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I don't see how IBM is much different than other traditional companies. It is part of normal attrition. In order for a company to hire new and fresh talent, they have to release older talent or bad talent. A company can not endlessly hire without trimming the fat.
NetApp had a big layoff this week as well. Cisco did before. Glaxo. List goes on and on. New companies that are hiring such as MetLife, RedHat, Citrix, eventually they will get to a point where they will be too bloated as well, and then need to trim the fat.
Just part of the corporate world, I have yet to see a Company that really watches out for their employees.
Yes, it is normal. Times change. Railroads alone employed a million people in this country in the 1950s. As late as 2000, Nortel employed 13,500 people in the Triangle if you include onsite contractors in the count. Today that's zero. High-tech companies still have to provide some employee benefits in order to attract applicants, but the days of providing a long-term career with a reasonable guarantee of longevity (subject to performance), pension, extensive company-paid training, severance, etc are gone, never to return. Career mobility is how employees must protect themselves these days.
Offshoring is a fact of life. If a company doesn't do it, bankruptcy is the sure consequence. We live in a global marketplace. Call it a race to the bottom if you will, but the fact is that some US companies have gotten really good at the game and still provide good jobs while exporting products and successfully competing with the Europeans, the Japanese, the Chinese, and increasingly the Indians who are rapidly moving beyond a home for outsourced jobs. IBM's problem is that it has lost its competitive edge. I don't know if IBM can get its mojo back.
,,, IBM's problem is that it has lost its competitive edge. I don't know if IBM can get its mojo back.
My friend Brian was among those hit by the IBM Layoff Fairy. I've known him since 1993 and in that span of time he has been ...
- an IBM contractor
- an IBM Regular
- laid off
- an IBM contractor
- an IBM Regular
... and will be laid off again effective 5/31/16.
I doubt he wants another spin on this merry-go-round.
My friend Brian was among those hit by the IBM Layoff Fairy. I've known him since 1993 and in that span of time he has been ...
- an IBM contractor
- an IBM Regular
- laid off
- an IBM contractor
- an IBM Regular
... and will be laid off again effective 5/31/16.
I doubt he wants another spin on this merry-go-round.
.
I can't imagine going back to a company that canned me. But I guess if it's the best option....
I wouldn't work for IBM on the fact that they seem to pull this crap fairly regularly, as mentioned by several other posters above. I like some form of stability in my work employment life and just knowing that there's a slight chance based on numerous past occurrences of layoffs would drive me insane with paranoia.
That being said, a job is a job sometimes for some people. Depending on your current financial needs you'll take what you can get. If I had a choice though, it wouldn't be IBM.
IBM has morphed many times in 100 years... from an office equipment company, to a computer company, to mainly software, services, and system integration. Has IBM run out of its nine lives? Quite possibly. In any event it has acquired quite a reputation in the Triangle for churn & burn in the employment marketplace.
I don't see how IBM is much different than other traditional companies. It is part of normal attrition. In order for a company to hire new and fresh talent, they have to release older talent or bad talent. A company can not endlessly hire without trimming the fat.
NetApp had a big layoff this week as well. Cisco did before. Glaxo. List goes on and on. New companies that are hiring such as MetLife, RedHat, Citrix, eventually they will get to a point where they will be too bloated as well, and then need to trim the fat.
Just part of the corporate world, I have yet to see a Company that really watches out for their employees.
The frequency of IBM's layoffs (and subsequent hiring programs) is far greater than most companies in my opinion. Are they the only one's who do that? No....but in addition to that, the way they hire so many people as contractors or on contracts is a huge sign about how they think of their "employees." (As opposed to hiring them as real employees.)
I had three people from my graduating MBA Class sign on with them and after a few years IBM basically came to two of them and said either you sign on as a contractor now or we're firing you. Both did since they didn't have time to line-up another job that fast. One of them found another job a few months later and left, while the other stayed with IBM but eventually got fired when his contract was not renewed. The third person left after a few years, too, as she got sick of the old-school ways of doing things.
I know a lot of people who've worked at IBM and the stories about their employer are far worse than those I know at other places, in all levels of the organization. I cannot comprehend how they have this many people working there when seemingly everyone knows they are a terrible company to work for.
The frequency of IBM's layoffs (and subsequent hiring programs) is far greater than most companies in my opinion. Are they the only one's who do that? No....but in addition to that, the way they hire so many people as contractors or on contracts is a huge sign about how they think of their "employees." (As opposed to hiring them as real employees.)
I had three people from my graduating MBA Class sign on with them and after a few years IBM basically came to two of them and said either you sign on as a contractor now or we're firing you. Both did since they didn't have time to line-up another job that fast. One of them found another job a few months later and left, while the other stayed with IBM but eventually got fired when his contract was not renewed. The third person left after a few years, too, as she got sick of the old-school ways of doing things.
I know a lot of people who've worked at IBM and the stories about their employer are far worse than those I know at other places, in all levels of the organization. I cannot comprehend how they have this many people working there when seemingly everyone knows they are a terrible company to work for.
Exactly, IBM has quite the reputation for laying people off. Another thing about IBM is their contractors don't get hired permanent as IBM employees. There are contractors at my job been contractors for 4+ years.
I don't see how IBM is much different than other traditional companies. It is part of normal attrition. In order for a company to hire new and fresh talent, they have to release older talent or bad talent. A company can not endlessly hire without trimming the fat.
Just part of the corporate world, I have yet to see a Company that really watches out for their employees.
I spent 34 years of my life working for IBM. The executives are compensated largely based upon the Earnings Per Share or EPS of the company stock price. They've been artificially inflating the stock price for many years with stock buy-backs, business divestitures, continual employee benefit cuts, undeserved low employee evaluations with pittance annual bonuses or salary increases, and finally layoffs which are sometimes massive. The "Fat" you speak of was gone a long time ago and many skilled core employees were cut while working on critical new product development projects or providing customer support functions just so IBM could cut costs and prop-up the all mighty EPS for another quarter despite no new earnings revenue increases.
The IBM executives all have golden parachutes written into their contracts, so they'll still walk away with fat compensation packages even after they eventually run IBM into the ground. They're in it to gain personal wealth for themselves and could care less about the long term health of the corporation or the welfare of it's customers or employees. What's going on at IBM goes well beyond normal attrition and IBM wrote the book on how to legally screw their employees out of their jobs and earned benefits....unless you're at the protected executive level who doesn't have to worry about job loss, affording retirement, or where their next loaf of bread will come from.
It's truly a race to the bottom. All us damn entitled workers are cutting into the 1%er's.
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