Despicable
Seems fine, employees were well compensated and supported. Its a big company 4000 isnt a huge amount. Interesting to see a bigger pivot to silicon and optics.
How does boot taste?
Do you honestly care about the month to month hirings and firings of Cisco? These companies are giants and restructure regularly. If Cisco comp their workers properly which they did then IDGAF.
If you can’t see how layoffs are used to suppress worker rights and keep pay as low as possible then I’m sorry but you are a total fool.
This is economics mixed with some rage bait. None of this is a workers rights issue. This is just standard business in America they enjoy the benefits and consequences that come along. These are very highly mobile workers who were well paid and well compensated. These workers got better exit packages than every country with “strong workers rights”. There is absolutely zero reason to pretend to care about this. Should cisco should just constantly expand its workforce infinitely, should they have published a detailed reason for letting every person go.
You’d expect this to be like oh 4000 people were laid off because cisco predicts a downturn in the economy but they’re just restructuring and no longer require those people. They will hire more back for the new path.
Revenue is not profit. I’m not defending them, but relating revenue to layoffs is apples and oranges.
Almost 27 billion is net profit
Meta is doing the exact same thing:
Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant will reportedly hand out roughly 8,000 pink slips on Wednesday, May 20, eliminating about 10% of its global workforce. Notably, though, these cuts will arrive on the heels of one of the most lucrative quarters in the company’s history: $56.31 billion in revenue and $26.8 billion in net income for the first three months of 2026…
https://moneywise.com/news/top-stories/meta-layoffs-8000-workers-zuckerberg-ai-spending
Slashing 10% of your workforce annually is something Jack Welch thought of when he was CEO of General Electric; essentially it shifts that 10% of staff overhead cost straight to profits per year.
The justification they give for the figure is that it’s the lowest performing 10% according to internal key performance indicator (KPI) metrics. What this effectively does is two fold:
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Anyone who’s focusing on delivering stuff the company needs long term isn’t always or sometimes never will produce nice neat KPIs that can be measured along with the rest of the company. This means these people are under constant pressure and can often get swept up in the firings.
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It makes KPIs, a measuring tool, the target which as any statistician will tell you that when you make the measurement a target it ceases to be a good measuring tool. Because everyone is automatically incentivised to deliver KPIs NOT the actual company deliverables that generate the added value and therefore the profit.
This means after 5 to 10 years of this cycle all that’s left of the company’s institutional knowledge is how to deliver for KPIs and the sycophants who best adapt to this reality. You get a hollowing out of the company.
If this AI fuelled trend keeps up then companies like Cisco and Meta will eventually implode at some point.
It also fosters a culture of non-cooperation with colleagues (because they are now your competition), where workers and teams try to sabotage each other, or at least not help, and throw each other under the bus. So there’s mutual mistrust too. And no one wants to take a risk and innovate, leading to further stagnation.
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dont work hard for companys, better they do more likely you will get laid off with everyone else. Might happen anyway, but if they dont do well they might think they actually need people to do work.
Who are you kidding?
Record profits > “We need to lay off workers to keep these numbers going up.”
Not record profits > “We need to lay off workers to make these numbers go up.”CEO: I need the highest possible performance otherwise the board will fire me.
Board: We need the highest return otherwise we’re not willing to support the CEO.
Fund managers: We need to only invest in the most profitable ventures, otherwise people will move their money out of the fund I’m managing.
Pension companies: We need to only put our money in the most high performing funds.
You: I need the best return on my pension so I can retire as soon as possible.
If you’ve ever moved saved money to an account offering higher interest or performance, you’re part of this. I’m not saying that to blame, but people often don’t connect their own behaviour with the behaviour of the market.
Well if you don’t have to pay people then yah, revenue will go up for now.
Collect your bonus, get your stock, bail and move to the next job. Sell the stock before the damage you caused rears its head.
Finance should be banned
Just ban or heavily tax stocks.
Oh, billionaire just used stocks as collateral for his loan? 30% tax
Selling or buying stock? 20% tax
Bring back pensions first then
Pensions? For billionaires?
401Ks have replaced pensions for most Americans.
No idea what that is. Sounds like it belongs with WH40K
So they used to have pensions for most private workers, then they went to 401Ks which are self managed market based retirement funds.
- The company has a management agreement with a brokerage (i.e. Fidelity) to manage the accounts and they pick which funds you can invest in.
- You allocate how much you contribute, up to the IRS max.
- Many companies give matching funds which means you get a 100% return on that amount right out of the gate.
- In good years you can do very well, far beyond what pensions would’ve given.
- The money is pre tax so you lower your income for tax purposes during your peak earning years.
- You can still save and invest anyway you want in addition to this (i.e. IRA). You can still collect social security.
Downside…
- You are limited in investments
- You are not guaranteed returns since you are at the mercy of the bond and equities (stock) market. You can lose money in bad years.
- You must pay income tax on it when you start taking distributions from it in retirement. The minimum mandatory distribution amount could push you into a higher tax bracket.
The big push away from pensions to 401Ks and IRAs means the market has become the main retirement savings for most Americans. Wall St and financial institutions love them because it pumped trillions of $ into the market and profits in fees into the financial firms. Companies no longer had to manage pensions and guarantee returns. Most gov jobs still have pensions.
Part of me is glad I’m getting the hell out of this system in the near future. My heart goes out to younger people being royally screwed by it and I don’t see any way out of it within that system.
I’m with you. After this position ends I’m changing careers. Tech has gone to shit lately.