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Highlights—January 29, 2011

• Wall Street Journal: IBM to Build Big Data Center in China. By Owen Fletcher. Excerpt: International Business Machines Corp. agreed to cooperate with Chinese network services provider Range Technology Development Co. on the construction of a cloud computing data center in China, which IBM said will be Asia's largest in terms of floor space. Construction of the center is likely to generate about $200 million worth of contracts for IBM over the next five years, a person familiar with the situation said. IBM said Tuesday it expects the data center in Langfang, Hebei province, to be completed in 2016 and to have a floor space of more than 620,000 square meters.

  All production support/technical support for IBM on the Hertz account has been moved to India," states an application for TAA assistance filed with the Department of Labor on behalf of IBM's Hertz contract workers on Nov. 12, 2010. The application specifies the total number of workers affected as 50. It identifies IBM service delivery manager Kelly Thomas and production services manager Sandra Robinson as verification contacts.

• InformationWeek: IBM Moves Hertz' IT Support To India. About 50 jobs shipped from Oklahoma to the Asian subcontinent as the car rental company looks to pare costs. By Paul McDougall. Excerpts: Two years after winning a contract to provide IT services to Hertz, IBM has moved much of that work from the debt-laden car rental giant's technology center in Oklahoma City to India. About 50 former IBM employees who worked on the Hertz contract in Oklahoma are now seeking assistance under the federal government's Trade Adjustment Assistance program, according to documents obtained by InformationWeek.
• Charlotte News & Observer: IBM CEO's incentive pay nearly doubled in 2010. By David Bracken. Excerpt: IBM reported in a regulatory filing today that its CEO, Samuel Palmisano, nearly doubled his incentive pay in 2010. Bloomberg News reported that Palmisano, who has led the company for the past eight years, received $9 million in incentives compared to $4.75 million the prior year.
• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Woo Hoo !! $1000 stock bonuses" by "Tony". Full excerpt: In Palmisano's letter to the troops this week: I want to thank you for everything you did to achieve these results, in the fourth quarter and over the past four years. Our long-term success is the product of the work, innovation and superior execution of more than 400,000 IBMers. In recognition of this, I am delighted to announce that all non-executive IBMers who performed consistently over the 2010 Roadmap period will receive a grant of $1000 of IBM stock, where permitted, which will vest at the end of the next roadmap, in 2015. Terms will be forthcoming from your leadership team.

  It will be interesting to see the terms and conditions and what that really means. Cheers

• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: Woo Hoo !! $1000 stock bonuses" by "bits_bytes_and_bugs". Full excerpt: Sounds to me that the T&Cs will vary a bit across divisions, but I can't imagine every employee will get the award. I'm guessing if at any time in the last 5 years you got a PBC of 3, you won't get it. Perhaps even a single 2 rating in the last 5 years may disqualify you if they really want to get cheap.

  As QW stated, it is an insult. It certainly isn't enough to motivate anyone to work harder, nor is it enough to retain anyone who wants to leave for better jobs. It certainly isn't generous enough to give IBM good PR.

  There has to be another motive for this - perhaps a tax avoidance scheme. At the rate that IBM is dumping US employees, a majority may not be around in 2015 to collect it anyway.

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: Pension details - 2nd choicers" by "lastdino1." Full excerpt: If I had to drop down to the $54K pension it would put an impact on my life style until my 401K kicked in. It would be livable but I would need to readjust my spending plan. I'm not to (sic) worried based on my savings strategy so this would only be a blip on the financial charts. Life is Good"
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: 2nd choicers" by Paul Sutera. Full excerpt: 54K pension - I'm glad you got yours, the corporate world has changed radically. With no pensions, what will nursing homes look like in 30 years? Worse than today! We'll be back to the gilded age, where old folks just wandered off on a cold night rather than be a burden to their kids. :-)

  Well all things happen for a reason. Sam Palmisano and the CEO's of his ilk will someday be the subject of history books. Reaganomics will be seen for what it is, the biggest shift of wealth away from the middle-class to the wealthy who then spent it on Asian investments and German cars.

