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• "Latest screw the consultant scam..." by "FooserGB". Full excerpt: Latest Blue scam I've been caught in -- the Extended Traveler program. I've been traveling on a project for over a year now. IBM gives you 50% "Tax Assistance" on all expenses to "help" you since the govt treats these expenses as your personal income. Unfortunately, the 50% comes nowhere near covering the additional personal taxes you have to pay, so in essence, you're paying part of the expenses for the joy of being an IBM consultant.
• "Not just IBM..." by "FooserGB". Full excerpt: True, all long term traveling consultants are taxed on their expenses, but most companies (I've talked to SAP, and have direct experience at PwC), give you enough tax assistance so that you're not losing money. Unfortunately, the IBM accountants setting the policy don't realize we're paying taxes on the taxes, and haven't taken it through enough cycles to come close to making the consultant "whole".
• "Why Stay?" by "Frank_Reality". Full excerpt: It depends on the person of course, but in my case at this time, staying is my best of a bunch of less than good options.
  1. First, I love what I do.
  2. Opportunities to do what I enjoy are few and far between.
  3. I have too many years of service to move somewhere else. I have the max earned vacation time, I'm at the time when the increases in my pension are ar a max and I'm closing in on earning the FHA.
  4. Being older than 50, it is very difficult to find other employment. Age discrimination not only exists - it is widespread in the industry.
  5. A change in employers would require a move elsewhere. There are many established roots and threads that such a move would tear and break.
  6. I view the miserable promotion allowances, the ridiculous salary plans, the increasing job demands (the 2080 rule) and lack of respect the corporation's executive leadership has for its workforce are temporary. Positive change in such policies will come - the company's life depends on it. Too many are leaving and too many potential hires are not signing up to work for IBM. The question is whether that change will come before I retire or after.
  7. I still believe IBM and IGS are not beyond repair.
  8. I am one of the "Hangers-on" that IBM executives treat with contempt and which they imply aren't doing their jobs. Let me assure you, that not only do I do my job, I do it well. I go well beyond the requirements of expectations of the job. If that weren't the case, I would have been bounced in one of the great purges in the last five years.
  May IBM once again become a great place to work
• "OK - Let's indulge your fantasy" by "Dose of reality". Full excerpt: IBM can be great again. No one can argue against that, any more than we could argue against the POSSIBILITY of any other turnaround.
  The question is realistically, what would have to happen before IBM could become great again. If the people from the top down into the first three or four layers of the pyramid have brought us to this state of "ungreatness", does it not follow that they are incapable or unwilling to take the steps necessary to reverse course. The operative word is REALISTICALLY.
  That would require several hundred or so generally egotistical, career-defense minded, self-important people to simultaneously turn their back on that which garnered them their positions of influence, power and fortune. That is not going to happen without an external catalyst that renders their current positions untenable as they are. Simple incremental attrition in the financials will never be strong enough to compel that kind of tectonic shift. That's why the only path back to IBM greatness is REGIME change, radical restructuring, and a major culture change.
  If ever there was a case for Creative Destructionism, this is it.
• "Dose, a fan of ..." by "Frank_Reality". Full excerpt: Joseph Schumpeter? Seems we've seen a lot of "creative destruction" going on at IBM - like the sale of the PC business, the sale of the storage business to Hitachi and sale of card manufacturing to companies like Solectron and Celestica. While Dr. Schumpeter holds that the failure and destruction of aging businesses frees capital to enable new creative ventures, IBM has largely squandered the proceeds.
  Rather than invest the proceeds in the "next big thing", new technologies and new businesses, much has gone into stock buybacks and executive bonuses. However, some did go into buying the PWC consulting business. ;-)
  I agree with your characterization of the problem with corporate leadership by the "several hundred or so generally egotistical, career-defense minded, self-important people". I agree that the top 3 to 4 layers are the source of the problem - total lack of ethical leadership combined with personal greed and arrogance, mixed in with lack of accountability and strong psychopathic tendencies.
  However, I see these people are so entrenched in power, that the only way they will be removed from the company is if it goes bankrupt. Call that the "nuclear option" - the true destruction Schumpeter describes. It is clear the members of the BOD either do not see the problem or are unwilling to demand and force the necessary changes. Until that comes, there will be no tectonic shift, no radical restructuring, no regime change.
