I am a grunt in the trenches and have been for 16 years with Cisco. Look at the stock price over the last 16 years, no freebies to retirement during my time.
Not sure why anyone believes Cisco owes you anything when they've sent you a paycheck every two weeks that more then feeds your family and pays the bills. If you invested just a small amount in a 401k over 10-20 year span an employee should have a nice retirement package, take responsibility for yourself as the company gave you options.
I've had 16+ years of loving my job, working my tail off and loving the compensation along the way. If it all ended today I wouldn't have changed a thing.
If you've kept your skills up to date there will be 100's of jobs available inside and outside of Cisco.