Over the past year, Cisco publicly appeared to be one of the few technology companies to avoid internal backlash over its response to the war in Gaza. Chuck Robbins, CEO of the Silicon Valley giant known for its routers, cybersecurity services and WebEx video calling, issued a statement last November acknowledging the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians.
And just two months ago, Francine Katsoudas, Cisco’s chief people, policy and purpose officer, smiled as she posed for photos with many of the company’s employee organizations, including one for Palestinians. However, this photo later became a source of significant disputes within the company.
Behind the scenes, eight current and one former employee who spoke to WIRED say Cisco marginalized its internal Palestinian support groups and their hundreds of members. Throughout the tumultuous period that began last July, people have accused the company of failing to quickly and adequately address police harassment of Palestinian employees and their allies in internal company forums, despite detailed complaints. They further allege that Cisco withheld an internal petition calling for restrictions on sales to Israel over potential human rights concerns.
“We were targeted, harassed, sabotaged and defamed,” says João Silva Jordão, a software licensing manager in Lisbon who left Cisco in disgust last month after four years at the company. “I was told that my humanitarian side was welcomed at Cisco, but I was completely deceived. This is double standards and hypocrisy.”
Meanwhile, another recent former employee who was fired claims that some Jewish Cisco employees believe the company failed to adequately prevent harassment of them by Palestinian groups. This person criticized management for not doing more to end war discussions by workers on both sides. “Leadership could have taken some actions to reduce the clutter across the board,” he says. “It’s sad that more wasn’t done.”
Brian Tippens, director of social impact and inclusion at Cisco, denies allegations of marginalization and unequal treatment. He says Cisco is focused on the well-being of all 90,000 employees and apologizes to anyone who feels the company has failed to meet its humanitarian goals.
Tippens tells WIRED that Cisco doesn’t want to completely abandon what it considers political speech, but in the face of internal unrest, it has issued so-called Expression Guidelines to encourage civility and respect.