Today I learned I am going to the bench in the US. Been a manager with IBM/Kyndryl for 18+ years and also forced to tell at least 6 of my employees so far they will also be moved to the bench. Bridge has to cut >$5m from the budget, overall CTO much more. Employees impacted in the US, India and Costa Rica as I know currently. All while they hire more VPs and pay huge stock dividends to the execs and tout the company has made the top 100 most loved workplaces that prioritize respect, care and appreciation for employees at the core of their operations..... I don't think so
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@wm unfortunately, hits like that are something I’ve been waiting to hear about.
Heard 600 FTEs in UK this week. Thousands more coming globally.
@sc Lucky you but I need to disagree pretty much by my experience. Only very few I have got were good or reasonable, but those were pushed out from the company very soon. And replaced by incompetent, hypocrites, id--ts, or combination. Quite likely maybe dependent on BU, but 8 levels of management is a problem for KD making it top-heavy, and hiding large number of useless fat.
@sj Yeaph, I remember that. Watson was another dead end, complete sunk cost, but the language model wasn't that far back in the days, despite the data feed IBM acquired, thus not re-sellable. Even of not much use for the Helpdesk unit to beat the IVRs. Another chapter was the acquisition of SoftLayer. lol. All deals processed via deal hub, must had its Cloud part ticked on, otherwise no-go. And all deals were financially poaching on anything that could be called cloud, even MF zCloud, here was another famous reports manipulation revealed then.
@qj have been with IBM/Kyndryl for 18 years, don't really see the real value in Bridge to be honest, I remember when IBM was promoting Watson heavily in the early 2000s, maybe Bridge should go on Jeopardy
I've been on the bench since April 1st and I've had the unpleasant knowledge that pretty substantial cuts to the workforce were coming. Today, I received my official last day, barring I get placed before then. Godspeed to everyone.
Got the call from my manager. I go on the bench June 30th, last day probably July 31st. Usual 3 months severance.
I’ve been with Kyndryl for over 17 years and had many managers and liked them all. The one thing ibm/kyndryl got right was picking managers.
I’m fine with it. Not angry or bitter. Kyndryl isn’t doing well and they need to find a way to profitability. It’s not personal - it’s just business.
@k0 Bridge is just a funny rebadging of old tools, stitching together legacy NetCool and SNOW with a little of flavour of RPO, and PRed by Marty as breakthrough state of the art tool that clients crave for, haha.. which means no sales pitch really
@nc where is their location and POD?
Some of my coworkers were laid off this past week, wondering how much worse it will get and whether they will continue offshoring delivery
@dd I think the question was more specific to bridge. Is that “product” now dead or going away?
@bf the “business” never really has existed it is just a rebadged and (badly) renamed arm of IBM that was loss making GTS so was hived off into this amazing new company “the largest startup in the world” with 90000 employees.
They promised many things but in the end it came with the same process same politics and same bureaucracy and a few large (albeit) loss making accounts and with nothing to really sell
@ah congrats
so basically this business will soon not exist?
@a7 in the US, and at least in CTO, they haven’t notified anyone but the 2nd line manager and in some cases the first line manager. We were told to tell them they will be unassigned after the sprint ends so on the 18th, then tell them they are moving to the bench after then. It’s a horrible way to treat your employees.
I was only told because my boss is actually a decent person but I was told I cannot tell the others until I get the official announcement, likely Monday
@ah yeah it’s kind of nice to actually know as this has been hanging over our heads since March. I agree, that is a sinking ship
I’m one of the many impacted. I’m prepared and wanted out so this is not a bad thing for me. It’s been grim. The blind leading the blind. Also, I get the sense I got one of the last life-rafts off a sinking ship.
@OP Sweden is cutting down.. TSMs are frozen out from deals and just watching from the bench (what will come)
@OP I'm sorry that happened to you and your team. Hopeful that you're all able to bounce back quickly.
Do you mind sharing how you found out, what details they shared with you, and how you approached telling your team?