Thread regarding IBM layoffs

IBM, is currently cutting vendor bill rates for contract employees by 10 % in all locations.

Yesterday they contacted all vendors, Kelly, Services, Man Power, and CCI at 3 pm mountain Standard time and told them to cut their work force my 25 or more people, they also provided all the names that we're to be cut by end or Business. Canada is also on the coping block. an estimate of the number of contractors employees is over well over 200.

Dear Warren Buffet,

IBM's incoming Lou Gerstner should cut a layer or two of non-technical middle management. This includes personnel, sales, marketing managers who cannot explain technology if their life depended on it. These types are easy to identify because they have not innovated.

ASAP, this CEO should prepare for a replacement. Why? Because at 380000 strong a company the size of a city should be running rings around other technology companies instead of making excuses for five years.

All future IBM CEOs and managers should be innovative on an annual basis and remain so. This is the norm at Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft. They are either technical or very good at marketing. And they have taken many producing former IBMers.

Yours, Tired-Of-Smoke-And-Mirrors.

Laid off as a recruiter for IBM through an agency. Same thing is last time. Called on a Thursday to be told that Friday was my last day, not because of performance, but "budget" .

No advance notice, not one dime of severance pay, just "goodbye , thanks for playing"

IBM is falling apart and the biggest reason is their complete lack of empathy, to do the right thing

The country as a whole is going down the tubes

Sigh

I think that a much better question would be if there are any geographies that do not have cuts right now.

http://business.financialpost.com/executive/c-suite/ibm-says-its-ceo-pay-is-us33-million-if-approved-by-shareholders-but-others-say-its-50-more-than-that

This CEO's score card has five years of red ink. She can donate her bonuses to IBM R&D.

So should the C-suite execs who advise her.

At El-Al airline in Israel - security personnel who frisk passengers also travel on the the same flight.

What better way for this C-suite to reassure their stakeholders that they believe in their vision?

There must be an initiative to post fake reviews online on glassdoor. There is one where they mention there is free food. IBM has never, ever given out free food. What a load of crap. Who are you paying to do these reviews? HR contractors? SAD!

CV in the south...big cuts summer thru EOY

First question by the OP: "Timing of Resource Actions" - I'd say monthly layoffs. Right? Would anyone disagree?

Who does Ginny's Cadence every week ??? In a company where employees are terminated for missing 3 qts of numbers, how can Ginny cash her check when she has missed 20 qtrs. of quota in a row ! She is by far the worst CEO in Tech, and definitely the worst in IBM history. Any second line manager with 30 years of IBM experience in a Client Facing quota carrying role would have made a better CEO...as a 33 year retiree I pray she announces her retirement ASAP !!! She and Carly should go to work full time for Donald Trump !!!

@JtAUPMv-3pqef. The only software that is making money at IBM is the old on-premise stuff like WAS, MQ, IIB, CICS and the likes... The Cloud is a disaster because IBM just does not know how to do it. The Cloud leaders, Microsoft, AWS, Google and the likes spend 10 Billion in R&D every year. IBM spends 4 Billion to research on how to put information on atoms and make movies with dancing atoms!! How does that help the Cloud business? Come on IBM, time to wake up...

Can't wait until Ginny the Eagle gets the hell out. One of the worst CEO in IBM's history.

Finally got RA'ed, still the usual bull "co-location" and I was declared redundant because of "Cloud and Cognitive" funny thing though both blew up on AU census and now MD Anderson. I already saw it coming when all of my predecessors, peers and colleagues from US contacts @ ST just turned dark a few weeks ago. Felt a little betrayed though as we just completed a succesful project, but anyways just life.

IBM Watson and Watson Health are at least 75% behind on revenue. There will definitely be more layoffs. This company is going downhill than anyone realizes. I am part of the GBS services group and most people are trying to be as utilized as they can so there is a lot of in fighting over who gets to work on what. Most of the older resources are clinging on to projects before they are forced to retire through RA.

