Cisco has/had an outrageously large contractor contingent (this may be different between Business Units). That's a huge cultural difference between Cisco the tech giant sets

According to some reports, only half of the people in Google are full time employee. Isn't it a large contingent of second-class workers?

Whatever fraction it is at Google, I'm willing to bet Cisco's is significantly larger, especially on "core-business" teams whose work is mentioned in analyst calls

Orders of magnitude.

Google has a two-class system for employees.

Cisco mostly eliminated the upper tranch of their two-class system.

Cisco didn't need contractors they just shifted their workforce offshore wholesale.

Source: former Cisco.