Ibm Management Initiated Separation Rule for The Day in 2010:
Oh yea of little faith looking to stick your heads in the sand, looking for any shred of hope about how IBM operates, those of you who would like to believe that IBM has ethics – you need a check up from the neck up.
Some have asked for confirmation of what this site has been saying while most others agree strenuously with the predictions.
For you doubting Thomas’s one case in point:
IT vendor layoffs: The axe man cometh, Financial Times and I quote:
“Rather than make a formal announcement and cop to itself, to Wall Street, and its employees that it is making layoffs despite what it heralded as a stellar 2008, IBM is sticking to its practice of doing tactical “resource actions” within departments throughout its geographical regions. “The layoffs have started and IBM is still denying it to the press. Dozens of people at my location (about 150 employees here) received their pink slips today. They have 30 days to find a new job within IBM or they will be officially on the dole. I have also spoken to an employee at another location. Their entire group of 30 was given their ‘resource action’ notice today. Doesn’t matter what IBM is saying publicly. It’s happening.”
Management Initiated resource action:
The 2009 financial results were good, but this is just part of IBM’s continuing efforts to manage the resources we have and ensure the resources we have are aligned to client needs now and in the future,” said IBM spokesman recently.
Some estimate that is has been costing IBM anywhere from $70,000 -$100,000 to eliminate a worker in cost adjusted benefits and salary etc. Sam Palmisano stated recently in an IBM executive meeting that he is no longer going to be MR nice Guy- that 2010 will eliminate severance packages as much as possible and dramatically increase Management Initiated Separation – essentially firing for poor performance. He told his staff that he wants 20-25% of staff taken out in some targeted areas. We have people who do not have the skills we need for the future and they are going out the door for poor performance and no costly severance package. I don’t care what they did they are being rated a 3 and out the door they go.
See the World on the IBM Plan- the equivalent of join the Navy and see the World
More accurately GO Outsource yourself.
In a several round of layoffs made in 2009, the IBM offered laid-off employees in good standing and willing to work under local conditions (for 25 cents on the dollar) and terms the opportunity to go work offshore at one of IBM’s centers — not only in India, but also in Nigeria, Russia, Argentina, Brazil, China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Mexico, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa, Turkey and United Arab Emirates. Not surprisingly, Project Match sparked a strong negative reaction from labor unions dishing IBM for not only off shoring jobs to low-cost countries but now wanting employees to offshore themselves.
It will be interesting to see if IBM makes the same offer to laid-off employees in 2010.
Big Blue has narrowly dodged a new law requiring three months’ notice to the state when workers will lose their jobs. IBM has done surgical layoffs to avoid this law.
The 2010 consensus among the employees is that the jobs are going to India, China and Brazil.
So yea of little faith you are building your house of straw on IBM and the Big Wind know as Sam Palmisano will blow your house down.
Image via CrunchBase
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IBM SUCKS
Perhaps you have a better way to get rid of the dead wood. If so then let\’s see it. MIS\’s are usually the bottom 5% which is far less then the Jack Welsh program.
To Jack W, This has nothing to do with getting rid of dead wood. It’s all about getting rid of American workers, especially those 50 years and older and hiring cheap labor in India, China, etc. Many of the people fired in 2009 where above average performers according to IBM’s own performance rating system.
IBM is about one thing and one thing only now, executive stock options. IBM, once one of the world’s most premier large corporations is now nothing more than a high tech sweatshop, dedicated to making a few rich executives richer.
Good for you jr I couldn\’t have said it better!!!!!!!!!
I’m being laid off from IBM too…but not losing my job to someone overseas. I’m losing my job to a GDF center in Dubuque, Iowa. Where they are hiring people straight off the street with NO technical knowledge what-so-ever to do my job. Training them could be more painful! Uhhg! And I’ve never gotten lower than a 2+ in my 6 years with IBM. And also have received three “1″ ratings in 6 years.
If you have not worked for IBM in the past 20 years then you have no business commenting on their immoral and inhuman firing practices. Dead wood IS NOT being targeted despite what the IBM Spin doctors say. Those being fired are among the top performers in the company with consistent 1 and 2+ ratings. WHY? Because they are typically well paid and close to retirement. IBM does not want to pay US salaries PERIOD.
As for the Piggy Palmisano’s comment – “We have people who do not have the skills we need for the future” – if it wasn’t so sad it would be almost laughable. One of the largest IT training companies in the world will not pay to keep its staff’s skills current. The only training I have ever received at IBM is to learn their convoluted and reactionary processes. I have paid out of pocket for all of the IT training I have taken in my 10 years with IBM. Dead wood indeed. As each quarter brings more US firings (not layoffs) it becomes increasingly clear to me that the executives have achieved their positions through backstabbing, lying and malice toward their coworkers. As soon as I find a new job (and I have been interviewing) I am out and I will make it my personal crusade to bad mouth this company to anyone who cares to listen.
Something tells me Jack W is tied to an executive compensation plan or someone with an executive compensation plan.
You wait Jack, your turn is coming, the executives are downgrading ratings for loads of good employees.
Hey Sam, now that I am gone, who is going to finish the project to fix all the issues with no redudancy for boulder?
This is nothing more than Scale and Bail. Sam P comes in, scales back operations with little or no revenue in sight then when the stock hits his target, he bails. Alot like Obama\’s Hope a Dope tactic. Typical Americans, their World View is limited to CNN and FOX ‘news’ on wars.
WE ALL NEED TO TELL THE WORLD WHAT A TRUE RAT, THE ibm multinational corporation, really is. AGE DISCRIMINATION IS RAMPANT IN THIS COMPANY. IF YOU ARE AGE 50 AND OVER, THAT’S IT, YOU’RE GONE FOR ONE SENSELESS REASON OR ANOTHER.
