Cisco's CEO internal memo leaked

And along with that, it seems too "proper" to be a leaked memo. I'm guessing it was "Confidential" but intended to be leaked. Gives it that appeal of secrecy.

After the bubble popped the company I was in came up with this idiotic new plan: if you want a raise you have to convince the people above you that you deserve it. This meant that if you wanted one (everyone did of course) you could go to your manager and set up some goals to achieve that would get you that raise. The manager would, of course, take what ever concrete goals you suggested and make them more fuzzy. When the yearly review came 'round and it was time to see how you were doing you would find that somehow you had not met your requirements. Morale took a nose dive because none of us were getting raises and it was all our own fault, despite our best efforts.

Then we talked to an employee of Cisco. Cisco had told them straight up, at almost the same time to the day, that times were tough after the bubble popped and that no one in the company would be getting any kind of raise until things turned around. Not the CEO, not the janitor. No one. Then it all finally made sense. I gained a ton of respect for Cisco and lost any remaining respect I might have had for the hell hole I was working at.