Here are the mass layoff figures:
2016 - 5,500
2014 - 6,000
2013 - 4,000
2012 - 1,300
2011 - 6,500
2009 - 1,500
Total ~21,000 LR'd employees
Average # of employees - 72,000
Total churn ~30%. Higher if you include smaller layoffs throughout the years and contractors.
In other words Cisco has a deeper problem... even after "churning" a third of it's employees and hiring in "new growth" areas it still continues to struggle to find its new top selling product.
What comes next?
High heels, bad breath, bad purfune and all. Ready to rock stolen power points with banal ideas.
Got high heels, in the uk,can talk sh--e, u r safe.
With Cisco, you have to look at it as "they've RETAINED 70% of their headcount!".
@2xix Correct. It's not what you know, but who you know and if you know more buzzwords than your superior then you are you invaluable in protecting the career of your superior. A--)he will always take your work (read: buzzwords on ppt), and show them up above. It's not about how many patents you have, or how many millions of $$$ you've brought in. It's all about making your boss look good to his or her boss.
Working at Cisco is more about political savviness and seniority than real skills.
If you can be politically savvy you are in a better position of protecting your job at the expense of others.
There's never been a better time. The Cisco way.
Redundancy is the UK euphemism.
@1gdx - except that, in many cases, your job/role is not being made redundant. They just want to replace you with someone at lower cost. DTG had the embarrassment of LRing an SEM "because his face didn't fit" with the explicit intention of recruiting a replacement. Everyone knew it. In no way was his role redundant. Turns out he had a lucky escape.
@esl - CCBU needs a further trimming if you ask me and I work in that BU. So many layers of politics and brown nosers it needs a big clear out. Start in Ireland and the UK.
I've heard "Rationalize" is the new buzzword for the kids...
Regarding terminology: I learned today that approved corporate-speak has switched from "limited restructuring (LR)" to "reduction in force (RIF)". You know, like in the military. We've obviously won the war, so let's put up a Mission Accomplished banner, reduce the number of troops, and call it a victory (for shareholders?).
It's called nepotism, not redundancy. I've watched a great deal of incompetent people be rewarded with no-show jobs. VPs, Directors, Managers often create headcount for political reasons or to justify their own jobs.
The correct term is REDUNDANCY - your job was made redundant. Don't dress up a pig in a silk dress. It is called redundancy. All the management BS and fancy names does not hide the fact.
In 2001 they went from 48,000 employees and contractors to 35,000, and there have been many minor layoffs since then unaccounted for here.
24,800 layoffs + "thousands of people abused to resign"
I thought Cisco was supposed to be a great place to work, turns out the company is filled with sleazy politicians & salesmen.
Can you say laying off a third of the company is a "limited" restructure? Lol
Stay with"LR" team please folks....it makes me feel better....lol. Almost makes it feel like a POSITIVE thing...
@1yar - good point, well made.
Over the period that I've been here the average headcount has stayed around the 70,000 mark despite acquisitions and layoffs, which would suggest that they've more or less netted out.
What would actually be more interesting would be to see how the demographic and geographic profile of employees has changed over time.
My guess would be that, despite attempts to change it, the average age is still high 30s/low 40s. Youth has no loyalty (which probably reflects the fact that companies have no loyalty either. As someone wrote elsewhere we no longer have careers, we have jobs. The rot started when we renamed personnel as Human Resources.) We all know that the 2016 LR was for demographic reasons.
It's so refreshing to see people use the word "layoffs" to describe staff reductions at Cisco.
Even if the executive team continues to use John Chambers's "LR" euphemism so they can avoid saying the word "layoffs", there's absolutely no reason employees have to follow suit. Call it like you see it, folks.
er - how many NEW employees were added, over the same time period, because of acquisitions ?
need the complete picture, mate !
Wow, I am with a competitor, just lurking here, these numbers are staggering
I know of a number of older managers and engineers that were IR'd (improvement required) out. CCBU has taken out at least 20 using this. Do they count?
Balancing quarterly numbers & fulfilling market expectation without any actual sales/revenue generation = Layoff. It is a new normal for Cisco going forward.
24,800 actually