By Sanya Jain
Publication Date: 2025-12-01 06:47:00
Climbing the corporate ladder comes with many perks — like a bigger office and a bigger salary, to name just two. There are also trade-offs that come with promotions, like longer workdays and sometimes an increasing lack of work-life balance.
For Jeetu Patel, Cisco’s chief product officer, reaching the C-suite has translated into longer working hours. According to a Fortune report, Patel works seven days a week. His day typically starts at 6 am and sometimes he does not wrap up before midnight.
No meetings before 9 am
The Indian-origin executive told Fortune that he does not schedule any meetings before 9 am. The only exception to this rule is if the meeting invite comes from Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins or the Cisco board.
Patel instead uses the time between 6 and 9 am to plan his goals and focus on high-impact work.
“Picking the highest quality problems that you want to spend your…
