The company who proudly denounced layoffs for decades becomes the poster child for layoffs for as long as most IT workers have been alive. Do people still want to work at IBM? What does the company add to your resume and your career when you spend your time worrying about layoffs, dodging them the best you can then dealing with the fallout when you get the pink slip?
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I can remember when I was hired by IBM in the early 80s. All my parents friends were like.. wow IBM your set for life now. Great company... Even with the layoffs of the early 90s I think we were still a great company producing new products but some where in mid to late 90s to the early 2000s we lost our way. Some where along that road the bean counters figured it would be easier to get read of people to help profits rather than make a product that people wanted. The people who never made a product in their life were not making the decisions on how to become more profitable. Not realizing that you need to invest in R&D they just managed quarter to quarter.. not the way to run a company These same people now wonder why they are behind everyone.
There are not many left who remember when you dreamed of being hired by IBM. IBM was the greatest company to work for. Those people have watched the company rot from what it was to what it is. No honest person would recommend IBM as a good place to work now.
A little less than 10 years ago I was at a friends house for dinner. Their daughter was getting ready to graduate with a degree in engineering. She has several job offers, one being with IBM. She was excited to talk to me as she was leaning towards IBM. As she told me about the job she was offered, it was in some big city and involved consulting, I listen. I asked her what other companies she had offers from and what they were offering as benefits. They were had higher pay and benefits were better. (one even had a pension still)
I then told her I would suggest you really consider company x. It had everything she was looking for in a job, just as IBM also was. She was floored that I did not say IBM. And to be honest with you it hurt me not being able to say IBM. I told her if she joined IBM there was a good chance she could be let go within 10 years no matter how good of a job she was doing.
Today she is happy with the choice she made, moving up the ladder, making a good salary, living in a nice area and not worried about being RAed.
But it did hurt not being able to say go with IBM.... and yes the truth hurts sometimes....
GINNI
THINK
After 30 years @ IBM I was part of a resource action in 2017. When it first happened, I was so dissapointed. All those years, we were told how talented the teams were and innovative the products were, but that was not the case. I continue to work with large Fortune 500 clients, but IBM is not in the conversation. At best, clients will maintain their IBM footprints, but more common is that they want to move off of IBM.
The culture at IBM started by Sam and continued by Ginni is toxic. Innovation is gone, grinding down sales people, and the lies to the teams have demoralized the workforce.
For those who were part of this cycle, there are better days ahead. While there is pressure to perform everywhere, other companies have respect for the individual, one of IBMs former core values.
“What happened to IBM?“
A greedy pig named Ginni who only cares about her bank account was allowed to run it into the ground.
Hope your son keeps his job for more than a year... IBM often hires new grads so that it can lay them off at some point to show that not only old employees are being laid off.
My neighbor's son just graduated and hired by IBM as PM, starting salary is 85k. If they layoffs thousands of the old employees are making average of 150k, it is a big gain for IBM.
My advice to my younger peers is to run for the hills.
All my kids have computer science degrees. None, nor their contemporaries, would come near IBM with a 10 foot pole.
IBM is the new TimeWarner.