The latest round of layoffs is starting at Cisco – including in Research Triangle Park.
In an email, a Cisco spokesperson called the restructuring a “rebalancing of investments,” but did not give specifics on the RTP operation. But online message boards Monday contained multiple posts from purportedly laid off employees – including in RTP where the tech giant has a large campus.
The job cuts are not a surprise. On a November call with analysts following Cisco's latest earnings report, company executives said layoffs were coming. “What we’re doing is rightsizing certain businesses,” CEO Chuck Robbins said on the earnings call.
Soon after, Cisco (Nasdaq: CSCO) announced it would be cutting 5 percent of its workforce – about 4,165 employees – and shrink its real estate.
Cisco has not answered repeated questions over the past few weeks about what the cuts mean for Research Triangle Park, where the company has long been one of the largest employers – and has a history of layoffs. According to Triangle Business Journal research, Cisco is the ninth largest employer in the region, with an estimated 5,000 local employees.
As of Monday, the North Carolina Department of Commerce had not received a notification of layoffs related to Cisco's operations in the state. But notifications are only required in the cases of “mass” incidents, such as plant closures.
Anonymous reports from people purporting to be employees at Cisco are writing on TheLayoff.com that the collaboration team in RTP was “hit hard.”
Cisco would not confirm the posts. Nor would the company say whether its real estate footprint had been impacted locally.
Cisco's full statement to TBJ:
“We had a strong first quarter, and to capture the opportunities ahead, we continuously evaluate our business priorities to ensure we are investing for future growth and unlocking new opportunities while remaining financially disciplined. Along with our earnings results, we announced a rebalancing of investments including a limited business restructuring impacting our real estate portfolio and approximately 5 percent of our workforce starting in December. This is not about cost savings - in fact, we'll have roughly the same number of employees at the end of this fiscal year as we had when we started, and we will do everything we can to help place affected employees in other open roles. We didn't take this decision lightly, and we will offer those impacted extensive support, including generous severance packages.”
Online message boards show rising anxiety leading up to management meetings Monday.
“In all honesty, even if I’m affected I’ll be glad this whole mess is over,” reads one anonymous post on TheLayoff.com from a person claiming to be a Cisco worker. “Knowing and being able to move on beats having to stress over not knowing day in, day out.”
In the meantime, executives have continued to tout the opportunities ahead to investors – all while keeping an eye on the potential for a recession. Last week, Kip Compton, senior vice president of strategy and business development at Cisco, told analysts at the Raymond James Technology Investors Conference that the company was “monitoring the situation.” But that the data shows technology is typically the last area customers plan to cut.
“We’re watching things carefully,” Compton said. “We’re investing for the future in R&D, but we’re seeing some resiliency right now.”
Part of a pattern
Cisco is not the only RTP employer looking at layoffs. Lenovo has began making cuts – though like Cisco, it has not responded to requests to comment on the move locally.
Lenovo has its “dual headquarters” in Morrisville and was the Triangle’s ninth largest employer according to TBJ data, also with an estimated 5,000 employees in the region.
N-Able CEO John Pagliuca also confirmed recent layoffs. John Pagliuca, president and CEO, told TBJ in an email that the restructuring impacted a “small number of employees” in RTP.
“As part of N-able’s annual planning process, all roles and responsibilities were evaluated across the company and a difficult decision was made to reduce, and in some cases, restructure certain positions,” he stated.
The company, which spun out of IT monitoring firm SolarWinds and had 60,000-square-feet of space on Slater Road in Morrisville as of last year, declined to give local details of the cuts. As of last year, it had 230 employees in the Triangle.
And just days ago, top brass at Google (Nasdaq: GOOG), which has been staffing up in Durham, warned of potential moves in 2023.
There are opportunities for displaced workers in the region.
In a recent media briefing, Gerald Cohen, UNC’s chief economist, said that, despite recent layoff reports and a potential recession on the way, the tech talent pool is still tight.
“Despite all this discussion of hiring freezes and layoffs, employment continues to grow in the tech sector,” he said.
A number of firms have announced they are hiring in recent months – from Big Tech players such as Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) to upstart video game studios such as Methodical Games and Atomic Arcade.
