It’s happening everywhere. It would seem, based on anecdotal evidence, the longer you were at IBM, the more experienced and competent you are, it’s more likely that you will be hit. Some colleagues report their teams are being gutted. None of it makes any sense to me. I can’t even imagine the fallout. Good luck to all of us.
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AK said: “ No more expensive dinosaurs at IBM”
Whenever a war is being lost, one sees a lot of things on the battlefield that make absolutely no sense. Good men getting ki-led for no obvious tactical or strategic benefit, accidents happening to people "who should never have been there", wins or losses occurring not by victory or defeat but rather by chance. Many of the greatest works of literature in human history were written by people who went through war and lived to tell about it.
The next time you see your friends getting canned, or maybe yourself getting canned, you would do well to remember this truism in life. Not everything is going to make sense. By all accounts, the IBM management ranks consist of tens of thousands of managers. They are all executing strategies that amount to little more than "cut x% of your staff". It is the kind of strategy you use when resources are running thin and hard decisions have to be made. Cut some heads now (including maybe your own), or the entire department will be shuttered.
Sometimes, the heads are cut and the entire department is shuttered anyway. A lot of good jobs went overseas following that plan. Top achievers, people who brought in lots of money, were loved by customers, you all know them. It didn't matter. What mattered was that the generals of the company needed to save some cash and so they let go of some staff. Simple as that.
It's not exactly a forward-thinking or innovative strategy.
IBM does not care about growth because it is too difficult to get it, on the other hand it is a lot easier to cut costs to bring profit and the FCF up. So, that is what it does.
It only means that the IBM leadership is just lazy and always takes the first shortcut.
It is not just about employees pulling their weight They are laying sales people off who consistently exceed their quotas. They are laying people off who are 90% billable on long term projects.
This is a continuation of the nonsensical. They have been doing layoffs that are not well thought out for years. This is actually inhibiting growth, not helping it.
Been at IBM for 27 years and the layoffs have long since made sense. Just numbers and short sited at that.
You want an explanation that makes sense?
IBM is out of money.
There's your explanation. As IBM cut staff and sold off division after division, they ran themselves out of breathing room to manage their finances. In other words, they can't cook the books anymore.
IBM now has to act like any startup, because they now have the finances of a startup. Every employee has to pull their weight (financially), and if they can't make it they're out the door.
It's not a target number, but a percentage.
I want to get laid off. It's better than the bench pip I'll get.