Cisco

The new head of HR, Fran, has made some positive changes which are well appreciated, including:

• Closing the gender pay gap
• Inclusion and diversity training
• Getting to take the day off on your birthday
• Taking up to a week off to do charity work.

Other people say Cisco has good work-life balance. I think it depends on what product you are working on. I feel like I am under a lot of stress generally and put in a lot of hours. I have been at Cisco over 10 years, and there haven't been a lot of breaks.

Many of my coworkers work from home at least a couple days a week, especially after they moved us to an open floor plan.

The people I work with are, for the most part, friendly, smart, and professional.

I love making killer products that make billions of dollars in revenue each year.

I learn new things constantly and feel challenged.

At least in engineering, there is not a supportive environment for women. There is a lack of education among first-line managers on how to promote respect and give air time to all types of people. They also need to learn how to promote, give opportunities, listen to, and value the ideas of women. And there is some blatant sexism.

For example, when I had my baby, my manager told me the 'right' thing to do was to become a stay-at-home mom. Despite making a sacrificial effort to perform well my first year with a baby, my manager said he gave me an average rating because I had a baby. His perception was colored by my being a mother. I thought I deserved a higher rating for an exceptional year. He asked me what my priorities were: my child or my job? He didn't ask my male coworkers this question.

Even now, he 'forgets' to give me a bonus, even though he gave every other report of his one (who are all male). In the previous two layoffs, the only persons he laid off were women.

He asks me to plan the fun group outings, not my male colleagues. On separate occasions, my director and my VP asked me to take minutes when there were plenty of men available to also take minutes.

Many of my female coworkers moved on because of the frustration of not having their opinions valued as much as our male coworkers. It's a tough problem to solve because people come to Cisco from many types of backgrounds, but I feel there is no management support from any level of the management chain except for Chuck and his direct reports.

Open space floorplans are visually and audially distracting. The space is so tight that the moveable whiteboards are not near our desks.

Currently, morale is a little down because it is not clear how individuals will be engaged in making the future roadmap happen. People fear for their jobs. We've had repeated layoffs in my group, and there will be more to come.

Work on retaining women in engineering, not just hiring new college grads. The long-term problem will not be solved if you get NCGs into the office and then mistreat them. They will leave the field. Provide a way for employees to rate their managers.