I'm no longer with IBM, but 80% of my former group of 600 people will be notified, on Monday that they are being laid off. Sounds like Marketing is being decimated.
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Post from TheLayoff.com
Bruh,
Happening right now, just like I said, when I reported that it was changed to Thursday. Some execs are doing mass layoff notices in meetings (they asked to attendees for permission to so so), since there isn't enough time in the day to do all if them at once.
Had a 1on1 scheduled for Tuesday...was moved to Thursday... we will see what happens tomorrow. If it's my turn I'll come back and post details.
Those who received RA notices on their calendar, please post your country, BU, YOE and Band. This would be helpful for others who are stressed by now! Thank you.
I haven't heard from my manager. Either I'm not on the list or he'll spring it on me tomorrow. I'm not in marketing so maybe it's just focused on one area.
I wish there was a way you could volunteer for RA and swap with those selected (and who want to stay). But there's just no way I can hint to my manager I want to be RAed without consequences. I imagine anyone saying they want to be RAed and they're not near retirement age, will be looked upon badly. I mean, it's basically telling them you are done at IBM.
Does it only affect marketing or others like cloud, systems etc?
Same as @6uud+1ciVYkmn meeting for tomorrow with mgr USA Marketing
@6uud+1ciVYkmn sorry to hear.
Which BU? Country?
Meeting with higher level manager appeared on my calendar for tomorrow morning. RAs begin tomorrow [thursday 19 aug]
Last year, I'd have been stressed from RA fears. This year, I'm hoping I'm on the list. Severance, healthcare and time off to recover my soul. I'll worry about employment after.
They are going to be after sept 1, after Kyndryl split and marketing reorg.
Bruh when is it? It sounds like crying wolf this year.
Every month there's gonna be a big layoff which didn't happen and we're almost in September.
I’ll take that bet mate.
20 Quid on no mass cuts this week.
Nope. Not happening. Sept.
@4kdg+1ciVYkmn Heard this directly from a higher up as well. It has been moved to thurs or fri
All of you who suggested Thursday as the traditional layoff day are quite astute. My contacts have been told that it's Thursday and possibly Friday (due to the number of people affected).
- OP
@3jez, believe it or not there are a handful of people out of 350,000 IBMers who don't agree completely with you. The fact that your mind immediately leads to conspiracy when somebody posts a comment that you do not like says a lot about who you are. Folks, most of this website is just here for profit anyway. Conflict is literally what makes these guys money. The upvotes and downvotes are often forced by the same person who made the post. The reposts are often fake and not done by the original poster. I've seen the same person pretend to be a group of disgruntled IBMer multiple times. And no, IBM HR doesn't give a hoot about what is said on this forum. Have a great day. Cheers
@3oei+1ciVYkmn how much do you get paid to come here and write this on every thread?
Sounds exactly like how execs talk in their all hands.
It doesn't matter if ibm is big or small, with declining revenues it's a 0 sum game when it comes to wages and developers and sellers are getting screwed by "management".
There's no organic growth in "hybrid cloud", they're just buying companies for quarterly revenues and customers.
One would think that after putting in 34B in RH that would be it but no, just this past quarter ibm bought 4 companies for $2B. This and dividend strategy indicates there's no real research going on at ibm anymore.
They're just selling old software and calling it hybrid cloud. Without a successful public cloud it'll all come crumbling down like house of cards.
Ibm will be a mainframe only company. They should have realized this, trimmed everything else and sold pieces to cloud companies without spending 34B on RH.
Anyway back to the point, prayers for everyone getting RAed and good luck for the future
3nsc You are correct about the consequences of the GTS spin-off, BUT your timing on the implementation is way off. IBM is fully committed to streamlining! They made that decision during fall plan of last year and are running down not only the spin-off plan, but the streamlining plan at full speed. Yes they can run and chew gum at the same time. Ask yourself why IBM allocated 6.5 billion over 2020-2022 for restructuring. They spent 2.3 billion in 2020 for GTS restructuring. They are in the process of spending 3 billion on GTS and Hybrid IBM restructuring in 2021 (2 billion for hybrid and 1 billion of GTS) and finally 1 - 1.5 billion for hybrid in 2022. Thats a lot of restructuring dollars allocated in 2020 if you didn’t already have a plan. Trust me they have a plan and are executing against it. New IBM will look far far different (much smaller, more focused (AI/Hybridcloud/Redhat SW modernization/enterprise), and far more efficient) Come June of 2022 you will recognize IBM, but it will be far closer to 1970 IBM (enterprise focused) then to 2010 IBM ( all things to all customers). IBM has decided to not compete with the hyperscalers, but rather to embrace them where they can and exploit what they do well.