WE NEED TO USHER OUR OWN PR FOR THIS NO GOOD ibm multinational corporation. IT’S FULL TIME THE WHOLE WORLD WAKE UP TO THIS SNAKE COMPANY. TELL EVERYONE, EVERYWHERE, JUST HOW BAD THIS COMPANY IS TO THEIR US WORKERS OVER 50. MR/MRS EEOC, WHERE IN THE HECK ARE YOU. WAKE UP. IBM IS KILLING US ALL WITH ITS GREED.
IBM IOWA
First, with there best employees they lost many accounts or had escalations to the level of board members in 2009 for unplanned down time and bad performance. Too many business managers not enough talent to keep the accounts. They also lost the state of MI account to Sun Microsystems and EMC storage corporation.
IBM IOWA
o Rental costs went through the roof in downtown Dubuque, IA, the downtown area is next to a major highway and major railroad route so the locals mentioned the buildings shake at night when there trying to sleep.
o IBM salaries fell off a cliff
o IBM does not work from standards for deployment,
o IBM does not work from standard operational procedures, that are tested, documented, and proven
o Dubuque, IA looks like GE buildings from 1920 industrial revolution just in slightly better condition
o People seemed nice but they exploit anyone from IBM
o IBM does not pay for interview costs
o IBM does not pay for relocation
o IBM accounts have a very low degree of quality, many hours of unplanned down time, poor performance end to end.
o IBM work force of 450,000 is 75% outside of the US plan on moving to INDIA
o The IBM employees other than human resources did not seem very happy to be there, human resources was giggly talking about how wonderful there life’s are in this quiet community miles from civilization.
o When you drive or fly into Rockford Illinois airport, you will be 80 miles from Chicago and just be surrounded by large farms, camp grounds, and hunting areas.
o The natives implied there are many felons in the downtown area, apartments are robbed and busted up as the norm.
o IBM is clearly replacing employees making a competitive salary with people off the street, yes you can automate everything, I did not meet anyone capable.
I was hoping things have improved since I was a IBM client, and they had high failure rates for operating system, servers, and storage. At the time they positioned themselves for strong bench strength, but hired people in services (90%) after a signed contract. I have only discussed three IBM accounts in the same number of years, one IBM was not allowed to enter the building, then 2nd an escalation to the board of directors, and the 3rd a very large account that removed there servers and storage from the building.
I was hoping that they would become a great technology company once again. How long will it take for clients to remove the middleman and negotiate directly with low cost firms both here and off shore. Granted IBM is a great name, they just don’t seem capable of living up to the hype. Without a building full of lawyers enforcing non disclosure agreements, they would have been out of business 15 years ago. Sadly the quality has not improved.
I know how to address the problems, eliminate the single points of failure, create fault tolerance, automate solutions to eliminate human intervention. Not sure anyone heard the message.
I worked in division and professional services with the best of them, and I mean the best of IBM, HP, SAP, KPMG, ACS, and Sun Microsystems, at some point you have to decide if you love the work, its not always about the money, yes you have to enjoy the work. When other employees asked me why I worked so hard, I said, if I won the lottery I would buy a high end computer and play with it. I was not kidding. IBM is cutting high paid employees and on shoring to low cost labor locations. I rent in CT, NY, and NJ is 1200 to 5000, in the north west, and mid west 385 to 500, do the math. I had jobs that they threw money at you, hundreds of thousands of dollars, in reflection, its never about the money if you work with a good group pf people that like there job you will enjoy your time at IBM or anywhere else. Sun Microsystems had reorganizations every four months for five years, in the end, I thanked them when “all” of us where laid off, I was tired of the stress from worrying about your job, wanted to focus on making the client and your employer successful.
Somthing to be said about your personal responsibilities before you buy into on shoring in low cost states. I met a former employee of Bell Labs that down sized in steps, and although at first degrading, its actually nice to live a simplier life. But, I’m single, and planned not to have children, basically, so I could stay young at heart. If you are married and have kids that depend on you, the answer is clearly not on shoring. The salaries fell off a cliff. Competitive companies are still paying for 100K jobs if you have the skills, and can sell it. Even in low cost states the national average for contract work is 63.50 all inclusive.
So the “stories” about hiring 25 year olds off the street for on shoring is far from the truth, I was accused of being the “best of the best” in professional services and the “best and the brightest” selected for 200 million dollar mission critical projects in division services. I had worked for a fortune 100 company since I was 16 and worked my way up including working my way through college.
I find people in sales arrogant and vain, I like to be judged by the results.
Over the years, I did systems engineering work instead of systems adminsitration, project engineer instead of systems administration, architect instead of project engineer, SAP BASIS instead of UNIX support and implementation. All 100% travel.
If you have had a great job with the associated skills in outsourcing, its local work, each new release was not that challenging, too many in the industry including you own professional services organization the value was limited.
First, some outsourced IT, then helpdesk, followed by support was moved off shore, on shored to low cost states. The reality IBM Global Services and Outsourcing, HP/EDS, DELL/Perot, Oracle/Sun Microsystems are all cutting jobs in services and moving outsourcing support to cheap labor markets.
Years ago, it was clear there was not long term furture in just OS support, and outsourcing for that matter. In this economic down fall theres no where to run because professional services is also being cut. But the years focused on just OS support, what where you thinking, like operations in mainframes a clear target for emliminating jobs since the 90’s. Now instead of corporate outsourcing its the oursourcing firms moving jobs to low cost labor countries.
At this point we are all screwed, but I saw the writing on the wall in regard to hosting and outsourcing as far back as 1995 when all roads lead to Texas. Nothing much has changed its just all roads lead to INDIA.
IBM, one of the worse paying company ….