• "No fantasy" by "Frank_Reality". Full excerpt: I too know of many good, productive people who were cut from the company. Literally everyone is vulnerable including myself. Nobody is denying that. The issue is what can I do about it. The answer is that I have no control over what the IBM execs choose to do to their employees. None. One thing I can do is maximize my value to the corporation. That's not absolute job protection, but it's the best I can do. Count me as both skilled and lucky - anyone who has survived IBM as long as I have has to be dam* good AND lucky.
  Of course at my age, I'm socking as much away as I can for retirement as this could very well be my last job in the business. I probably could retire now if I had to, but the longer I work the more fiscally viable and comfortable my retirement will be.
  About once a year, I take an inventory. Am I still growing? Do I still enjoy what I do? Is there demand for what I do? Can I still tolerate the overwhelming bureaucratic mess that IBM has become? Do I want to do something else? What other options are there for me? How is my health holding out? and more. If the answers remain right, I mentally plan to stay another year. I've been doing that ever since the 1999 pension theft. One year at a time.
• "Thanks for a thoughtful post..." by "Dose of reality". Full excerpt: I know it may seem strange to you, but I am not unhappy, nor am I “disgruntled”, “bitter”, “sulking”, or “old”. It is not a matter of money with me - the upside doesn't motivate me, nor does the downside associated with changing jobs keep me here. It is the freedom that I have in not having to worry about sucking up, impressing colleagues, or establishing a reputation that is the ultimate hook for me here. You have no idea how liberating it is to be able to feel absolutely no dependence on your employer and no fear of “worst case” outcome. I don’t have a need to reach another plateau with success in the industry. It is not because I am at an absolute pinnacle, but having a larger or more successful practice has no marginal utility for me.
  Furthermore, the vast majority of problems that are presented here have little impact on me personally. As constrained as the reward system is here, I am well beyond my perceived living wage. With regard to culture, personalities, and the general unpleasantness of the environment and my colleagues, I can easily maneuver around them since I have little need for networking to maintain my position and output. On top of all of this, I am making a real difference for those that for whatever reason are continuing to persevere here. I am getting more job satisfaction now than I have gotten in years. Add to this the comedic value of working at IBM, and it just can’t get any better for me.
  “That dark, depressed, bitter broken record of "IBM sucks, run far, run fast" has done wonders to help people make informed career decisions. I realize it is hard for the under 40 crowd to accept bad news or negative commentary as a prevailing sentiment. We are living in a Prozac kind of world. However, if it sucks, I am going to say it sucks.
  At the end of the day, “how you look at things” can help you get through a tough situation, but “how things are” determines what your best course of action is. You keep focusing on the former and I’ll focus on the latter.
• "IBM _Sprint Project" by "s12671". Full excerpt: What can anyone tell me about the IBM_Sprint project? Good jobs? Good pay?
• "to quote Monty Python" by "Old_Project_Manager". Full excerpt: Run away, run away. They just did a large peon layoff. The contract calls for us to make them No. 1 in Customer Sat in their industry, with heavy penalties if we do not. Do those two sentences sound like they connect together into a coherent strategy? The PE on the account has no clue what is in the Contract so he accepts whatever the Customer asks of IBM. He's too close to retirement to care. And No. 1 on the list - it's a BCS Project.
• "Need two different models" by "Dose of reality". Full excerpt: I agree that there is a need to build commodity service capabilities for outsourcing, support, and the low value parts of the IT development/implementation work. However, I see two problems - one with the strategy, and one with the execution.
  First, we will never be able to compete with Wipro on cost alone with the heavy corporate overhead structure that we have. If we engage in a footrace purely on those terms, we will lose in the long run.
  That brings me to my second point. Since we can't compete on cost (without a major fat trimming exercise) we need to differentiate ourselves. That requires having an elite group of extremely motivated consulting resources that can do the diagnostics, business analysis, design, and client relationship management. On the latter point, I am not talking about BD leeches with their heads in the clouds. I am talking about PMs, functional experts, and technology specialists that can immerse themselves in the client's needs, spend dedicated time on proposal work, and give clients a reason not to choose the low cost bidder. They can farm the grunt work out wherever they want to. If we position ourselves like a commodity, then price will rule the client decision process.
