Innovation pressure leaves workers on ice

Every time Cisco management gets up and says something like, “We’re not planning layoffs, we just want our engineers to innovate faster so we can stay ahead,” it sounds less like encouragement and more like a warning in disguise. Chuck Robbins can sugarcoat it as much as he wants, but everyone knows the real message: if you’re not rolling out flashy new tech at warp speed, you’re on thin ice. That’s the Cisco way now - call it “productivity,” but it feels like they’re pushing people out the door without saying it outright. It’s almost laughable, because Cisco’s big “innovation” strategy has usually meant just buying up smaller companies - like when they bought the MPLS team, or when they snapped up Meraki back in 2012. Then they slap a Cisco logo on the box, market the hell out of it, and years later you’re still stuck with a product that barely talks to the rest of the Cisco ecosystem. Meraki’s still off in its own world, with different licensing, weird features, and missing basic stuff you’d expect to just work. If “innovation” means more Frankenstein products, I’m not sure that’s a win. At this point, maybe the best move really is to “innovate your resume.” The way things are going, I’m honestly just waiting for the day a critical system falls apart because they pushed out the wrong engineer in the name of “efficiency.” Gotta love that corporate double-speak where layoffs become “opportunities,” and the people left behind are supposed to be grateful, keep their heads down, and work even harder. What a mess.