  Many second choicers will retire on the same pension their dads got from IBM 25 years earlier. When I moved into the office of a man forced out in 1994, I said - this will happen to me one day and I will save money for that rainy day.

  Meanwhile, we never give up trying to reform the American corporation, even if we won't experience the results in our lifetime. Hearing that some companies have suffered because when they outsourced - they lost decades of "tribal knowledge"...and a few, a very few, relocated factories back to the USA. - That warms my heart!

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by "netmouser". Full excerpt: Many would kill for a $54K pension. Consider yourself very, very lucky.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by "scall0way". Full excerpt: Many? I'd say most. Or at least most IBMers. I can't speak for other companies. But I know lots of retired IBMers, and not one has a company pension that comes even CLOSE to $54K. Mine sure doesn't! And even if I had not been RA'ed last year, and worked a few more years as planned, it would not have come close. I can't even imagine what sort of salary one must have to earn a $54K pension from IBM - certainly way higher than anyone I've ever worked with. :D
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by "lastdino1". Full excerpt: More then 160 and less than 180 over the last 5 years of employment.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by "In Focus". Full excerpt: Dino, What Band and Job Family where you in? First line, 2nd, or ?
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by "lastdino1". Full excerpt: 10 , 2nd Life is Good.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by "lastdino1". Full excerpt: With good planning anyone can do it. Some luck plays into it but sacrifice plays a major role. Life is Good"
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by Kathi Cooper. Full excerpt: Luck, personal planning, sacrifice, the grace of God, and working for a company that doesn't screw it's employees at the last minute. That would have made my retirement what I planned for."
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by Lee Conrad. Full excerpt: And a negotiated union contract!"
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Pension details - 2nd choicers" by "mr_quarkwrench". Full excerpt: They managed to screw me even after the last minute. One of the selling points of the RTO (buyout) was lifetime company paid medical. Yeah, I didn't get it in writing, just the HR presentation in the company auditorium. Then the payments kicked in three years after my bridge and I was drawing retirement. Life is NOT good. -- Don
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Pension" by Paul Sutera. Full excerpt: Yes life can be NOT GOOD, unlike under my parents' retirement plan. Trex, I'm sorry to hear of your financial and health woes. 2 years ago as I ate dinner for my 25th service anniversary on IBM's dime, I remarked to my small gathering that luck can change and my continued presence here at IBM has been my good fortune. I saw people RA'd (fired) in 2008 that were truly stellar, even 30-somethings who graduated from technical colleges with really high-grade point averages - sent packing. I see from time to time an old friend who got a generous pension from IBM, and yes he's having the time of his life, so much so his wife doesn't have to work either. Great, I'm glad IBM is paying him for decades of service. For our corporate landed-gentry, our stolen retirements are providing some really nice stock options, but we can be proud that WE did the right thing, even when others did not.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: Pensions" by Paul Sutera. Full excerpt: I've lived in 960 square feet house and never owned a fancy car. My friends used to laugh at my 1987 couch and my 1950s kitchen with the yellow 1970s oven. And yet, having once had a reasonable livable pension, and having it frozen to nearly 1/2 the original amount, (assuming I make it one more year), I still *spent* some of my money.

  Had I known my pension would be frozen all those years when I was a second choicer with a fully-restored pension, I would have saved more. Yes in the last 3 years I saved half my pay. Now I'm renting out a room in my house. We of tiny pension will survive, but the ego, greed, and hubris of our executives knows no parallel, save for maybe Ghengis Khan.

• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: And another one..." by "thirtyyearibmer". Full excerpt: The devil is always in the details and as far as "statistics" proving anything... my father's favorite quote was, "figures don't lie, but liars figure." We have gotten too far away from thinking for ourselves. We seem to be a society of "who has the latest data to prove my point" people. We really need to really think through the in's and out's of anything for ourselves. I love folks that say, "let me see the real data and do my own figuring!" Even after looking at the hard data there will always be winners and losers in any decision.

