Cisco, other tech firms vow no job cuts

Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins this week joined a growing number of tech companies that have pledged not to cut jobs in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’re actively involved in the community trying to help people who’ve been impacted by this, why would we contribute to the problem?” Robbins said in an interview with Bloomberg. “There are companies whose revenue has gone to zero who have no option. To me, it’s just silly for those of us who have the financial wherewithal to absorb this, for us to add to the problem. It’s illogical.”

Robbins is calling on other companies to make the pledge as well, according to Bloomberg.

Cisco is among many tech firms feeling the economic pressure of COVID-19 opting to stand by its employees. PayPal and Marvell Technologies have also committed to not layoff employees due to the virus, and Palo Alto Networks CEO Nikesh Arora said he will take a substantial pay cut, if necessary, CNBC reports.

Arora told CNBC he is committed to keeping staff employed through the outbreak and would give up his salary to do it.

The pledges come at a time when the U.S. economy is reeling from the effects of coronavirus-related shutdowns and social distancing orders. In the past three weeks more than 16 million Americans have filed for unemployment and that number is expected to continue to rise, according to the latest U.S. Labor Department report.

Critical Cloud Workers

Meanwhile, Microsoft has frozen hiring except for strategic positions within the company, according to a report from Business Insider.

Azure, the company’s public cloud offering, appears to fall into the strategic category. Microsoft has more than 2,800 open listings for cloud-related positions on LinkedIn.

In an open letter to employees, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella detailed how the company is helping to fight the spread and treat those infected with COVID-19, including the provision of “critical infrastructure” to health care workers and medical researchers.

Microsoft has also, alongside Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS) and others, joined the Tech Against Covid initiative, which aims to provide supercomputing resources to researchers working on test kits and vaccines for COVID-19.

Giving Back

Robbins’ promise to Cisco employees is just the company’s latest effort to assist those feeling the social, health, and economic effects of the virus.

Weeks earlier, Robbins announced the company would commit $225 million to support local and global COVID-19 response efforts. This included $8 million in cash, $210 million in products, and up to $5 million in grants and funds matching Cisco employees’ donations to nonprofits.

Cisco isn’t the only company giving back. Google has also pledged more than $800 million to small to midsized businesses (SMBs), health care workers, and governments in an effort to mitigate the effects of the virus.

―SDX Central