Cisco

Competitive salaries matching the market. A significant number of talented people to work with and learn from. A diverse culture within every department. Great benefits for health and finance.

Uses the GE philosophies on employee reviews using a bell curve to evaluate. A mandatory number of employees must be in the top range to be promoted, and the bottom range are in a high-pressure situation to quit or be fired.

The average or core personnel are given the carrot of still getting a bonus, but no promotion or raise.

The environment leads to a lot of backstabbing and almost no collaboration between peers, who fear giving someone an advantage over them during reviews.

One of the most dysfunctional places I have ever worked.

Jack Welch may have brought GE out of its plight, or the economy at a global level did. But using his methods of treatment of employees makes working at Cisco an undesirable and hostile place to work. Jack also believed that nothing but the bottom line mattered. After working at Cisco, I can see why other former employees warned me about it being a meat grinder.