Sandy Lerner, co-founder of Cisco Systems, recounts how CEO John Morgridge abruptly entered her office and dismissed her shortly after Cisco went public.
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“I was sitting in my little office in the corner, as I did every day, and he came in, and he sat down in the chair without making an appointment, and he said, ah, you know, I think it's time you retire. He says, you've got all this money now, you just, time to retire. And I said, well, John, I'm not even half-vested yet, and I've got a lot I still think I'm doing here, and I started, of course, in my practical way to tell him what I was doing, and he practically told me to shut up and basically I was fired.”
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More from Sandy Lerner
AssertionNot checkable as stated
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