What IBM doesn't realize is they can't just stick the word Cognitive on all their sales pitches and think the clients will just buy it. IBM can't prove that Watson actually brings value so they use a lot jargon and marketing to try and sell a product that will cost millions of dollars and bring in no value. This is especially prevalent in the Watson Health group where they are waiting to catch a break. Most clients feedback on their products is that it is not useful especially Watson for Oncology (see the M.D. Anderson failure), Watson for Trial Matching, Watson for drug discovery.

Re: Post "A gifted CEO and skilled management can make billions from two planks of wood and some rope."

This writers comment is perhaps true, but IBM's actions are not the behavior of a gifted CEO. They are short sighted actions of financial planners who are not assessing for the future of IBM or it's ability to build, develop and design solutions for a marketplace ready for AI. What we are seeing at IBM are desperate actions to attain a half by half and quarter by quarter numbers. Patents are being sold by value on the market, not value to IBM. Even in core business areas like Watson and Cloud, the labs have been stripped of the ability to deliver. The failures are spanning multiple years and became worse with Watson and the selling approach of making every customer a venture capital investor. Executive and management laissez-faire resulting from years of fear of speaking up for the business is costing the business.

I hope for the gifted CEO!

On a promising note: Watson is a differentiating technology and IBM is targeting big business.

However, 20 quarters of declining revenue are screaming house-cleaning.

IBM top management should "examine the cash registers in person" and take care to bypass the many skilled politicians in middle management.

Evaluate how many "untouchable" technical staff are resting on their laurels.

Evaluate how many personnel managers are hiding behind their dwindling departments.

Assess the competitiveness of a massive patent portfolio versus what customers are paying for.

Establish a value threshold that decides who walks.

Redirect the savings to fund true visionaries.

A gifted CEO and skilled management can make billions from two planks of wood and some rope.

IBM was once a great company of which to be apart. When I grew up and was in 1st grade we all stood up and spoke about where our father's worked. Ninety-five percent of my class said their father's worked for IBM...I said mine was a real estate broker. This was in Almaden, CA and the start of an incredible technological boom. I joined Big Blue in '81 as an assistant to a secretary. Back then you joined to be apart of a company for life. I eventually retired as an executive but it came with many sacrifices. I feel very little sympathy for those who have endured fifteen years of slavery with top salaries and bennies who are now complaining. Did you not do due diligence when agreeing to join a company which no longer valued seasoned employees? Get over it. I, unfortunately, sat in first class next to an arrogant SOB on my way to Ft. Myers who brought up on his computer his IBM Lotus Notes. Then he proceeded to bring up one IBM doc after another before he ordered his fifth whiskey. I finally introduced myself and he could have cared less...yet he was very interested in our flight attendant. He worked for GBS and said he, single handedly resigned the Hertz account. Bravo I said. Then I asked about the terms and he said he could not divulge them and then questioned my credentials until I pulled out my business card, then he shut up. He was an a--. These newbies are the ones I hope are getting cut. I actually told him not to hang his star on IBM and he looked at me like I was an idiot. Good luck Hertz GBS boy. We will all probably be reading your sob story here soon as well.

Been with the company 16years, currently on LTD, which is hell in itself. They may get away with giving me no severance package. Treated poorly by my manager and the executives the entire time. Started as a physical injury and turned into depression because of the treatment... Terrible company to work for!!

Associating with IBM is a waste of valuable time in an IT professional's career. Now, the organization is run on quarterly basis. They have also started layoffs in IBM India. They retain people only in lower bands or people with avg salary less than the industry avg. IBM retains huge community of managers mainly to ensure that people in technical roles are not paid enough and to drive out senior resources for every quarter.

@3brnw - good luck!

Does anyone live in California? What happens to your vacation? I was under the impression that "if you don't use it, you lose it", but I read that, that was against the law.

I had more than 2 weeks from last year which I thought I lost and more accumulated this year. Is IBM breaking the law? What are our options?

Glad one of my colleagues got the boot, in my org, boosted about experience but didn't have any period. Didn't do sh--, couldn't do sh--, talk alot of sh--.

