Cisco

Technical growth and job satisfaction are present when the manager has a technical background and good knowledge of the product.

One gets to work on real-time issues.

If the manager is not that technical, it's hard to work under them. The manager doesn't understand the complexity of issues. Trivial customer issues are communicated to the manager as critical issues, and engineers are rewarded for that with promotions and Cisco Spark awards. The more junk stuff one talks in meetings, the more eligible they are for promotion. Speak nonsense and ask the same questions in all meetings, and one gains visibility for that. Promotions are decided with that visibility.

An engineer has to go through emotional trauma when they are given a bottom 10% or bottom 5% rating.

If one isn't communicating with the manager well, give them a bottom 10%. An engineer from every team has to be in the bottom 10% every year. This is absolute nonsense.

Negative work atmosphere, where all employees are made to find faults with others, highlight that to management, and get rewarded. This ensures they are in a safe zone during appraisals.

The first-line manager should be a technical person, and they should be made to learn the product very quickly. Remove the compulsory bottom 10% policy.