I am the only one in my ever-shrinking group that got RAd. I am over 50.
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You can call it discrimination against older workers or discrimination against highest paid workers, the result is still the same. You can't do one and hide behind the other.
They include (mix in) younger workers in these RAs to disguise potential age discrimination exposure.
Being in the old defined benefits pension plan, I received a letter in the mail back in Dec 2019 stating that due to pension plan requirements, I must start drawing my pension when I reach 65, unless still employed. However, once that employment ends, I will have up to 180 days to begin drawing from the old plan. Hmmmm, imagine that, they knew I was turning 65 this year; what a coincidence. :-)
At the same time, I and a few of my colleagues (not on the list) noticed how management was systematically isolating me from our team's mission (e.g.: not copied on emails, no longer included in strategic planning, or consulted, etc.). Imagine that, another coincidence.
In retrospect, the writing was on the wall back in Dec of 2019. All levels of management knew about it and were actually planning their final move so they'd be prepared when the new CEO flipped the switch. After all...
a) these take months to architect and require a lot of coordination,
and
b) due to age, myself and 3 of my colleagues were already on the list.
The Corp mandated target was to reduce headcount by 10%, so their challenge was to identify enough younger candidates across the organization to include in the RA to disguise, or water down potential age discrimination exposure.
Management needed time to find a way to disguise how to justify letting 4 of us 'OK Boomers' go so they met, defending their favorites knowing all along who was already on (and would stay on) the list due to 'age', allowing them to spare many of the younger employees...this time.
The net of this long story is that 42 people (as per WARN report) from my site were RA'd. Including myself, I know of 3 others who are also of 'retirement age'. Obviously, I don't know all 42 people, but just going with the few folks I do know, that's a 10% 'age related' hit which also conveniently aligns with the 'reduce by 10%' corp. mandate.
'nuf said.
No up or out is not always a good idea. It should be no perform or out. I refused multiple promotions because I knew I would not be a good manager and instead remained an engineer, earning 1s. From an "up" point of view, I was stagnant, but my performance was excellent.
It has nothing to do with age. The average age of IBM employees is high for tech. This is due to no up or out culture.
I am 36 and got RA'ed
Got RA'd. My entire team, most under a 1 year into the company. Also, we are all under 35.
Heartbreaking to say the least.
We are always surprised IBM avoids liability but somehow they keep doing it.
The department where I got RA from all of us were over 50.
company is a joke..