  Nothing is perfect, but some things are fundamentally imperfect and unethical and the 1999 Pension Plan changes were unethical no matter how you looked at them for some set of folks. Case in point anyone that was 39 years of age with 20 years of service. They should be retiring with me but won't be able to...all that had to happen was allow a choice. Pretty simple.

  Personally, I will always thank Kathi and others for jump starting the "wake me up" bandwagon in 1999. I was a short distance away from taking the buy out until I wondered what all the commotion was about the "new better plan".

  I thank you. My wife thanks you. My children thank you.

  PS - I think because of this and other actions, a whole host of companies were prevented by the IRS from converting for a period of time which means a lot of folks outside IBM, in some part, owe her lawsuit a debt of thanks.

• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: And another one..." by "dogbreath127k". Full excerpt: My parents and grand parents enjoyed a retirement filled with traveling, spending time with friends and family, hobbies, and volunteering for community service. What allowed them to live this lifestyle was a combination of fair pension, medicare, and social security along with modest personal savings.

  Instead I see myself working till I die, much like my great grandparents did in the late 1800's, burned out and dying in industrial accidents. We have to take care of ourselves today or risk joining the lines at the soup kitchens in our old age.

• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: And another one..." by "thirtyyearibmer". Full excerpt: Great discussion. A different perspective. I will be "retiring" in March. Today I find that my kids say they couldn't see working for one corporation for thirty years like I have. They too - think mobile, uncommitted to any corporation other than for a paycheck. They envision a thirty-year person on an assembly line putting a wheel nut on a car and the Enron leadership of poor quality, self-centered, self-focused and out for their own and personal gain. They locked their employees into their own stock that was a Titanic sinking with only the leadership provided with lifeboats and they were the first in line to get off.

  Sad examples of true leadership.

  I have to sit down with them and explain my thirty year career at IBM. First off "The IBM" was a corporation based on trust and confidence in its leadership. Ethics trumped legalities. Thos. J. Watson Sr. and Thomas J. Watson Jr. were leaders unlike what we are seeing rising to the surface today. We need more like them. I would sign on again with a corporation of the ideals and quality they started 100 years ago and bet my life and future on a DB plan with them. Hundreds of thousands made that bet and won. It takes men and women of integrity, leading corporations with a future to inspire men and women to commit their lives and future livelihood to a company.

  I started at IBM as an administrator cutting commission checks for IBM typewriter salesmen and moved up to become a first line administration manager; in sales I was one of the first IBM salesman for the IBM Credit Corporation and one of the last worldwide IBM salesman on quota for OS/2 Warp; in technical sales I was an IBM Systems Engineer on System 36, System 38 and AS/400's; at the IBM Worldwide level, I have served as the Worldwide Brand Manager for OS/2 Warp Server and Worldwide Market Manager for Tivoli Configuration Manager and Tivoli Provisioning Manager; I will be ending my career at IBM as a Worldwide IBM Tivoli Sales Evangelist and Sales Education Specialist for Tivoli Provisioning Manager and IBM Tivoli Monitoring and a Product Manager for the Netcool product set.

  "The IBM" was a corporation of mobility which many don't talk about today. Prove yourself and move where you wanted to.... I could not have made it thirty years with most any other corporation or without similar philosophies.

  I would challenge anyone to move between companies and achieve the financial stability I will have when I retire. That is not a boast. I am lucky to have seen the best of a corporation and have been part of the "second choicers"... grateful for what I have, sorry that my children may never experience a "Watson lead IBM" equivalent company in their lifetimes. I have friends that tell me "everyday" they realize what they lost in the Pension changes of 1999 - one was 39 years of age with 20+ years of service. I can't even talk of my retirement without thinking of him and his family and children and how much he lost. I want to cry for them "everyday".

  All I can think is "but for the Grace of God.... go I".

