Thread regarding Cisco Systems Inc. layoffs

Cloud Layoffs today

150+ people laid off today. Average age being 39 and the median is 41. I believe this is the same group that was LR'd over the summer. Wonder if anybody is still there or if Cisco is conceding the cloud.

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| 5074 views | | 26 replies (last February 5, 2017) | Reply
Post ID: @OP+Lw1TPIE

26 replies (most recent on top)

Heard Cisco is going to make yet another attempt at the private cloud. Not sure how, they've had layoffs in the cloud group for the past two quarters. Amazingly the only people that haven't changed are the executives. It's all in-fighting of which manager is staying and what they'll do. The sad thing is that none of the VPs in that org know anything about building or operating a Cloud. Maybe they can acquire a company, like Mirantis, that already has one. Rackspace sold their cloud business off, HP exited the cloud market, but somehow Cisco thinks they can make a run at the private cloud business.

Not sure what they're smoking if they think they can capture market from AWS+VmWare or AzureStack.

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Post ID: @bmmg+Lw1TPIE

7bof, unfortunately, you are not wrong.

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Post ID: @9rap+Lw1TPIE

No j/k, 2eys! duh, Cisco is a business. It's a business that looks at the short term and ditches a lot of those who have the knowledge and are up to date in favor of cheap noobs! Better sell your stock now.

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Post ID: @7bof+Lw1TPIE

Unfortunately at the end of the day the Cisco Cloud product wasn't designed very well that's why it failed, and that's why they shut it down. Regarding Cisco and the Cloud - Cisco as a company isn't built to be nimble and that along with the company being lead by finance is what is killing it. Cisco as a company really isn't going to be effective in many cutting edge software initiatives because its heavy process weight, crazy expensive hardware and horribly outdated internal tooling infrastructure will slow innovation down considerably.

Cisco did great work in the 90's and early 2000's but the company is dying. It got slow, arrogant and greedy with its money in the bank. It's just not a high tech company and the majority of the people there are more process and finance driven. Cisco will try to make money and stay afloat in the security business (where it still does retain some technical edge) and IoT where it can lean on the legacy networking business.

Past that Cisco, like HP, Dell, Oracle needs to truly transform and train its employees in software development or it needs to just die a slow death like it has been for the past 5+ years.

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Post ID: @3ovc+Lw1TPIE

@2eys - You need to to pull your head out of the sand or, better yet, out of the dark and smelly orfice you have it shoved up.

"Disappointed" grow up! Cisco is a business not a charity to keep has-been's in employment.

You are right about one thing, Cisco is a business and not a charity. Where you're wrong is that assuming that older workers are has-been's. I'm sure it's true for some older workers, but I guarantee you there are just as many incompetent or lazy millennials as there are has-been older workers. Cisco needs to target the ineffective workers and not just the old or "expensive" ones.

Bitter employees? Nope. We're DISAPPOINTED in the ELT and Chuckie Cheese selling us out and replacing us with millennials. We're DISAPPOINTED they are greedy at our SME expense. ... We will survive. But will Cisco?

Under Chambers, LRs were more targeted at the bottom performers, but Chambers let Fran & HR do away with performance reviews and rankings and selected Chuckie Cheese and ELT that Chuck started with which is how we got to where we are today.

Cisco has a TON of legacy processes built upon tools built in-house. Most, if not all, of the older SME's on these tools are now gone. When Cisco starts refreshing hardware with newer replacement hosts or newer OS's, there will be legacy stuff that "just worked" for so long it was forgotten about that will break when the new OS/hardware is deployed. Who's going to fix it? With all the migrations of documentation systems, does any of the new, younger staff even know where to find the old documentation to assist in figuring out how to fix it? The internal CEC search engine was providing results that were dead-ends to old documentation systems before I was laid-off. If It wasn't for me bookmarking information as it moved, I'd never have been able to find it. Now those bookmarks are gone when the asset team wiped my laptop. I can't wait for the head shaking, temple scratching and finally hair pulling to commence.

SME's aren't expensive for nothing. The experience they build up over the years goes a LONG way. Human nature says there's a lot of stuff that's NEVER documented because the (should be) author thinks it's just obvious and doesn't need to be written down. But then they're gone, and the new guy has to get up to speed, it may not be obvious. And they may not have enough experience to know how to figure it out as quickly as the SME could have.

How many clock hours that equal 10's, 20's, or even 50+ man-hours have to be lost before the salary savings of replacing that SME with a cheaper, less qualified person makes it more cost effective to have just kept the SME in the first place?

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Post ID: @3jfj+Lw1TPIE

This is a fake news. There are no layoff cloud service.

Nice try with HR white wash. CA WARN notices don't lie.

