Cisco Systems – “Can we say "Sweat shop?"”

I agree with everything you said. It's the truth.

What makes me mad is how clueless Chambers is. This happened at a recent birthday breakfast. When asked whether taking away people's sodas sends the wrong message, he replied "let me tell you something about leadership", its about sharing the pain during rough times. The guy made over 40 million dollars annually for the past decade. He likes to welcome everybody to the Cisco family, it's a very dysfunctional in my book. Not one that I want to join. It is more a cult than a family.

The outside talent comes from Microsoft, Nortel, Lucent. You know what happened to those companies. Now they want to buy Tandberg. After reading the comments here, if I was a Tandberg engineer I would be preparing my resume right now. Nothing good could come out of this. Everyone will soon find out Cisco is an empty and hollow shell. Their stock is no longer a useful currency to be used to acquire people. People will demand to be paid in CASH and once they sense Cisco is deperate, they will ask for more and more CASH.

cisco senior manager = "a self-seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite."

Is to get some fat guy to do the stupid demos during the company meetings. The demos suck. The barely work and really not very innovative. But because the fat guy is so clumsy, Chambers can make fun of him. Well, it's time people wake up and start making fun of Mr Chambers. The dyslexic CEO who is actually afraid of technology and is running his company into the ground. That won't be too funny, John.

 Why don't you ask some of the customers who bought stuff from Cisco what they really think? Many of the negative feedback from customers are routinely crossed-out.

Due to budget constraints, John and Frank Calzone will not be getting Xmas cards from me this year.

Maybe I'll sneek out early between Xmas/Thanksgiving. It's dark and cold in Cisco. This slave network thing is too much to take.

Lack of creativity. Lack of respect. Lack of human kindness. Just a horrible place.

Managers have no social skills. Treat you like a thing to be used and thrown out.

They don't think much of customers either. I can't think of a more racist and condescending cisco ad than this one.

http://videosostav.ru/video/3eff6d49185dcd41b14fca208de348c8/

They think customers are just as dumb as Chambers is.

I took a pay cut coming to Cisco thinking I will make it up after a couple years of hard work. I'm was so wrong. Wish i saw this post years ago .."If you still decide to come to work for Cisco, then be sure that you negotiate a great salary prior to starting. This will be it for at least a decade." So true!!!

Was once a meritocracy where pay and advancement were actually based upon your competence and contribution.
Cisco is a hostile working environment, full of below-average people

Been with Shitco for 12 years. Never saw so many incompetent managers gathered in one place. 95% are self serving. When the project is successful they get the credit, when it fails due to their leadership, it's engineers fault. John will allow dividends on a dead end stock when he's ready for retirement. It's ok to be frugal, it's NOT ok to be cheap! We paid the newspapers millions of dollars so we can be rated in to 100 best companies. I've never been asked to do a survey.

Screwing with peoples lives is not an effective way to run a company

You, sir, are a tool. You are a tiny part in a big machine and you must do your part lest the machine fail. You are cog in a long chain of cogs that turn the wheels. A cog turns you and in turn you turn another cog like a wheel oiled machine with little friction.

You are a tool. You must be professional and not give any thought to anything else but doing your job. This is your life. Yours is not to reason why. Thinking is discouraged as it would distract you from your purpose of doing your part. Stick to your training and do what is expected and your career will proceed smoothly and you will be rewarded with the distractions that the machine produces to indirectly allow its own propagation through you. Quality distractions will keep you from thinking but not detract from your performance in serving the machine.

Living according to specification is what keeps the machine working. Imagine that a piston in a machine did not fit into the cylinder; imagine that a push rod did not want to push. If this happened to much, the machine would not function well and it might even stop working. Just imagine if you had a tool, like a blender, and it decided that it did not want to blend. This would be unacceptable and you would replace it.

But do not worry, scientists and engineers are working hard to develop tools to replace you with more dependable versions even as managers and politicians are working hard to replace you with other cheaper and more desperate people.

As a cog, you must fit in and be a part of the machine to be useful. Voluntarily being alone and desiring solitude is a horrifying thought to a tool. How can it exist without depending on others and in turn being depended on? How can it be trusted to do its part? This is why individualism is discouraged. No, you must be social and the best way to be social is to seek out and consume the same distractions: fashionable clothing, TV shows, home renovations, … and support the machine in the same way, going to college, investing in mutual and index funds, paying the bills, and pursuing a career as a professional.

Remember: Yours is not to reason why. Yours is to do your job and be successful, in the same way as everyone else.

The machine can only exist if you do your part.

There was a time that Cisco was a great company... that time is past and likely past forever. The borg are not about excellence ... they are about massive mediocracy... this has become culture at Cisco due to failed upper and middle management.

I am going to make a fortune shorting Cisco Stock. F*ck you John Chambers. Thanks for destroying this company, so I can get rich. Haha !

Yes, I shorted when it hit 83 in 2000. My manager told me to look for the hammer doji on the candlestick charts. He also told me to look for the doji when it's time to cover the short which happenend a few years later when the stock hit 7. Made a fortune. The stock is very diluted now. It just doesn't move. So many shares out there. When ever the management wants to pay themselves a bonus, they use company funds to repurchase their own shares, nice gig if you can get it. Took all the proceeds from Cisco and bought Apple and Google. Guess what, both me and my manager are retired and trading stocks full time.

I am haunted by a extremely poor experience. I was stuck with a inexperienced & irresponsible and smoke and mirrors manager who continually lied, refused to respond to emails and meeting requests.. Sometimes even disappers for a few days.
My experience was sooooo bad I still think it was a dream that I tolerated & put up with a poor human beings.
I was neglected 95% of the time while I worked there and sometimes even experience anxiety from that experience. The woman who "tried" to manage was soooo awful!!!.. I cannot express in words how I mentally disturbing her behavior was... She continually blocked me and other talent from advancement and joining the company, deliberately trying to destroy careers so people can eventually quit (2 people had resigned prior to me joining) These people have careers and families and were forced to quit and a human being can only put up with so much. This manager was so TERRIBLE!!!! Please do not work in this group!!!!! I blame her young "Director" boss for enabling her failures.The person I worked for was just a PO chain approval that is for my paycheck - She was not a "manager" in the any professional sense of the word. Also, she was personal friends with her Director boss.

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Having read your post, I'm not surprised that you haven't seen the career advancement you feel you deserve. Your grammar and spelling is terrible. If you take this much care in your day to day job, i'm surprised you are still employed.

You lot have had a cosy life in the US at Cisco. Maybe the company just realised that the real growth areas are elsewhere...the centre of the universe is no longer SJ, and some people can't handle that.

You may not realise, but in other countries, employees are happy, well rewarded (mostly) and have opportunity for career advancement. You still have far more benefits/perks in SJ than most though.

Quit moaning and just quit