  I made all the movements above within one company. I did that without a single lost paycheck and continuous earnings. That was "The IBM". We weren't "lifers" (I guess you have to have been in the military to have that initial knee-jerk reaction to the term "Lifer" .. after Vietnam it was one of the most derogatory terms a person could ever use of anyone else... maybe folks don't realize that if you didn't serve... from the 70's Army it was as derogatory a term as you can think of..... so be careful with using a term that can have so much emotion attached to it - sometimes semantics and emotion around a word needs to be explained so we all learn)

  I never met an "IBM lifer"... in that sense of the term. We were just folks like any other, inspired by a leadership of the Watsons that many don't understand or comprehend except through the glasses of today's leadership - poor glasses to look through in my humble opinion!

  In a nutshell, I tell my children to go 401K and be glad for it because today's leadership isn't the type of leadership that I would envision working thirty years for like "The Watson's IBM". They will most likely "be mobile workers" because they will encounter an Enron like leadership and in that case, a 401K / 403B is the "best of the worst options" they have today - sad but I fear true.

  It is the underlying loss of trust and confidence we all have in our business leadership of today that causes discussions like this...

  Be glad that the 401K was brought into existence by chance or we wouldn't have anything today for our children. What we need is a real retirement plan for the future.

  I can only speak for myself, but I will tell you that I was a single parent raising three children for years on my own while at IBM. If I had had a 401K instead of a pension I couldn't get at - I wouldn't have anything today. I would have dug into my 401K to give them more at the time not realizing I would have been sacrificing my retirement. As it turns out - everything turned out OK. They had a little less at the time for me to have more...and maybe they won't have to support me in my old age.

  There are so many sides to this discussion. We need more views, but more than anything we need true leadership in Washington and more leadership like the Watsons in business to inspire those discussions and long term fixes.

  Just one humble opinion, grateful for what I have, sad for what my deepest of friends have lost and realizing that my children may never have what I have or experience what I have in thirty years with IBM.

• Yahoo! IBM Pension and Retirement Issues message board: "Re: And another one..." by Khadijah bint Muhammad. Full excerpt: I've also considered the possibility that the pension angst is not as much about either the pension or the 401K, but the fact that good people were forcibly transitioned.

  This was clumsy and avoidable. IBM could have chosen a number of different mechanisms to avoid cutting off long-tenure employees (I had no idea that 'lifer' had a negative connotation to anybody). They would have cost incrementally more money, but that tells you more about management than anything else.

  Change of Topic: Watching IBM stock flying high, does anybody (like me) think about how much of this earnings-driven stock performance is driven on the backs of employees now working 50-60 hours per week while commission and bonus plans are being underfunded? And how many of these (often disgruntled) employees will fly the coop when the job market changes? Last year our bonus plan was funded at 55% only, so the average OTE for the job role was decreased on the sly by full bonus * .55?

  Seems like there's a time in here for a short sale......and if you subscribe to the theory that the best time to short is when all the market analysts are incredibly bullish, it's getting close. Last quarter, of the major analysts that follow IBM (acc. yahoo finance), 8 had "strong buy", 7 had "buy", and 7 had "hold". This quarter, it's 8-7-8 (a push).

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re:Separation" by "sby_willie". Full excerpt: From my personal and last experience with IBM: IBM can have you selected for an RA when you are on a medical disability. It is all legal no matter how you might feel how fair it is.

  The Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) which is part of a medical leave only gives you some protection for you for the 12 weeks you are eligible for in a rolling calendar year. It does handle temporary work leaves for medical reasons for chronic and acute medical issues, of course including cancers. The FMLA doesn't protect your job per se, only that you are able to return to a comparable work position assignment if you old job position or assignment is no longer or is no longer available.

  I found out I was to be RAed about 5 months before I returned from IBM short term disability (IBM STD) based on the RA separations papers I received the very hour I was healthy enough and came off the disabled list after 5 1/2 months and returned to work. The separation package had the past departure date on it. You have no protection from being separated via an RA when on either IBM short term or long term disability. The only thing is IBM can execute the RA until you come off of the disability plan you are on.

  And we got lots of folks working in IBM, disabled medically or not, that still don't what protections from this happening by getting a union contract!?!

