Thread regarding IBM layoffs

@3ximk - Stick two pencils up your nose and come into the office with no pants on, jumping onto desks, urinating into waste bins and shouting out random IBM software products. They'll assume insanity and be forced to put you on long-term sickness.

I heard news of my name being in the list for RA which will be officially communicated to me very soon. Any tips to prevent it? Is this the right time to write on open door about my management?

UK, 300+ positions going I am one of those from GTS.

I have been working with IBM GBS for 11+ years and was on a billable role with lot of client appreciations received thus far. On Thursday March 15, I was informed that my last day with IBM will be March 23. Never seen such level of absurd management and the way they are handling their employees.

Is Mechanicsburg still around ? Parts seem to be an off shore for the business. One site that could go .

Any updates about Europe?

Why no one is letting go of Ginni?

Also, people forget that our compensation keeps falling behind the competitors. So, this has a bigger impact than RAs

Worst management ever. Worse than the time with Akers. Lower level management is pitiful, unqualified, no leadership skills, dumbfounded, don't have a clue about IBM's own personnel policies, can't provide career or skills advice to its own people. IBM is a lost company that was once the greatest company -- number 1 on most favorable companies! Now it can't even make the Forbes Top 100 list! Disgusting slugs have driven it to the bottom of the barrel.

Weak innovation.

Weak execution.

Low morale among the deployable / billable skills.

Folks do not believe IBM's vision includes their future.

Leadership is a mirage .....

Weak board .... Smells like GE.

Break it into relevant units, spin off the units.

Refresh the Board, bring in an activist, do it now!!

Oh you are so right. 2018 will be the year of carnage for UK employees.... watch this space.

I think 2018 is about to start with a bang. Just me thinking about...

I have been asked to resign from IBM GBS India , if I do not resign, I have been threatened, that company will issue the no confidence latter , can any one explain what is the consequence of it

and pls advise for the situation

I really do not think that GBS will be affected in a major way - my group has been so busy we keep adding folks. Not sure about GBS globally but in my local market things are good and the pipeline looks healthy.

Am already certified for the "Expert" level in the old world term, the CF, (which no one would probably care nowadays, with Checkpoint being the new thing). Was taken on a project for a B9 position with the assurance that if i get client accolades, in the first 3 months of the 12 month project i would get the desired band.

4 months down the line, when the project went successfully live, i was told there are no budgets for the year 2018 and the result is forget promotion, even your role will not exist in the account any further.

This means, though being qualified and experienced enough, i will have to now settle for a compromise role and continue to do what i have learnt over a period of time and keep repeating it with a hope that someday a position or a role will open up in the near future that may see my vie for it.

The hopes are dimming, opportunities are few, and a career dream is fading. Now the focus, is to stay relevant in the job market and up sill. Being a certified Project manager is no longer beneficial in the IT domain as we keep repeating our selves year over year with little gain in sight.

Nobody is interested in the lessons learnt, no cares about a Project Charter any longer, stakeholders couldnt care less. All the more a reason for the project managers to die a silent death or suffer in silence.

Forget glorious roles, 2018, will see many such compromises being made in everyones lives (assuming they stay job relevant).

The idea of re-skilling / up skilling in a entirely new domain doesnt excite me anymore, since i am not able to summon the same energies that i invested in building my career so far. Knowing that the investment didnt fetch me what i needed from my IBM career, where do i have the energy reserves to bring them up for my use now?

Retirement is still a long time away, i wish to stay relevant, however, as one says, i will continue to rise again after every stagnation (am not calling it a fall), i just need to find enough motivation and energy to reinvest myself.

Pity my IBM managers for misleading me into this situation.

I would like to pile on and point to GBS as well - I think they will do a major reorg in 2018, they will move groups around, rearrange the P&Ls, heads will roll and three will be a ton of RAs

I do agree that we should see a new CEO in 2018, probably coming from outside the company. I think that would mean initially a very large layoff.

Agree with @xvvg on a major GBS hit - also agreed on India resources, it's a different way of approaching performance evaluation, kinship first.

GBS GTS will become one, losing 1 million a day at GBS, most everyone has now been put on billing, no billing? Happy (pick yours) Holidays a brand new pink slip just for you and 1000s like you to start your 2018. More and more resources are now India related, forget marketplace it's all prewired to keep friends employed. If you are band 6/7 get your tech skills in order, your PM skills badged as there will be a big push to have you replace Bands 8-10 as they fall off the wagon in January 2018.

Watson is a joke, try using it for internal searches. Slick ads and music do not make a product better.

India has not had many layoffs before - now that's changing - with a glut of available resources and a pullback in the US demand for outsourcing (issues with quality, client frustration, political situation) we'll see more layoffs there in 2018.,

Just visit some pages here, pick any Indian pure player - TATA, Infy, Wipro, anyone (including Accenture) you'll notice that there are 100s of posts from Indian resources complaining about things I noted above - layoffs, low performance ratings, forced resignations, etc...

The proverbial push has come to shove for India....

In general, Watson was treated with a gentle hand - now that the gloves are off and the smoke and mirrors tactic is not working any more - G & Crew will go full force after Watson resources. Expect Resource Actions, PIPs and all other tactics used on GBS and other groups before.

2018 will be the year of layoffs for IBM, I have no doubt about it.

At this point there is nothing to indicate that IBM Layoffs 2018 will be any different from Resource Action activities that are happening this year or next year. All would be the same, geographies, positions, etc. IBM has not changed much in terms of how they operate right now, so why would anything related to layoffs be different. You can make an argument that the cloud adoption will accelerate which will only hurt us as most of our customers chose different vendors when it comes to anything cloud (as opposed to legacy stuff)...

I think there's gonna be a "megacut" of sorts ... the 'back to the office' thing was to cut down the numbers w/ "voluntary separations" to save on severance. I think major (real) restructuring is coming as well as well as a changing the guards at the top. Ginni will do like Sam and step aside, but stay as chair for a year, before giving reigns to someone else. That's assuming they promote from within.

Something big is gonna happen with GBS and GTS. Not certain what, but (just a guess) I think they'll try to somehow transition those units to be closer aligned to the cloud/watson/etc stuff. Some sort of large divestiture is likely too, but I've no idea what or where.

Ginny will be the first one to go in 2018. The first 2018 RA victim.