  That is why the handling of the PwC acquisition was such an abysmal failure. IBM squeezed compensation and incentives, foolishly believing that there would be no backlash. McKinsey told them ‘the staff would have no place else to go”! Now we are trying to pass off average talent for industry experts and we have set utilization targets so high that the few that have sales talent have no time to build or nurture the pipeline.
  While the hours billed may be 75% commodity resources, the consulting expertise is needed to find and close deals. Without it, all we have is a roster of coders sitting around waiting for a technical spec that will never come.

• Binghamton (NY) Press and Sun-Bulletin: Cancer rates higher near Endicott spill. Study: Spike in kidney, testicular malignancies. Excerpts: George Kretzmer was not surprised Tuesday evening when he learned that he and others living south of the former IBM plant had significantly elevated rates of birth defects and two types of cancers. "It's hard for me to believe how many people I have buried that are less than 50 years old," Kretzmer told officials from the state Department of Health after they presented the information to residents at a meeting at Union-Endicott High School. "I see a bigger common denominator than I think you're letting on. I don't have a whole bunch of statistics or registry, but this is what I've seen with my own eyes." The study included an area of about 300 acres polluted by solvents first discovered seeping from the IBM plant on North Street in 1979. It also included several blocks west of Jefferson Avenue, polluted by an undetermined source.
• Poughkeepsie (NY) Journal: IBM/Philips site workers log illness. Excerpts: Eleven workers at the IBM and Philips Semiconductors plants have complained of symptoms and sought further medical treatment following the accidental release of a powdery chemical, the two companies said Monday. The chemical was released shortly before 9 a.m. Thursday from exhaust ducts at the Philips manufacturing plant. The two companies have plants at the same industrial campus in East Fishkill. A similar incident happened July 7. Eight employees and two contract workers from IBM complained of symptoms that included sore throats and a metallic taste in the mouth, IBM spokesman Steve Cole said.
• Click the Alliance@IBM sponsored Health Focus Survey, if you are an IBM employee, former employee (EI), IBM Retiree, or contractor.. . We urge all IBMers to fill out our Health Focus Survey to help document health problems IBMers might associate with working with toxic materials at IBM.
• Contractor UK: India rules 30,000 UK IT Work Permits. Excerpts: Over 30,000 UK IT work permits have been granted to foreign computer experts within the last year-and-a-half, according to exclusive data obtained by Contractor UK under the Freedom of Information Act. More than 80 per cent of the 30,090 permits approved between January 2004 and June this year went to Indian computer experts, flocking to British shores as software engineers, system analysts and ‘other IT related’ occupants. The grand total of 24,764 Indian nationals arriving in the UK dwarfed the second highest number of entrants, who originated from the United States. Just over 1,700 American IT managers, engineers and techies snapped up work permits within the same year-and-a-half period. [...]
  Paul Taylor, UK managing director of Hudson IT, says two “key drivers” inspire swathes of Indian nationals to join British technology departments. “Essentially it’s about remuneration. Indian IT pros, whether they seek contract or permanent work, can obviously earn a lot more in the UK than at home. If we set aside the quality of life lure of the UK, remuneration probably is more important than anything else as a key driver,” said Taylor. John Kell, the Professional Contractors Group’s political researcher, supports the IT director’s view, citing homeland rates for Indian IT workers ranging from just £4,000 to £7,000 a year.
• Alliance@IBM: Attention IBM employees: IBM is blocking e-mail to and from the Alliance@IBM e-mail address endicottalliance@stny.rr.com from inside the company. Please send your job cut information and other correspondence from your home e-mail. You can also contact us the following ways: Phone 607 658 9285 or Fax 607 658 9283.
• IBM Pension Lawsuit FAQ about Cooper v IBM, Updated 6-21-05. Excerpt: Below is a list of frequently asked questions about the class action lawsuit against IBM's 1995 and 1999 pension plans. The answers are my personal opinions, have not been verified with either IBM or plaintiffs’ counsel, and should not be construed as legal advice. On July 31, 2003, a federal district court judge ruled in favor of the employees in this case. IBM will appeal portions of the ruling. On September 28, 2004, IBM and the legal team on Cooper v IBM announced that an agreement had been negotiated that settles some of the claims and set the amount of damages that IBM will pay to the class if IBM's appeal of the district court's age discrimination rulings is unsuccessful. Click on any question to jump to the answer. Or scroll down and read them all.
