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I briefly worked for Cisco after an acquisition, and it was a great time: I would get my sprint’s worth of work done in two days, ask if I could do anything els

I briefly worked for Cisco after an acquisition, and it was a great time: I would get my sprint’s worth of work done in two days, ask if I could do anything else and be told no, and then spend the rest of the two weeks doing whatever I wanted, which at the time was learning Rust. All that is to say, I would not be remotely surprised if Cisco has more employees than they strictly need. But, this email from the CEO is comically out of touch. “We’re doing great, better than we’ve ever done, so we’re going to fire thousands of you” is a chef’s kiss encapsulation of American corporate culture.

alistairSH 5mo ago
the CEO is comically out of touch Maybe with normal people but that's not the target audience. The investors are the target and it's exactly what they want to hear.
AndrewKemendo 5mo ago
I love how “it was a great time” = “I worked two days a week” Any job that pays a full week and only requires two days of work is a “great time” tells you literally nothing about the actual job.
- ethbr1 5mo ago
  The way to read that is that parent was being paid 2.5x what their FTE hourly rate would be. In which case, I'd say they struck a helluva bargain at salary negotiation. Kudos. It's not like they didn't ask for more work to do.
- mplanchard 5mo ago
  Yeah I mean, I was being a bit sarcastic. As the sibling points out, I was getting paid a full time salary to largely do whatever I wanted. But, it was also soul crushing to have so little meaningful work to do. I left within a year of the acquisition as a result. The actual job was working on a python server for the acquired company, and it’s not like there wasn’t more work to do, but we were not allowed to go outside the bounds of the work that had been allocated for a sprint, which was always conservative in order to allow for more accurate overall plans. It’s certain that it was different in other departments or areas or acquired companies, but that at least was my experience.
  - AndrewKemendo 5mo ago
    So, like every giant tech company with usury rats and stolen wages then :shrug:
  - kqr 5mo ago
    That's interesting. Do you know what the fraction was of sprints that ended without all the work items associated with them being completed?
    - mplanchard 5mo ago
      At least for our team, quite low. We had a very comfortable buffer, which allowed us to deliver in time to coordinate with the rest of the org. It may not have been a bad strategy overall from the top-down perspective, but it wasn’t a lot of fun as an IC
- panflute 5mo ago
  Funny that you expect an employee to view a great time as meaning more than successfully exploiting advantage to the employers disadvantage in a relationship with Cisco.
  - AndrewKemendo 5mo ago
    Imagine not working for a company that acts like Crazy right?
    - DrJokepu 5mo ago
      The person you’re responding to has explicitly said that they worked there after an acquisition (so it’s not like they have chosen to work for Cisco) and that they only worked there briefly afterwards. I don’t understand why you’re being so hostile and judgmental.
    - panflute 5mo ago
      Crazy is imagining an employer is of high integrity for your self esteem. How can a company that is high integrity compete with one that gets the same rewards while being of low integrity?
      - AndrewKemendo 5mo ago
        Simple There are no high integrity companies so it’s just a rat king
greatgib 5mo ago
Actually it is the current comic trend. The business is sound and we are doing great but we will reduce workforce for pleasure. I think that in most places the business is going bad in fact, but if you were to believe their words it will show a very despicable spirit of the current decade where the goal is to enjoy maximum profit without any care at all to do any good. Before a boss might enjoy to have a sound business to be able to preserve the work/income of his employees. Now they would not care to fuck employees first but also customers after if that provide with a second yacht for holidays. Just see Elon Musk as the godfather of this discipline...
- spjwebster 5mo ago
  My eldest is currently taking her GCSEs, and for the English Literature exam this week she had to write an essay on A Christmas Carol. Whilst helping her, I couldn't help but realise that the overarching messages around the importance of social responsibility are becoming increasingly relevant again.
mgh2 5mo ago
Their stock went up w/ Nvidia: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48075500 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48075500
eudamoniac 5mo ago
When I worked for Cisco I was doing ~4hrs of work per week, excluding meetings, and always got top performance bonus. I didn't even have many meetings. I only left because my soul stopped being able to take it.

alistairSH 5mo ago

the CEO is comically out of touch Maybe with normal people but that's not the target audience. The investors are the target and it's exactly what they want to hear.

AndrewKemendo 5mo ago

I love how “it was a great time” = “I worked two days a week” Any job that pays a full week and only requires two days of work is a “great time” tells you literally nothing about the actual job.

ethbr1 5mo ago
The way to read that is that parent was being paid 2.5x what their FTE hourly rate would be. In which case, I'd say they struck a helluva bargain at salary negotiation. Kudos. It's not like they didn't ask for more work to do.
mplanchard 5mo ago
Yeah I mean, I was being a bit sarcastic. As the sibling points out, I was getting paid a full time salary to largely do whatever I wanted. But, it was also soul crushing to have so little meaningful work to do. I left within a year of the acquisition as a result. The actual job was working on a python server for the acquired company, and it’s not like there wasn’t more work to do, but we were not allowed to go outside the bounds of the work that had been allocated for a sprint, which was always conservative in order to allow for more accurate overall plans. It’s certain that it was different in other departments or areas or acquired companies, but that at least was my experience.
- AndrewKemendo 5mo ago
  So, like every giant tech company with usury rats and stolen wages then :shrug:
- kqr 5mo ago
  That's interesting. Do you know what the fraction was of sprints that ended without all the work items associated with them being completed?
  - mplanchard 5mo ago
    At least for our team, quite low. We had a very comfortable buffer, which allowed us to deliver in time to coordinate with the rest of the org. It may not have been a bad strategy overall from the top-down perspective, but it wasn’t a lot of fun as an IC
panflute 5mo ago
Funny that you expect an employee to view a great time as meaning more than successfully exploiting advantage to the employers disadvantage in a relationship with Cisco.
- AndrewKemendo 5mo ago
  Imagine not working for a company that acts like Crazy right?
  - DrJokepu 5mo ago
    The person you’re responding to has explicitly said that they worked there after an acquisition (so it’s not like they have chosen to work for Cisco) and that they only worked there briefly afterwards. I don’t understand why you’re being so hostile and judgmental.
  - panflute 5mo ago
    Crazy is imagining an employer is of high integrity for your self esteem. How can a company that is high integrity compete with one that gets the same rewards while being of low integrity?
    - AndrewKemendo 5mo ago
      Simple There are no high integrity companies so it’s just a rat king

greatgib 5mo ago

Actually it is the current comic trend. The business is sound and we are doing great but we will reduce workforce for pleasure. I think that in most places the business is going bad in fact, but if you were to believe their words it will show a very despicable spirit of the current decade where the goal is to enjoy maximum profit without any care at all to do any good. Before a boss might enjoy to have a sound business to be able to preserve the work/income of his employees. Now they would not care to fuck employees first but also customers after if that provide with a second yacht for holidays. Just see Elon Musk as the godfather of this discipline...

spjwebster 5mo ago
My eldest is currently taking her GCSEs, and for the English Literature exam this week she had to write an essay on A Christmas Carol. Whilst helping her, I couldn't help but realise that the overarching messages around the importance of social responsibility are becoming increasingly relevant again.

mgh2 5mo ago

Their stock went up w/ Nvidia: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48075500 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48075500

eudamoniac 5mo ago

When I worked for Cisco I was doing ~4hrs of work per week, excluding meetings, and always got top performance bonus. I didn't even have many meetings. I only left because my soul stopped being able to take it.