https://www.theregister.com/2025/02/12/ibm_return_to_office_mandate/
13 replies (most recent on top)
"IBM like many companies is controlled by a few active investors. Those investors want a quick buck, not concerned about the long term. ROI in 5 quarters or less was the old saying. Sacrifice the future for the present. RTO is just one line item the investors feed AK. Those same investors also want their other stocks to go up, auto, construction, commercial real estate. If you layoff people today, negative effects on stock price don't occur for at least 5 quarters, but the positive effect is immediate."
they are not improving the company but strip mining it, it's parasitic
Donald Trump just went full fascist
https://www.reddit.com/media?url=https%3A%2F%2Fi.redd.it%2Fhpr9eani2dje1.png
IBM like many companies is controlled by a few active investors. Those investors want a quick buck, not concerned about the long term. ROI in 5 quarters or less was the old saying. Sacrifice the future for the present. RTO is just one line item the investors feed AK. Those same investors also want their other stocks to go up, auto, construction, commercial real estate. If you layoff people today, negative effects on stock price don't occur for at least 5 quarters, but the positive effect is immediate.
@e4+1jkz3fakz What a ridiculous comment. I swear you people with TDS would blame Trump for the sun shining if it bothered you. SMH
Does it really matter if CIO has people on RTO that are senior and with institutional knowledge of IBM internal systems that are now in line for getting hit ? No one in CIO is irreplaceable when it comes to making a profit for IBM shareholders - not even Alvind. Just let the senior folk go and get cheaper contractors instead - and let the senior folk train their replacements before they are shown the door. It's the IBM way. There are plenty of talented people looking for work in the "New And Improved" Trump economy. Let the good times roll !
Ahh. The tRump effect.” Creating jobs in America”, etc bs, etc bs. 🙄. iBM waited until he got in to strip more worker rights away and tada, now the US is getting hit again instead of other countries. Majority of sr finance folks vote repub (being ruthless is why they’re still there). Pretend execs with no scope-own your vote.
Another "dodge" from financial issues is, "oh, we just fire low performers". https://www.hrkatha.com/features/the-convenient-lie-when-companies-badge-layoffs-as-poor-performance/ Microsoft did this last month and then the media reported a wave of mass layoffs that the media said had nothing whatsoever to do with performance. Stop letting companies get away with business failure and lack of money for salaries by parroting this "pivot to AI" thing.
This whole industry has basically become somewhat of a laughing stock, riding fake "evaluation" based on something that loses a lot of money and wastes energy (raising water, electricity and even food bills). They always call layoffs "AI" (laying off to "replace with AI" or to "focus on AI"! It's the magic word now, just call everything "AI". https://finance.yahoo.com/news/ibm-plans-replace-nearly-8-174052360.html
RTOs, PIPs, forced relocations etc. are layoffs by other name
This RTO is mostly US as it is hard to force RTO in other countries. It is just another soft RA to avoid the negative PR of another RA. AI may be part of it however the majority is shifting positions to low cost countries especially India. CIO has people on RTO that are senior with institutional knowledge of IBM internal systems that really can't be replaced easily and they are getting hit. RTO overall goal is not to replace more than 50% of the people who leave under the RTO. If the RTO doesn't snag enough people then next is PIP and RAs. It is a cycle. If an area receives a replacement it has to be in a low cost country.
From the article: "'Today, we use AskHR, which basically is an AI agent handling a significant amount of HR functions,' our well-placed source said."
Let’s address this supposedly all-powerful AI, shall we? I see Alvind’s flying monkeys talking about how AskHR and AI are taking over HR functions wholesale but almost no one interviewed ever talks about how IBM’s homegrown AI-enabled HR tools are a steaming pile of hot garbage.
IBM is saying, “We’re letting our AI agents operate the landing gear for our planes”—knowing full well that in every test, it crashed every plane.
What ever happened to HiRo which was supposed to help managers give raises, promotions, and bonuses? It was such a POS that I had to calculate the individual bonuses for my team manually with a godda-n calculator and then make the amounts reconcile with HiRo's predetermined budget myself, like some circa 1985 accountant with a Texas Instruments adding machine. It would’ve been more efficient if they’d just given everyone abacuses.
Last I heard, HiRo was such a banger that it was sunset within a year. And didn’t they also announce some other HR tool in 2024 with an equally stupid name like HeRa? Let me guess—it worked so well they buried it next to HiRo in an unmarked grave. Because it, too, was HoRrible, HoRrific, and DOA.
This really shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. AK in Aug of 2023 announced that he wanted 30% of the back office (or approx 8k) replaced by AI. IBM has had 18 months to get the AI working and when you couple that with offshored headcount to fill in where the AI still breaks down, you are most likely looking at 10-12k of NA and Northern European headcount impacted. Kinda dovetails with the additional 500 million announced of the 3.5 billion of cost take out for 2025 the CFO announced on the 4th q earnings call. Remember “cost takeout” is job one at IBM. How it’s accomplished (layoffs, spinoffs, AI replacement, etc etc) doesn’t matter to the exec’s.
The layoffs and forced relocations couldn't happen to a nicer bunch of crooked managers, architects, project managers and and senior employees as IBM downsizes it's US workforce. It just rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic in anticipation for the next round of F&O layoffs in 2026. How's all those million dollar AI acquisitions working for ya ??
Nitpicking on "AI": https://techrights.org/n/2025/02/13/IBM_Layoffs_in_RTO_Clothing_Reported_by_Thomas_Claburn.shtml