• Job Cuts Status & Comments Page. Excerpts: Job cuts are coming. Information needed: What is Your location? How many job cuts at your location? What locations are cutting jobs? Name of Division and Business Unit? Some sample submissions follow:
  • Comment 08/20/05: What is IBM really selling with all these re-badging IT services deals? Better IT services? Hmmm...but aren't re-badged employees, like Sprint to IBM, basically paid the same with comparable benefits? Don't the IBM customers' former employees mainly continue to do the same work, they always did, only as IBMers? How does this sort of IBM business scheme, save customers money? How? By churning the customers workforce and removing the customers employees from their payroll, benefits and pensions plans; by re-badging them as IBMers. A slick way to save IBM customers these sort of expenses without being accused of age discrimination or being unethical. Just an IBM business deal is all! Sweet!
    The customer unloads those aging employees nearing retirement; or that are being over compensated, and IBM does the dirty work of unemploying the clients former workers. Churning them into the job market, where they most likely will end up doing similar work, for less pay. An employers dream: desperate, cheap experienced labor; churned back into the US employment meat market! Need to renege on promises made to to your employees of decent pay, benefits and pensions? Call in the, International Business Mafia! They'll take care of your problem! You sit back and count the savings as the 'IBM', sticks it to your ingrate former employees, that actually expected you to keep your end of the bargain! Ungrateful bloodsuckers! -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/22/05: Brazil...yeah we knew that. Brazil...where they fire two Americans and hire someone's brother-in-law who isn't even an IBM employee and can't spell WebSphere. Good luck to our customers. They're going to need it. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/22/05: A number of us at Pomeroy IT Solutions were working on the IBM / Thrivent hardware refresh. We were told going in that the project would last several weeks. Then the project got put on hold today. I didn't turn down any jobs to work on this, but the gentleman I was working with had turned down three different work opportunities because he expected to be working on this project for the next few weeks. I get the feeling that IBM thinks that temp employees are a dime a dozen and they can do whatever they like with us. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/22/05: Laying off employees that have been around a long time saves IBM a bunch of money by not having to pay for additional weeks of vacation. In addition, if they let employees go before they can bridge or retire, IBM accrues additional savings by not having additional employees to contribute to retiree health benefits. It makes no difference if IBM is cutting IBM employees or re-badged employees, the savings are a major attraction to the IBM senior management team and the HR folk that are dancing to the tune! Anyone who has the concept that their job is secure hasn't really thought things through. It's only a matter of time before any given employee will be on the list of employees that are no longer needed. This is especially true given the penchant to move jobs to less expensive geographies. Tag, you're next! -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/22/05: Re - International Business Mafia comment is interesting. I have seen several customers outsource to IBM. We let the employees go and then they are "insourced again" a few years later. I won't name the customers but I am sure most IBMers know who they are. Easy way to clean house. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/24/05: From an outsider I believe the layoffs are hurting IBM's quality. In my old company I learned that they were trying to sell the optical storage products group. They had cut back to ONE engineer supporting the whole line worldwide. I also heard that the marketing person for the line also had 40 or 50 other products they were supporting. They also had problems with supplying certain types of disks as the contract with the vendor had fallen through the cracks, no surprise given the minimal staffing.