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Post ID: @3kjd+Lw1TPIE

This is a fake news. There are no layoff cloud service.

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Post ID: @2grv+Lw1TPIE

CIS/VMS team is out. And to the poster that said no layoffs since August...hahaha, what a joke. There was another layoff in November...some friends of mine were impacted. And to the last poster that mentioned these LR workers as "has beens".....I'm afraid not. Cisco targeted senior level older (40+) workers, but the majority were high strategic performers with high level knowledge of present and future solutions. Top 10% employees. Problem is, they were high paid also (and deserved it).....but that's what targeted them. Cisco has been using the financial books to make decisions, even when they have plenty of cash. It's going to bite them soon.

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Post ID: @2eek+Lw1TPIE

"Disappointed" grow up! Cisco is a business not a charity to keep has-been's in employment.

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Post ID: @2eys+Lw1TPIE

Bitter employees? Nope. We're DISAPPOINTED in the ELT and Chuckie Cheese selling us out and replacing us with millennials. We're DISAPPOINTED they are greedy at our SME expense. We're DISAPPOINTED at their lack of leadership. We will survive. But will Cisco? Our industry? What about our nation?

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Post ID: @2osr+Lw1TPIE

look guys I was in cloud for a while...nobody has any clue how to make money using the zoo of small POC/protos/open src stuff we do . a small set of directors/PE/DE benefitted from the hype and got swift 2 level promotions from this failed niche..they are still making noise though its a bit forlorn these days like a band playing the next morning in a marriage hall after all have left :(

csco's only defensible rampart is routing, switching, ucs ,,,,, despite underinvestment, churning, QA issues these are fixable and we do have products that sell without too much of competition.

my gut feel is over the next decade the ship is going to shrink to half its size back its core portfolio of R&S like time travel back to mid 90s.

if you are not in a b.u. that is cash flow +ve (not matter if its a small Doewould suggest keep an eye on the sky for the dark shadows of the Predator and Reaper drones.....

all of the fresh new acquisitions to get a foot into iot/mobile/xyz are going to need cuts to keep per employee revenue stable....

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Post ID: @2rkq+Lw1TPIE

My group in Bangalore just got LRd.

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Post ID: @1pok+Lw1TPIE

There are layoffs ongoing in Bangalore. I know two BU managers laid off this week. its Brutal here.

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Post ID: @1bzs+Lw1TPIE

Why are Cisco HR suddenly trying to deny all the layoffs they are making? Even downright lying? Do they think people are stupid? Maybe if they stopped laying people off !!

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Post ID: @1sby+Lw1TPIE

1nig (I mean cisco HR), you are correct no LO since august...

11/01/2016 11/02/2016 11/04/2016 Cisco Systems, Inc. San Jose 42

01/13/2017 01/17/2017 01/17/2017 Cisco Systems, Inc. San Jose 25

http://www.edd.ca.gov/jobs_and_training/warn/WARN-Report-for-7-1-2016-to-01-25-2017.pdf

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Post ID: @1qbn+Lw1TPIE

This is complete rubbish. Pure scaremongering. There have been no layoffs since August. Don't believe anything on here. Just a load of bitter previous employees

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Post ID: @1nig+Lw1TPIE

Seems to be a new phenomenon in these posts with the last while where any news of layoffs are immediately called out as troll posts or fake news. This is regardless of whether there are WARN reports from the state of California backing up the reports or not. Have Cisco HR stopped so low as to deny, deny, deny any and all reports of layoffs on here now?

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Post ID: @1vod+Lw1TPIE

It's most likely HR trying to cast doubt whether these, and posts like them, are actually true or not. Unfortunately they are true and HR trying to cover it up is pretty pathetic. Best of luck to the former CIS team looking for replacement work.

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Post ID: @1kst+Lw1TPIE

TROLL

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Post ID: @1xzz+Lw1TPIE

This is NOT fake news - why would any one suggest that???? It is true - and to answer the initial question - yes there are two people left in Cloud - Kip and Ulf :)

Cheers!

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Post ID: @1zet+Lw1TPIE

One of the groups we work closely with is effected.. everyone in the group is gone.. they're part of the CIS group.

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Post ID: @1uis+Lw1TPIE

Fake news!

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Post ID: @1fiz+Lw1TPIE

Not true

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Post ID: @1eoi+Lw1TPIE

What's CIS team? Is that in Cloud division?

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Post ID: @1ggq+Lw1TPIE

Heard the same thing. The CIS team is gone.

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Post ID: @1sbp+Lw1TPIE

Are you alluding to NFVi, ex VMS team in SP?

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Post ID: @1kok+Lw1TPIE

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