Google trends is a great service often overlooked. Its interesting to see how Cisco's future has been changing all these years - try adding or removing other search terms such as Huawei, Apple, Salesforce, UCS, webex etc... — read more 

Bought three companies and still have yet to get a revenue stream of any size. All the execs are still around (given more funding or moved back to IT). They're still entrenched at Telstra and haven't figured out how to back out of it. Old Chuck made... — read more 

Anybody knows if Viptela acquisition will result in layoffs of any of the Cisco staff? Usually there is at least some pruning during consolidation. The entire Viptela team will join Cisco's Enterprise Routing team, so I wonder if that will have any... — read more 

Although Cisco is struggling to sustain it's high margin hardware business model, it's neighbor down the street seems to be crushing it despite Cisco's legal shenanigans. It's good for customers to have competitive options... — read more 

Heard that final decisions are taking regarding UCS. Not sure why Cisco wants to close down on its hardware business and move only to software model. Sept-Oct will be a turmoil period ! Very late to market in cloud strategy.

A past manager's experience: the process is incompetent by design (and if you think about it, perhaps by necessity.) The decisions are made at VP or Director level, depending who holds the budget, and there is a requirement for minimum information... — read more 

Cisco India President Dinesh Malkani quits Dinesh was instrumental in securing some of the big digitisation deals in India, what could have influenced him to quit..?? any inside birdie stories...? He had good relationship and rapport with the... — read more 

As an engineer, I think one of the problems with UCS is engineering. The software release was NEVER on time. Always lots of issues in the last minute. It gets delayed for a couple of months every single time. No accountability. Nobody gets blamed or... — read more 

Last year they were announced on 15th August. Any view on if it'll be another big one this year?

What are the chances of surviving a pip here at Cisco?

Today, Cisco is a cube farm of PowerPoint soldiers run by managers who measure their success by how much money they waste. On top of that equation for disaster, over the last decade, the company allowed a plethora of strangulating processes to govern... — read more 

It's 8am on Friday and i've been contacted by 10 people that are in the Cloud (the old intercloud group) and UCS BUs. Bloodbath today... I would bet the VPs that run those teams are going to get fat bonuses come September. Not sure how they are... — read more 

I have seen several people post that a few were laid off today. This seems to be a pattern lately. Let go of a few people here, a few more there, than wait a few days...rinse and repeat. Should we all be worried that this is their way of avoiding... — read more 

Sad news. Regrettably, mismanagement is the norm rather than the exception in modern business. (GM, Ford, Chrysler, Bear Sterns, Bethlehem Steel, and a whole boat load of other industry giants mismanaged themselves to the very brink of bankruptcy or... — read more 

The only reason I have stuck around the last year was because I want the package. I have been here 8 years which is 2 years longer then I have ever been somewhere before. 20 years in this industry, took this job as a red badge and was converted 6... — read more 

I can confirm a small bunch of long term high performers from technical services san jose were laid off today. A relative called upset because his boss and many teammates were let go. He was moved to a new supervisor. He was shocked and said it was... — read more 

Past/Current management chime in! Do you get to see the list before hand? if so how long before, I want to correlate my current neglect by management with what they already know.

I want to get laid off because I have an offer from mid August. I have not been working much and have been put on a PIP. Does this increase my chances of getting laid off? My cut off for resigning is 21 August. Is there anything else short of... — read more 

On top of the simply "through the looking glass" split in SP initiated by Y, the hits keep on coming. Another SP announcement of yet another layer added to exec ranks - that makes 2 in about 6 months. It seems that while we lay off PM's and TME's we... — read more 

I was a top performer in my team – not by my own account but repeated by my management team during my years prior. About a year ago I developed health conditions that I needed to address and asked to be able to work remote 3 days a week. I was denied... — read more 

After all these years I dislike Cisco so much that I really hope there will be yet another massive layoff. That would help me to continue disliking Cisco. I understand that affected people will think I'm a jerk. That's what Cisco made me ... :-/

Wondering how the last Beat went before quarter-end announcement. I'm already out but I'm curious about this dog-n-pony show. Always found The Beat to be a somewhat depressing rah-rah session. Any LR discussion?

The yearly circus has begun and the first set of people have been notified. Long live Chuck...

Can we pinpoint a precise date for this year's August/September layoff based on dates from the past?

(1) you are 10 years at Cisco and still not a tech lead. From a business point of view, it might make sense to replace you with a younger engineer and give him a chance to succeed. (2) you are 10 years at Cisco, a tech lead but you don't "lead". From... — read more 

With one week to go, it looks like we're set for quite a setback this year. Everyone is blaming Brexit, but I don't believe we've ever seen the start of the UK decline from that. If I look back on this year, I think the majority of the blame has to... — read more 

Cisco had offered two early retirement plan before, any chance to do this again?

I've never understood the statement that temps are less expensive and more cost-effective. Yes, you don't have to give them PTO or benefits. Yes, you don't have to pay unemployment taxes or social security for them. But someone DOES. And ALL... — read more 

http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/07/20/san-jose-businesswoman-pleads-guilty-to-h1-b-visa-fraud/ I'll bet she is working with someone inside Cisco.

Cisco will be slowly moving away from hiring permanent employees to hire resources based on demand and employ them for few months. Its more easy and cost-effective. They dont have bare social security, health cost, Bonuses, or career aspirations of... — read more 

I hope everyone has their backup plan ready. Don't believe the rhetoric that this year is different. The business declining in revenue and Chuck needs to give the markets something so they know their dividend yield isn't going to fail, as that is all... — read more 

The problems come in when the engineers must transform into storytellers for survival purposes. Any engineer with relevant skills will depart for other companies, while the rest improve their storytelling/PowerPoint skills to survive. Product groups... — read more 

NDS - more news just in time for IBC. Watch here folks..... NDS still exists........ Well you will have to wait to here about this shady business.

It's been more than a month when the announcement to close spvss french office. And the guys are still there, doing nothing and still get paid! I want to work there ... Please french HR hire me!

Yes managers in many groups have been asked to cut down on the (perceived) bottom 5%. It's easier to package it as a layoff than to manage people out. And yes it will once again target long time employees in Grade 11 to 13. For one reason or the... — read more 

I will say that companies need to have good salesmen (an women) or they don't make money to pay the engineers. The problems come in when the bean counters start making decisions based on cost. Cheaper costs do not always result in higher profits. It... — read more 

The bigger concern for me is lack of promotion opportunity. Not getting annual pay rises is fine if there is the possibility to getting promoted. In my particular role if I want promotion I would need to leave or relocate. That's my choice so I can't... — read more 

"If your employees don’t trust leaders, they won’t feel safe—and when they don’t feel safe, they spend all their creative energy covering their butts."

This weekend, all directors and their VPs worked to finalize the chop list. It will be submitted this morning SJ time to higher ups in HR and Legal for final scrubbing.