Cisco job cuts hit RTP, affecting one of the Triangle’s largest employers

When Cisco announced last month that it would reduce its total workforce by around 4,000, its spokespeople declined to share whether these cuts would affect the tech conglomerate’s sizable employee base in Research Triangle Park. The answer is now apparent, though to what degree is still not being shared publicly.

On Tuesday, a Cisco spokesperson confirmed with The News & Observer that internal restructuring at the California-based company has begun this month that will impact 5% of staff. While Cisco still declined to discuss Triangle-specific cuts, an employee who works at Cisco’s Morrisville campus told The N&O that she and several local colleagues were informed yesterday that their positions would be eliminated.

“Way to ring in the holiday season, huh?” said the employee, a Raleigh resident who requested to speak anonymously because she still may seek a new position within the company. She said Cisco management informed her during a 15-minute one-on-one meeting Monday.

Impacted workers have the option to take a severance package or apply for new positions within the company. The employee said around 20 colleagues on her team also had their jobs eliminated, though she noted not all are based in RTP.

“We were given a lot of resources to help us through this transition and to help us find our next role either internally or externally,” she said.

On Monday, multiple anonymous posts on online message boards like TheLayoff.com also discussed in detail layoffs at Cisco’s RTP campus.

In a statement to The N&O, Cisco spokesperson Michael Ricketts said “limited business restructuring” has resulted in workforce reduction and a scaling back of the company’s “real estate portfolio.”

Cisco, a California-based conglomerate, has been occupying more than 10 corporate office buildings in RTP, where it built its campus in the 1990s. It is one of the Triangle’s largest employers; in late September, Ricketts told The N&O that the company had 7,500 employees in the area.

“This is not about cost savings,” he said of this month’s layoffs. “In fact we’ll have roughly the same number of employees at the end of this fiscal year as we had when we started.”

Cisco is the second major employer in RTP to cut jobs this week. Lenovo, whose North American headquarters sits minutes away from Cisco, confirmed its recent layoffs will impact local positions. Like Cisco, Lenovo spokespeople declined to say how many RTP employees have been, or will be, affected.

This story was produced with financial support from a coalition of partners led by Innovate Raleigh as part of an independent journalism fellowship program. The N&O maintains full editorial control of the work.

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