Thread regarding IBM layoffs

Ginni Rometty and Diane Gherson came up with the "Dinobabies," and "dated maternal workforce," phrases. Rometty sat there saying "I love the energy" of those terms. She sent out her soldiers to different depts, when managers refused to lay good people off. They retired rather than destroy people's lives. People don't know there is racism (black agst whites, believe it or not). Black female managers come into depts where sales executives have met more than 300% of their quota for 15-20 yrs & got ripped off. In one instance, the manager created a hostile environment, switched the sales exec to three clients she KNEW would not buy from IBM. She gave this sales exec, who again made 300%+ in sales, 5 months (he worked for IBM FOR 20 YRS & was only 56). He made 88% of commission, and 100% the first of the year. She would berate him in front of other people, would tell him she'd teach HIM how to sell, & more. She laid him off. You can read about the set up in the Townsend vs IBM lawsuit in the section called "The Scheme." It's so despicable. Good men in their 60s, who have teenage children they are going to have to put through college in the next years, are working midnight-8am stocking shelves at places like Trader Joe's. Boston Globe covered it. For all the pain & suffering newly botoxed Rometty (who is now getting 36mil at Cargill - she knows nothing about that industry) & Gherson (who was hired by Harvard to teach there - it's clear Harvard is devoid of all morals w/bizarre protests, hiring Bill DeBlasio, Lorie Lightfoot & Brian Stelter) have caused, they deserve nothing but karma.

On an aside:
On the east coast when you sell millions and go to collect your sales commission, they say "sorry, we cap it at $10-20K." However, on the west coast they give up to a million in commission, which is what East Coasters would've gotten. There was a lawsuit by a black salesman who claimed racism bc the white sales people got millions, and he only got $275K, was fired and sued.

https://wraltechwire.com/2020/06/17/report-ibm-settles-lawsuit-with-black-software-salesman-over-2-4m-in-commissions/#:~:text=In%20the%20lawsuit%2C%20Jerome%20Beard,as%20reported%20in%20The%20Register.

The manager who backed the black salesman & also got fired, received $11 mil. https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/fired-ibm-manager-who-backed-black-salesman-awarded-11-million

Until we get a congress and white house that passes much stronger labor laws for age discrimination, things will not change. Europe is better off than the USA. IBM will not change nor will any other company. For some stupid reason, executives think older workers cost too much, are not as productive as younger workers, and are not open to change and learning new things. This is total bs to put older worker in that category. I am very recently retired now from IBM but I can run circles around any younger worker with my energy, skills, health, intelligence, experience, teaming skills, and work ethics.

I wouldn’t bet against Lenovo Both companies have different underlying objectives and if a marriage of convenience gets them to the partnership table, they will most likely say yes.
Lenovo’s underlying objective = volume and gaining share in enterprises
IBM’s underlying objective = cost reduction and non-enterprise withdrawal

Cloud/edge computing gives both companies a reason to partner as its a win/win leveraging IBM’s IP and Lenovo’s low cost manufacturing

Will NEVER happen with Lenovo

As IBM shrinks so does HR shrink. HR will continue to shrink as IBM continues to remake itself and with drawl from other market places. (watson health, weather, etc etc). NOTE IBM exited Intel, and even they realize that was a mistake given the explosive growth of cloud. Look for IBM to partner with one of the big commodity Intel makers. My guess is old reliable Lenovo. IBM will have to offer up something for Lenovo to say yes. Again my guess is part of the value chain of Power, storage, TSS and IP. Possibly all of IBM’s manufacturing for a guarantee of market share (global foundries deal). The low end of infrastructure provides IBM little return, and the way to leverage it is via commoditization. Time will tell, BUT everyone can see IBM is steering the ship towards “mainframe” and its value chain only.

As my momma used to say, you reap what you sow.

Can someone explain how the RA list is created? Is it really impersonal - based on criteria entered into a machine - like age, location, JRS, time in Band? Or is it your FLM or second line manger that creates the list?

These people sold their souls to the devil and are now trying to litigate it back. They ruined lives without a second thought. F them.

See the people in HR know enough to NEVER sign what they throw in front of you. If you are US based you must always talk to a lawyer. You have no laws to protect you.

Let’s hope Onken held onto those box of HR records in the article, but they were likely destroyed as directed. What a corrupt set of executives IBM has had! Obviously if they exist could be subpoenaed.

At first I was appalled at what the recent UAW demands are. But after working at IBM and knowing what corporations getting away with, I am all for their strike.

Now IBM is using machine learning models to determine who to layoff first. Maybe one of their variables in the model is called runway now

Somebody should submit a question for AK to answer in his next office hours: Aren't you concerned that your limited "runway" may not allow you to accomplish all the advances you have planned for IBM?

Arvind is getting up there in age. Will he force himself out? Honestly does anyone believe a word he says? I also remember his no more RAs statements on one of the Ask Arvind propaganda shows back in 2022.

I agree. Apparently HR is fine until it happens to them. Plus it's all about what Finance thinks anyway. Everyone else is in a holding pattern.

Pat Onken laid me off, though it was not age related. But I do remember her patronizing lecture that was basically how when IBM tells you to jump, you ask how high. Cuz that's a real true blue IBMer.

Everyone talked about age discrimination at IBM. Even those who weren't affected. But Onken only discovered it when it happened to her?

It was suspicious when the previous HR Vice-President, Diane Gherson, stepped down after 7 years and IBM was being sued for age discrimination back then. Something did not smell right back then and it still lingers

LOL. All those years of protecting the company from employee complaints of agism, and this is how they are treated. That's Karma!