In Amorim Lab Services organization, we do services for integration products. No work there anymore as hour rates are out of the charts... so no customers want to pay that. Been on the bench since Jan 1, therefore I got caught in the RA. 52 years old, 16 years with IBM, 90/30 plan as the others. Good luck to my fellow colleagues.

Read most of the posts. Writers sentiments and frustrations with IBM ring true with me. I was given an out by IBM in 2010 after 15 years in GBS. Have consulted as an independent since and enjoyed it since. IBM GBS was a pile of crap when I was there. All the bright managers were let go the boot licking spineless brainless wonders were promoted. Looking back after I left, I realized that IBM was just a marketing organization with little substance. I don't miss IBM neither should anybody else leaving that empty shell of an organization.

11 years, gbs, 30/90 - glad its over. Wife was let go las year, gbs too. Good luck to all.

Got cut on 3/30. Cloud Sales Operations. 29 years of service, 55 years old. The worst thing is that I lost my retirement 16 years ago when they changed the retirement plan. Missed the age cutoff by 6 months - I was 39-1/2 when you had to be 40 to get the retirement plan. Was screwed out of hundreds of thousands of dollars then, screwed again now. ONE WHOLE MONTH severance after nearly 30 years of busting my butt long hours year after year. Have paid the price in terms of family relationships and quality of life due to the years of long hours - children with major issues because parents weren't there (wife is an IBMer also) - lots of sacrifice for a "career". What a waste.

Now they want me to "work" for the next 3 months. Why should I care when they don't? What a joke. It's SOOOO IBM. They want us to stay on while we look for a job so if we find a job with another company they won't have to pay us.

I hope Ginni and the board enjoy their multi-million dollar bonuses while many of us who helped build the company suffer.

@3aimj , your post is not gonna last. Personal info not allowed here, that includes e-mail as well. Mail address may be legit, but no way for site admins to verify its ownership. So they'll probably delete it just in case.

@JtAUPMv-3aimj IBM acquiring a company double their net worth? What are you talking about? There is no candidate company like that!

@3aimj this board is littered with examples of IBM buying companies and laying people off.

I'd have that exit plan ready and start working on it ASAP.

IBM is a declining business and it's all about cost cutting right now, not a good place to be at right now. The pie is shrinking by the day...

IBM revamped it's sales and technical sales commission targets to be based on employee salary. That approach allowed IBM to target senior, higher earning, employees by positioning them in accounts that had zero or low history of purchase and thus targeted the lower "performing " senior employees with carefully managed account selection; conversely allowing the lower paid young to survive because the dollar amounts they had to sell were miniscule. I too was Laid off following half of one year in an account set and the two previous halves switching account sets, none of the Account groups had any relationship with IBM or prior sales history of note yet drove quota in the multi millions for each half in quota. The "buyer beware" flag is that IBM is not interested in improving or increasing long-term sales, rather they are short term visioned to doing whatever measures it takes to make a quarter by quarter number. I believe, they are now at a point of no return. Development is too lean to be progressive let alone on target. Sales is too lean and too frequently reorganized to be successful with accounts that depend on relationship and industry understanding. The net result it is a target against higher wage earners within (seniors). The competitive sharks will be in the water big time. I I am a long term IBMer. I hope the company survives the Genni era.

I got the call last Thursday 3/30/2017. It is what it is...

We have watson that ibm is selling, but we cant even use watson to help us cut the sh-- out of wasting money, making things better, companies will finaly realize watson is crap and whole ibm will go the drain, google and other companies have much better systems, cloud, what is ibm cloud? Its a bs, crap, coparing to aws and other... ibm is going down, losing good quality people, no appreciation for talent, wasting $$$ thats what ibm stands for...