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "2nd PBC of 3 - Performance Package Presented. Now what?" by "lunarfla". Full excerpt: Hi, Just wondering if anyone has heard of someone accepting the Performance Improvement Plan, and actually pulling themselves out to a 2? Or is the Performance Plan a completely unachievable goal? Would love to hear from anyone out there. Thanks,
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: PBC 3 to a 2" by Paul Sutera. Full excerpt: It has happened to a coworker of mine. They got a 3 and in the subsequent year their appraisal improved to 2 or above. But sometimes I think the management hides a 3 in an area less likely to be hit by an R/A wave to protect another area. Of course some RAs have been applied to people with 2+, so it really depends. One manager was quoted as saying 2/3rds of all people receiving 3's do not make it. One out of 3 people getting a 3 manage to pull it back up to a 2. There are no statistics on the health effects of receiving a 3 or being threatened with a 3.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: PBC 3 to a 2" by "moonlady0623". Excerpt: I moved from a 3 in 2009 to a 2 in 2010 but was RAd 3/31/10 anyway. My work was good but........I had a manager who had been brought in from PWC and had never done the job in IBM that she was managing....plus I had spoken my mind once too many times, so it wasn't hard for them to put me on the list. I miss the paycheck and that is IT! Good luck to those of you left wearing the badge.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: PBC 3 to a 2" by Michael Nalasco. Full excerpt: I know what you mean. When I first started with ibm, (in 1981) I loved it. When I was RA'd in 2001, I hated it, and the only thing I missed was the paycheck. I certainly did not miss the outrageously unfair PBC system.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: PBC 3 to a 2" by "nyjints5". Full excerpt: Someone reading this board who does not have inside access to IBM'ers could easily think everyone who posts here is a disgruntled employee. Nothing could be further from the truth.

  Every time I come in contact with former IBM co-workers, the conversation is basically the same. Everybody comments about how bad it sucks to work for IBM. They cant leave because they have too many years of service invested in IBM, but they don't yet have 30 years. The people closest to 30 years are the ones who usually are the most anxious about making it to 30. The people I'm talking about rarely, if ever, post here.

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: PBC 3 to a 2" by "nyjints5". Full excerpt: There are other very subtle indicators that reveal the quality of employment as an IBM'er these days isn't very good.

  As was recently posted here, Fortune magazine's list of 100 top companies to work for does not include IBM, and hasn't for many years. Why is that? What does Fortune know about working for IBM that excludes IBM from that list? There once was a time when IBM enjoyed a reputation as a company everybody wanted to work for. IBM was the most admired and respected company anywhere.

  Then, there's retention of outstanding employee's. Why is IBM having a hard time retaining outstanding employee's? (Even though IBM really doesn't want any long term employee's!) Sure, back in the day, I saw exceptionally good IBM employee's voluntarily resign from the company. But not to the extent that it happens in today's IBM. What's driving that?

  Before I retired, I was aware of a very bright young man who was a technical team lead in the dept in which he worked. His manager took another assignment, and the bright young man was named manager of the department. Not too long after being promoted to dept manager, the bright young man resigned. Not to worry though! His former protege, a woman who in her own right was very smart, and had been named to replace the bright young man as the dept team leader, was made manager of the department. Just this week, I heard she too recently resigned from IBM. That says a lot to me.

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: PBC 3 to a 2" by "teamb562". Full excerpt: "That says a lot to me." I agree and have been wondering the same for a long time in regards to treatment of their employees. Does it possibly say that IBM is in more financial trouble then any of us realize. Some have posted hints to this in the past. Is it possible they are manipulating the quarterly numbers? Even the recently announced $1000 employee stock option plan is being laughed at internally. Can they really be that stupid and out of touch?
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "more job cuts on the way after 4th QTR report" by "trexibmer". Full excerpt: $8,000,000,000 in "productivity" initiatives over the next 5 years means continued RAs, mainly for USA employees. Count on more unwarranted PBC "3"'s and managing out tactics by the elite, entitled IBM management. LIFE IS NOT GOOD for the average Joe and Jane Beamer now.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: more job cuts on the way after 4th QTR report" by "teamb562". Full excerpt: Agree/confirmed on both points: 1) I and many others are receiving unexpected 3's. 2) Heard via good source that a 1Q2011 RA is expected to net about 10k heads, comparable with past two hunting seasons. The additional 3's ensures plenty head-lighted deer for easy shots and profits.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: more job cuts on the way after 4th QTR report"by "trexibmer". Full excerpt: It is curious that there is no push on any front to get IBM to release how many employees it has, say, at YE2010. Since IBM is a master obfuscator, the real number of the employees involved in any resource action is never publicized by the mass news media (TV, radio, satellite) save some mentions by the Alliance in some mainly local newspapers.