Once the Kyndryl spin-off is complete, a lot of suddenly idle folks in Finance, HR, and Legal will turn their gaze elsewhere ... and things will quickly get very ugly. Use your remaining time wisely, and make plans to move on NOW, if you haven't done so already.
You are absolutely correct.
You always need to pay attention when these d-mb executives speak because they will always tell you what is coming.
IBM will never fully exit HW. They have built and cultivated a monopoly and they are building and cultivating a pivot around that monopoly. Will they dump “commodity HW” In a nanosecond, but enterprise HW is how they have kept the ship afloat, and it’s the foundation of what they have built their turnaround on. I fully expect IBM to continue to pursue the idea that Cloud has to run on something, so why not our monopoly HW as long as it’s competitive. That means IBM will most likely partnership (50/50) off HW where IBM gets out of the manufacturing business, but keeps the design and OS business. To sweeten the deal, IBM will throw in IBM labs research and expect an IP fee for any HW sales. IBM has test bedded this already with the Chinese and Open systems when it comes to Power already. Expect some sort of deal to follow that plan.
Next…systems. Heh heh
Can confirm.
The CMO herself said i. her blog the reorg would be Sept 1. I guess no ones pays attention.
I know for sure that Marketing is about to get destroyed. The org is being reduced by 75% at some point in the third quarter. I just don’t know the official RA date.
I believe it. Everyone in marketing has known this was coming for a while. New CMO, major reorg. Leadership emphasizing a much “leaner” organization. Been hearing since June that the axe would fall in August.
I love all the downvotes for the people coming on here with a common sense approach. This webpage has become as much of a joke as IBM has. Bunch of crybabies and whiners.
Here's the bottom line - if you hate working for IBM, either find a new job elsewhere or make a plan to get out. Coming here and crying about it isn't going to fix it for you.
I have two well-placed friends in IBM. They usually tell me when something is up. I've not heard a peep from them about Monday. I dont think this one is real.
I have heard the same and expect I am on the list.
Mate, this is fake news. Layoffs are until after sept 1
"Amazon sucks. "
Undoubtedly depends on what part you are in
Astronaut, pretty cool.
Warehouse worker, not so much.
I once met a former Russian Communist...post USSR collapse, here in the USA. He actually wished for his old life in the Soviet. But he was an acclaimed concert pianist. Not a factory worker.
As always, depends on where in the game you are standing.
"Amazon is hiring! Reach out to any of your old colleagues who went there and ask for a referral. "
Yeah, but do they have any on ramp for IBM-centric folks (read that mainframers) that don't possess a handful of AWS certifications?
Seems to me, just like the industry as a whole... the splintering of "technologies" into camps/specialities is doing here what it's been doing since that trend began... serving as a barrier to entry rather than a bridge to new roles.
Project managers (heck managment in general) and such don't seem to suffer from the "Experience with product x at level y only need apply" syndrome.
Have seen PM's from IT move to something as unrelated as pharmaceticals.
IT techies and industry recruiters really have created a problem here, and then they call it a "skills shortage".
Massive problem for anyone in the biz hoping to have any career longevity and not be deemed "obsolete" in short order...
Long ago (pre-87-market-crash) there were onramps and training plans.
With the rise of contracting companies in the run up to Y2K... that went away.
Now everyone is trying to scalp folks from someone else's training budget.
We never got the parasitic elements know as "contracting companies" back out of the industry after Y2K was over.
With predictable results. Folks trapped in contracting get squeezed for the profits the contracting companies pull in.
Amazon sucks.
I wonder what % of C&CS revenue is ancient code (IMS/CICS, DB2, MQ, WAS, old acquisitions) vs IBM Cloud, OpenShift, anything written after 1999. Coca Cola would release their recipe before IBM released those numbers.
Amazon is hiring! Reach out to any of your old colleagues who went there and ask for a referral.
Which BU?
Post from TheLayoff.com
So the 30 people from my old group, who asked me to be a reference for new jobs because they got a heads up that their positions were being eliminated means I don't know what's happening?
I'm not a rumor mongerer. I've known about this for more than a month. It wasn't until two very reliable sources told me that it's monday, did I write something here.
GBS fan boys getting bent out of shape it seems.
Post from TheLayoff.com
You are correct, but that's because IBM thinks that the only contribution that Marketing can make is what we used to call "direct marketing". They send out billions of emails to the top 500 accounts, then claim "revenue assist" when $100 million customer buy something within the next 3 months. Sad part is that this piece of marketing will remain. The parts that provide strategic insight as to where markets are going and new/emerging markets is what's being eliminated.
All of Cloud is in C&CS. Hence the first C.
Post from TheLayoff.com
Monday is mid month. This allows them to give 30 days until termination and 2 weeks wiggle room, in case some units need to keep people for an extra day or two.
This is literally the timing of my layoff, last November.