I have been watching this site since April 2023. I started during the time all the major tech companies were laying of (Amazon, Facebook,Microsoft etc.). IBM layed off 3,900 in January but from April till now they haven't had a major layoff compared to the other companies. I did hear of a hiring freeze but not the layoffs I was afraid of, but I am not an insider so I don't know
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There were thousands layed off effective last May and June. Not much in the media. Was in Consulting, Many in HR - happened in US and Globally.
And safer from a legal standpoint
no layoffs just pips cheaper
This is ridiculous.
You using this website to tell you when layoffs happen is probably the biggest case of confirmation bias I have ever seen. And the fact that you have been monitoring this website for that is just... why? Why bother? I'm just imaging you finding a post about layoffs and your response is, "Ha! I knew it..."
The required 3 days a week in the office is a company-wide mandate since September 1st. For me, not being 50 miles of any IBM office means I now need to relocate. Funny how there was an exemption to retain WFH status, now there is not. I have 30 days to provide my decision and then 3-6 months to move. IBM will not pay for relocation. For me this move is out of state. If there was logic, relocation would be to a business unit hub. Sadly it’s not, as I am told just choose any IBM office and to ensure my badge is swiped 3 days a week. I have confirmed from security badge swipes and connection to the server are indeed are being monitored. Makes zero logical sense to go sit at an empty office as my department and team are global. This is an intentional layoff which is underway right now in the US. I have still not made my decision. 23 days an counting. HR leaves managers with no advice, other than confirming this is a directive from the CEO, which is a true statement as confirmed during an all employee office hours meeting a few weeks ago.
You are absolutely correct, Sir. Don't listen to the IBM haters here.
There's a ton of stealth layoffs being done right now at IBM via PIPs with impossible to achieve metrics.
You obviously have no idea how ibm works.
It truly boils down to IBM having more managers and staffers than the work demands. HR invested millions into tools to make managers and staffers more productive, yet we can’t seem to pull the trigger on thinning the manager and staffer herd. Meta realized it’s all about efficiency, but IBM can’t seem to cut the bloat that has infested its middle management. AK efficiency should be job 1
A point of clarification...a "layoff" in most companies is a temporary action, taken during a business slowdown. Employees are temporarily let go according to a priority list, and then when times get better they are called back to work. In the US, the car companies are prime examples of this. Factories shut down and workers are released when business is slow, then everything reverses when the economy gets better.
IBM has never done things this way ever since job terminations began in the late 1980s. IBM's situation is not due so much to a cyclical economy, but rather that its core businesses have commoditized and wrecked IBM's value proposition. To put it another way, in many market segments IBM is no longer needed in the world.
So for the past 35 years, IBM has been looking for legally and politically acceptable ways to get rid of costly staff and other liabilities and expenses as each of their lines of business goes downhill. There's no recalling employees back to work...these terminations are permanent, with extreme prejudice. ("Don't EVER come back!") In my time it was networking, displays, monitors, keyboards, and printers (among other things) that went away. I guess GTS (Kyndryl) is the latest thing to go. PIP? RA? In the end, it's a distinction without a difference. IBM's business models are failing, and they want the employees out of there.
The layoffs back in April were code named Project Granite.
There was a large number of RAs starting in April and finishing in June. They spread them out by country and by business unit so they could fly under the radar. After the RAs then the PIPs started with target for completion of exits in Q4. Next will be another round of collocations justified by the 3 days a week in the office. Offices have been closed in several cities so people are left not being in 50 miles of an office. They will be given 30 days to decide and then 3-6 months to move. If they choose not to move they will be cast as being voluntary separations.
You are just burying your head in the sand and believing what IBM wants you to believe.
IBM is shady about "how" they lay off their employees as they want their cuts to stay out of the media - myself and my entire US team (>100 people) were all laid off in April, and there was a mass US HR cut in May (400~), and when you add in all of the others + those who are being quietly laid off via a PIP, the US layoffs alone are in the thousands. I'm still really surprised that no media channels have picked this up, aside from the story on the two former HR execs RA'd in May that are in the process of suing for age discrimination.
Lots of execs in Consulting went in Europe, you just have to look carefully
IBM seems to have adopted PIP’s for anything that is measurable, BUT that IBM wishes to remain in. That easily applies to sales, billable hours, utilization, and even amount of code written. In IBM’s eyes PIP’s remove the lower performers at a reduced risk. RA’s on the other hand tend to apply to business that IBM is exiting. (watson health, GTS that Kyndryl didn’t take, weather, etc etc) These are broad generalizations, but they seem to apply. Given that, IBM really isn’t exiting very many businesses anymore as there isn’t much left to trim. Perhaps some trimming in “infrastructure” remains as cloud, TSS, and distributed sectors are not performing to expectations as mentioned on the 3rd q call. If IBM trims, it wouldn’t surprise me to see a skinny “infrastructure” get absorbed by Consulting and IBM becomes a consulting and SW company focused around Niche enterprise.
They had large scale layoffs in Europe, US and Canada in April. Even many executives were let go.
Very easily
How can they put half the people on a PIP?!
It's a differen tactic, death by a thousand small cuts, you don't see these in the news.
Half the people in my BU is on PIP. If that is not a layoff I don't know what it is.