This week, several former and current Cisco employees took to social media, sharing their claims of internal layoffs. According to the company, these layoffs are part of a restructuring plan initially announced last November.

As early as last week, speculations about impending layoffs were circulating on Blind, a messaging board site. On Wednesday, one post on Blind conveyed, "My friend who is in higher management confirmed [layoffs]. I am scared."

Throughout this week, a flood of posts emerged, asserting that the rumors of layoffs were indeed accurate. On LinkedIn, Lawrence ("LJ") Wobker, a Cisco Principal Engineer, shared, " Today is layoff day here at Cisco — or at the very least it’s layoff day for several of my friends and coworkers."

“Some will happily take what traditionally have been good packages and move on without too much angst, but many will not,” Wobker added.

The exact number of employees who may have been laid off and the affected departments remain uncertain. Nevertheless, this week witnessed a surge of posts on TheLayoff.com, providing some hints and insights on the matter.

According to a post, it was suggested that Cisco employees in the datacenter and security divisions experienced the most significant impact. The post stated, "Security (SBG) Data Center (ACI - most impact) TAC (Including Bangalore team) Most IT support in India All BU contractors reduced Will further continue, be prepared."

In a different comment, it was noted that "Many US-based directors are no longer with the company. Despite data center being a growth market (as evident with Arista), Cisco is letting go of valuable expertise." However, another commenter disagreed, stating, "I believe the most significant impact this time is on Collab China engineering, with over 400 people affected."

Online discontent appears to be particularly directed towards Cisco's leadership. One user expressed their frustration by posting a URL link to a January interview with Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. In the interview, Robbins stated that the company had no additional job cuts planned after the layoff announcement of 4,100 employees made in November.

In November, the layoffs were a component of a $600 million restructuring plan. Similarly, in mid-2020, Cisco executed another restructuring plan that entailed a significant number of layoffs.

A person on the site shared their experience, stating that they were recently laid off despite being a top performer for many years. They described the exit options provided to them on Monday, which included an early exit option on August 31 or a standard exit option on October 16. However, it should be noted that Fierce cannot independently verify the accuracy of these dates.

What did Cisco say? 

According to a report by Fierce Telecom, Cisco verified that a round of layoffs occurred this week. However, the company asserted that these layoffs were part of the 4,100 job cuts that had been previously announced in November. Specifics regarding the number of affected employees or the types of positions impacted in this week's layoffs were not disclosed by the company. Cisco's complete statement is provided below: 

"These recent notifications are part of the rebalancing effort we began in November 2022, which included a limited restructuring impacting our real estate portfolio and approximately 5% of our workforce. As we announced then, this is not about cost savings as we have roughly the same number of employees as we did before the process began. This rebalancing is about prioritizing investments in our transformation, to meet and exceed our customers' expectations in the changing technology landscape. We will continue to do everything we can to help place affected employees in open roles and offer extensive support including generous severance packages."