    Needless to say it was no sale, but I wonder how many customers invested $100's to $millions in technology that was supported with one engineer and 1/40th or 1/50th of a marketing staff? IBM used to be known for quality product and service, but I can't believe with less than 2 full time people in one product line that customers get quality in either. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/24/05: I think it is hilarious how the management in East Fishkill are all hopped up on this new "improving the atmosphere" kick lately. I think it is even funnier when they try to feed the employees the usual line of "How great the company is doing for the second and third quarters" and then the employees had enough and get up and leave the meeting. The jig is up and the employees are not blind anymore. I think it is great how they try to improve morale and all they are doing is making it worse. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/24/05: Nobody's job is safe with the IBM! The International Business Mafia, that is! Where's your name on the IBM's, list? The IBM offers, offshoring schemes also! Not just re-badging. The IBM can churn theirs and their customer's workforce by sending American jobs overseas. Is your name on the IBM hit list? After a year or so of unemployment, will you be willing to work for less, for the IBM or one of the many IBM scams? IBM sells workforce churning and employee separation schemes, under the guise of IT business services. That's really what the IBM sells! Selling American employees out. It's a global eCONomy after all! -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/26/05: We used to hire from only top universities, now we hire from monster.com. We used to be major players in high tech: dedicated seats at NASA launches, inventors of the hard disk that enabled the information age, and too many others to list. Now we wail, trail, and bail when we meet challenges. We used to have high pay, great benefits and a long term commitment to employees, now it’s decreasing pay/benefits and a revolving door. We used to charge into new territories and countries, now we consolidate, contract and hang on by our fingernails. We used to deliver the best, no excuses. Now we deliver the best excuses. We used to fear nothing, now we fear the close of every quarter, the approach of every competitor, the sound of our manager’s footsteps in the hallway. By any measure the changes in culture have not been good for the company, the employee or long-run, our country. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/27/05: Received word that another team in the Schaumburg office that is on the Discovery team were told that their jobs were being moved to South America. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 08/27/05: To the author of the comments dated 8/26/05: "We used to hire from only top universities, now we hire from monster.com...........By any measure the changes in culture have not been good for the company, the employee or long-run, our country." Well said and very sad, indeed.
    honor, and fair employment practices - with disrespect for their customers and extremely poor customer support/service. It is a company void of leadership and industry knowledge or products/services consumers want. Today, everywhere you look in IBM you find employees who loath their managers, managers with no skills desperate to hang on to their high paying jobs. Managers with no knowledge of skills required of employees to execute the piece of the business for which that manager is responsible. You see poorly trained employees executing key projects with large margins of error. These errors are costly to both IBM and the customers. Instead of retaining skilled employees who can mentor others and improve project deployment and applications, IBM keeps cutting and cutting. For fear of loosing their jobs and lack of trust in IBM and their managers, these same employees are afraid to take the ridiculous surveys IBM has sent out lately, afraid of offering managers constructive suggestions, and afraid to admit they need help or need additional training. There is no longer a feeling of teamwork ~ instead it has become George Orwell's Animal Farm. IBM execs and management have absolute power and absolute power corrupts absolutely!
    I have had many people ask why IBM believes they are a company worth doing business with. My answer is always the same, "the execs and management of IBM believe IBM is a company worthy of your business because they are arrogant and clueless! It is a company with no foresight, leadership or direction. The execs have no respect for the consumer and believe you are so stupid, you will pay premium prices for "the new IBM" to provide you with inferior products, services and support. They don't care about you, your business or their employees. It is all about them getting all they can before they are asked to step down". In every case, people I have talked to made the decision to do business with a company other than IBM. When will IBM execs, managers and stock holders learn?
    IBM is rapidly becoming a fourth rate company without a product or services portfolio. They simply cannot compete. Many customers have said they are concerned about entrusting their databases and files to IBM ~ they are concerned about IBM's ability to ensure security for their networks and databases.
    After over 20 years with IBM, I was RA'd by a manager for whom I worked only 5 weeks. He knew nothing about me and nothing about my skills or what it took to do my job. I had always been rated a top performer and my personnel jacket lists a long string of awards for excellence and leadership. He didn't care and he never said he was sorry or hated to be the one to let me go. The ultimate insult came when he and my new second line manager both had the nerve to send me notes saying they didn't realize all that I had accomplished over my IBM career and wished they could have gotten to know me better.
    Does IBM management always shoot first and ask questions later? The bottom line was my new management was simply executing a " strong suggestion" from my former manager, someone with whom I "had issues". When I was transferred to the new manager she rid herself of any possible retribution allegations. Clever, eh? Not so clever...my peers figured out what they did. Management was never upright enough to correct the situation nor did they extend me the courtesy of an apology or say they cared. Shame on them and shame on IBM!
    Like many, many others, out of fear of being on the RA hit list, I didn't join the Alliance until after this happened to me. Shame on me! There IS strength in numbers. Your membership is kept confidential unless you want it to be known. Let's all take this opportunity to let IBM know we're mad as hell and we aren't going to just lie down and play dead while they reek havoc with our livelihood. IBM execs and most of the managers in place today are the ones who should be out of work, not us! -Anonymous-

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