I no longer visit this site (never used to do that much anyway). This is my first post here and possibly the last one as I am fairly sure this will get voted down. Not sure how things work here.
I have seen several, recurring posts against Cisco UK targeting certain individuals. I am ex-Cisco UK, worked there till about a year ago. I am not a long time career Cisco person, worked there for a few years only. Thought I'd get my input in while I have some "sick" time at present. I do not know what the situation there is right now. But I can tell you a few things from experience and from my interactions with certain individuals who catered to these mindsets:
- If we sign a professional contract with a company then we are obliged to follow the company directions, rules of engagement defined by our management and lastly, and very importantly: the code of professionalism. Loyalty, be that within the constraints of our contracts, is of primary importance in a professional environment. And that extends beyond the remit of any role - company brand name protection is something that is a responsibility of every employee. So, if you don't like your management, SED, SEM etc. and think you are any good, then just move - either internally or externally. Why moan, and complain and abuse people on anonymous forum? That's just unproductive and a negative response to a situation allegedly negative by your own account. Two negatives give a positive only in maths. In reality, that just adds to the pain.
- I never encountered any personnel in my direct management at Cisco UK who I would complain about in an anonymous forum. In my experience, all my managers ranged between very good and inexperienced (not necessarily bad). The couple of SEDs I worked under, including the current one, were great, supportive and totally on the ball.
- Cisco UK went through several unprecedented business challenges while I was there, the biggest one stemming from the fallout of Brexit. The Public Sector investment suffered immensely from continual political and economic challenges as the uncertainties dragged on through years. That impacted general business, in PubSec, commercial and enterprise. Given that, we did make amazing numbers out of that zone and I hit the Champions.
- A lot has been posted about the SED. Let me tell people that I have never before worked with anyone in management who took the trouble to reaching out to people couple of rungs below him and encourage them to chase their passion, pay for third party certificates or encouraged them to get engaged in non-revenue generating research projects inside of the company. In my opinion, the SED UK&I was given a poisoned chalice when he came over and he managed admirably given the pandemic and post-pandemic situation.
Yes, there are stuff that could be improved but most of those are not a Cisco UK specific problem, those are industry wide problems as can be seen today by even the blind.
Why did I leave Cisco UK? Well, I was bored for the last 7-8 months of my tenure, had gone through some horrid personal experiences related to my family in the previous year or so (during which time my management and Cisco supported me amazingly) that had me down perpetually for the time being, had a few uninvited conversations with my new manager which threw some doubts and uncertainties in my mind about my future there and as hard as I tried, I could not find an internal role to move to at that point in time. Yes, there were some very important people (at the level of GMs and SVPs) inside of Cisco who reached out to me and asked me to stay and I am so flattered and grateful for that!
In summary, I'd say that Cisco, to my experience, is the best employer I have ever worked for and yes, I'd work for them again.
For anyone who is whining and complaining here about Cisco UK org: try and be a professional yourself first, adhere to work place sanctity, have some respect for discipline at work and fellow professionals. If you are in the right, you can always pull in HR (ineffective as that will be) if you really notice something amiss or poor at work concerning management. If you wish to be a rebel, by all means, be one, but the corporate world is likely not for you.
Peace.