LR. Another change, failure. LR.
More changes, failure 😞.
They grab you by the ears and ram AI down your throat along with dozens of re--rded trainings. Act like youre supposed to be improving your skills on a daily basis for the company while no matter what tech skill you gain your salary stays the same. Expect you to join all their Beat and all hands calls and listen to their deluded out of touch drivel.
After each LR they try to soothe everyone about how great things are.
I’m at Duo, and am kind of expecting the axe to fall any day now.
Can this whole product be axed as well. Please.
I am part of the Splunk organization and our team has been handed over to the most toxic manager I have had in my entire working career. We couldn't tell if they were exceptionally stupid or if this was a strategy to get our entire team to quit without severance.
My experience with management up to the Senior VP level in San Jose and Bangalore is that they didn't have a working brain cell among them to form a "strategy." They'd constantly demand people do things that were guaranteed to fail then threaten to fire everyone on every team in a product line every time those things inevitably failed. Engineers at those sites learned how to lie their butts off to create the illusion of something useful happening. Teams at other sites weren't run like this but they were also the ones that were eventually shut down across multiple layoffs. Almost two decades ago Johnny told everyone "not to fall into the trap of helping other people" so there was a strong negative incentive for teams trying to work together, which is odd considering how many job descriptions explicitly require people to work with whole teams to improve overall performance.
they are always toxic, you will only get to see that once you are on their chopping block. Otherwise they are the sweetest people you ever worked with (otherwise known as dirty politics they play), good luck !!
I’m at Duo, and am kind of expecting the axe to fall any day now.
I have the same feeling in Webex team as well since the management attitude and team dynamics has completely changed in last 3months.
The single most powerful thing you can do is qq. Do the bare minimum and wait it out.
Cisco doesn't file WARN notices until the day of LR. That's why they keep you on full payroll for 60 days.. it's to avoid not paying penalties over the WARN act. It's a loophole. But I do suspect they are hoping a measurable % will self LR.
What they just fu--ing did tho.. it was done to the entire company. OT and his band of merry id--ts let S&P (number/brean counters) put names on a list, stuff the list into AI bot and ask it wtf do we do? There was zero thought about team placement, skills matching or anything that might make you feel like "this is gonna be ok" .. They fu---d everyone, your new (sh---y) leadership as well. It's the d-mbest fu--ing move this ELT has done to date. And it's going to sting. Nobody considered the outcome..
There is a real problem when the GTM President and the CPO won't speak a word to each other. Serious fighting going on at the top.