I got let go too, after 2.5 years of service, countless weekends, no bonuses or any appreciation, ibm s---s big time. What bothers me is that they waste money left and right, and they dont care but they gladly cut people off to save some $$. Last few years I witnesses where IBM spent few milion and it was total waste, they writing it off or will soon. We build satelite offices just to close them soon after. They sent consultants to work on those and other locations where they did not have to go trough the same travel requirements, so when I had to stay in selected ibm hotels they could stay in any as long as it was reasonably prices, but usualy it was 100% more than I spent for, they could travel any airlines and pay whatever they needed to get to locations, more over they had 40h week, flights did count agains those 40 hours, while I spent weekends and evening, this is how IBM spent a lot of money. We purchased equipment and no one questioned anything, in millions, and we did not use 1/2, some systems are not even setup in boxes unopened or opened but never configured because they dont care.. thats millions of $$$ stupid management, wonder how this company survives, how they function.

Sorry to hear who already RA'ed. Hope you all will get what you want in short time. I am 15+ years of exp. few months old in IBM. I know here lot of experienced IBMers, i have curious question. Who and what decides a Employee under RA??

Also in Bill Kribbs (VP) organization, got the call on Friday. 55 years old, 90/30 plan. Happy it is done. Going to do some contracting and will make more money and I will be happier than working for that dumb IBM company, I believe 5 other colleagues of mine are getting laid off as well.

it's not about India, it's not about the UK, it's not about the US - it's about the age discrimination attached to it. that is global age discrimination.

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/31/ibm_bloodbath_continues/

30 years at IBM, STS Division, approximately 26-28 employees - rumor was we were all going to be co-located. Didn't happen - we all got RA'd - entire dept. I cut my manager off on our phone convo after 1minute of her reading from a script. Told her to cut the BS. I'll read the package when I get it from her. Thought she'd be slick and prohibit copying or printing of the email through Lotus Notes. She was sending the note to a Notes Developer from years ago. What a joke that she would think I didn't know how to crack the code to forward the note to my lawyer, friends and colleagues. Confidential my ahole. Happy to finally be "Voluntold to Retire". Will love to call the ESC next week and tell them to roll-over all my Pension and 401K to my Fidelity IRA and fk off. Do you think I sound a little bitter?? LOL

Is there a Twitter account somewhere that can be used to report these IBM layoffs? Bringing all that layoff info to twitter would be great to get better coverage. Also got a call on Friday, I am tech Sales, 15 years, 45 years old. At the end of the day, I am glad to be out. This company really stinks and will be bankrupt soon.

Laid off from GBS. Called on Friday. Have been on the Xcel Energy project since beginning of the year and was supposed to be on it until year end. So I was billable and making money for IBM, yet I get laid off. What sense does that make? Also on the 90/30 plan, though I already have an offer from another company so I will not stick around much longer.

IBMer for all of my career (will be 20 years in June) and was officially notified on Friday 3/31 that I was part of the RA. I am in the CIO org. My entire management team left or was pushed out last year and clued me in, so it is not a surprise. 3 Options. 90 day notice with 30 day salary as severance payment OR Tech Boot Camp for 120 days (after 30 day decision period) at 50% of salary OR work for a non-profit for 120 days I think at 50% of salary.

My 'squad' was moved to Brazil for 'CO-LOCATION' purposes. I work(ed) remote. I have NEVER had a rating below a 2+ (this past year I had ACHIEVED with the new RATING system) I am skilled in the focus areas of IBM (Analytics, Cloud, Machine Learning, Data Science..etc) but that didn't save me.

'Co-Location' is KING. Looking at the job market over the past few months, IBM technologies are not in demand compared to the likes of AWS/Microsoft Azure/SQL Server. You see next to nothing for Watson/IBM BlueMix/DB2. IBM is going to have a rough time long term. Its been a good ride. I have enjoyed my career, but over the next 3 months, I plan to pick up some MS and or AWS certificaitons, and try to wash the BLUE off :-)

Got the RA notice this past Friday. In Lab Services, Bill Kribbs (VP) org. Many of us are getting laid off. 90/30 plan. Glad to be finally out. This IBM company is just a waste of time.

Guess it's RA or PIP for a good set of really skilled technical sales people this year. Amazed at management not being able to plan, except chopping and changing groups every six months. They should lay off the whole middle management to fix this, and not RA the real workers who can actually do the job and make money for IBM. Some of the recent really top management changes have been good, but layer below and middle management is just plain clueless.