Since we already had one recently the chances look slim. But then it depends on Q4 outlook as well.
What are you hearing within your teams?
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To the OP I'd say that you should assume some number of lay-offs, LR, Restructuring will occur every quarter from now on, the real question should be how big. Cutting OpEx in one area and investing in another area is now the norm for Cisco and they have chosen to cut OpEx through lay-offs.
Commenting on @Odv7eSj-1epj's Saab/Tesla analogy I think it's actually an excellent one, but for very different reasons than the original intent. I'll rewrite a bit:
Imagine you own an 18 year old Saab. You make the decision that even though that Saab provides reasonable transportation, you want a Tesla Model S with all the goodies.
So you decide to get rid of your Saab you know you could spend some money and upgrade to get most of the bells and whistles you want retrofitted (new stereo system, upgrade the engine etc.) but you really want the cool new Tesla. Having made the decision to get rid of the Saab you you pay someone to take it off your hands. After all you already made the decision to get rid of it, might as well get rid of it now.
Now that you are rid of your old Saab you now go to buy your new Tesla. Holy crap, you din't realize that there is a 6 month wait on those. Oh well, public transportation (outsourcing) or Uber (contractor) it is for the forseeable future. Damn you are starting to miss your old Saab.
Your new Tesla finally arrives. Wow it's sweet!, and you only had to make a few modifications to be able to charge it up each day.
You are so excited. Your first day driving it to work!. Unfortunately it breaks down on the way there (maybe you should have checked the reliability rating on it before you bought it). Fortunately they have this great service option and they come to you and you are only 3 hours late for work. Of course it's going to take a month to get it fixed. Back to Uber/public transportation.
You get your new Tesla back and except for the occasional glitches when it gets it's automatic upgrdes, It works pretty well, but damn you can't go on that vacation to that cabin in the mountains you always liked to go to because you can't recharge the thing. Oh well small price to pay for all of those cool new features. And you can't carry as much in it as your old Saab wagon, but oh well that's the price you pay to be on the cutting edge.
You've had your shiny new Tesla for a year, and then the new model comes out. Wow it has even more bells and whistles and unfortunately your model is not software upgradeable. So you have to make the decision to either do without the new bells and whistles or to dump the Tesla you just bought. In the meantime with all of the breakdowns, service upgrades glitches you have been late to work on average 40% of the time. Sometimes you really miss your old reliable Saab....
North Koreans are frugal and will likely work at 1/10th the pay. There another reason to hire them
The Saab/Tesla analogy is pretty weak. The key problem is that Cisco is LRing people who know current and future technologies (in your example, Saab and Tesla), but these unfortunate folks are getting paid past their "median" pay grade (due to well deserved raises, but constant reorgs makes promotions tricky). It's a really messed up system in place right now......leaving massive deadweight at all levels of the company.
How would the North Korean manager handle the Internet? Ban employees from surfing the web? At least the North Korean leaders ban all outsiders. Cisco bans all outsiders except for failed Symantec & HP employees and the occasional college hire. Might be time for Chuck to visit Pyongyang for some strategy tips.
"Cisco is the supreme leader in IT"
"Cisco is the supreme leader in IT"
"Cisco is the supreme leader in IT"
"Cisco is the supreme leader in IT"
"Cisco is the supreme leader in IT"
"Cisco is the supreme leader in IT"
Yeah, I agree, it is pretty hard to adjust to life once you leave North Korea in a body bag.
A manager from North Korea, will be highly sought after in the US, because he would know how to get work done by his team, by any available means.
Does a North Korean government official have transferrable skills? Lets say the North Korean regime is toppled. What transferrable skills does a North Korean government employee have?
Those who leave North Korea find it extremely hard to adjust.
So shouldn't the companies making stuff that will put others out of business, offer a way for the guys getting fired to transition skills. Surely the fundamental knowledge and troubleshooting chops of the Saab mechanic, can be useful to Tesla ?
Imagine you own an 18 year old Saab. You make the decision that even though that Saab provides reasonable transportation, you want a Tesla Model S with all the goodies.
Not only does your friendly mechanic only deal in old Swedish imports, doesn't have the knowledge to work on Teslas, but Tesla has a service offering that comes to you to fix crap.
End result... there's no need to keep paying for your old mechanic's boat... so you in turn "fire" them.
Explain like I'm five.
Both MSFT & CSCO are profit making companies, why are they cutting staff ?
How would one perform if the morale is always low?
Where is Cisco heading? Never sure what lies ahead - no transparency in the annual evaluations
Just wondering if the morale is better outside Cisco? Microsoft announced layoffs last week (around 4000 impacted) So maybe its the same across the board?
Where does Cisco find all these Yes-Men? It's almost as if Cisco is only poaching employees from Sears.
Morale is already terrible. The only place morale is high is in the all hands where they stuff the studio full of Yes-Men and Yes-Women to make the execs looks good. Meanwhile the rest of us are all working on our linkedin profiles.
I'd be surprised if it was as big as last year as the negative effect on moral and productivity was huge. But let's face it, layoffs will be a continual occurrence until we get back to growth, which may never happen.
Relentless public layoffs destroy the brand...
Too late. A simple Internet search for "Cisco lay-offs" finds many results going back to 2008 with a few for early 2000's.
I predict a stealth layoff similar to 2015. Quietly eliminate a few people in San Jose, with a rather significant layoff in 2018. Cisco relies on having a valuable brand to justify the cost of our Switches & Routers.
Relentless public layoffs destroy the brand...