  IBM hints at permanent firings and never announces or confirms them when they do occur. IBM does this so they can skate around their offshoring push.

  So IBM "allocating" $8B for "productivity" initiatives in the next five years is not only totally vague, one cannot even come up with a real ballpark figure of those IBMers today that will be gone in the five year time period. By using fuzzy math: if IBM considers that it cost them about $100,000 for each employee, on average, in severance benefits, then 80,000 IBMers could be gone in five years. LIFE IS NOT GOOD for those IBMers! Of course the bulk of these severed employees will be USA based.

  It would be nice if Lou Dobbs would take this up. Then maybe IBM would be forced to come clean, or at least to curb further RAs they have in mind to execute.

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: more job cuts on the way after 4th QTR report" by Lee Conrad. Full excerpt: A news article from last year on this http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9169678/IBM_stops_disclosing_U.S._headcount_data. The alliance contacts every news org when there are job cuts. Then it is up to them to report it. Generally it is the big cuts that grab their attention. In regards to the non-disclosure of headcount, the alliance faxed/contacted congress and certain local government officials on this. we are also working with a congressional rep on legislation that requires disclosure. Lee.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: more job cuts on the way after 4th QTR report" by "nyjints5". Full excerpt: $8,000,000,000 in "productivity" initiatives over the next 5 years means continued RAs, mainly for USA employees. Very nice job on your interpretation/translation of the above "executive-speak".

  I particularly hated exec-speak because the employees never knew the hidden meaning behind the words. Maybe the words were innocent enough, and maybe they weren't.

  In the early 1990's, I attended a town hall meeting at my site. The speaker was an exec (IBM VP) known to me only by his name. During his pitch, he presented/talked to a slide that had the words "affordable structure" on it. In true executive double-speak fashion, he glossed over the slide so that I (and I'm sure many others in the room) had no idea of what he was specifically talking about. During the Q&A session, someone asked him about that particular slide, specifically those two words; affordable structure . "Could you possibly expand on that a little bit further?" the exec was asked.

  I was shocked by the frankness and candor of his answer. He said "The slide would be better worded if it said an affordable COST structure." And then he further said "All costs are subject to scrutiny and cutting, including those related to people." The room had been very quiet all through the Q&A, and there were no low murmurs or sigh's that went through the room when he made that remark, so I couldn't help but wonder if the audience had actually comprehended what he said, or was everyone simply in flat-out denial about what he meant. I didn't have to wait long to find out. Many employees found out the hard way what an "affordable structure" is/was.

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: more job cuts on the way after 4th QTR report" by "scall0way". Full excerpt: >>>I didn't have to wait long to find out. Many employees found out the hard way what an "affordable structure" is/was.<<<<

  Just like my department, when we were moved into a new reporting structure (ITD? how quickly one forgets) in the summer of 2009. We got a little sideshow presentation of our new organization, and every single one of us picked up on the so-called "motto" of the new organization: "To provide the best possible service at the lowest possible cost."

  We all knew it was the beginning of the end at that point. We provided good service to our customer, at a reasonable cost. But we all knew it was not "the lowest possible cost". It was all we could talk about for days. I guess the word filtered up the management chain, so that our new third-line manager came up from Raleigh to have a talk with us.

  "I hear that you all have a lot of worries here that you are going to get laid off", he said. "I just wanted to put your minds at ease. We have absolutely no plans to lay anyone off. We want to work with all of you."

  But then he added the kicker, "Certainly there are no plans in place for any layoffs to happen in 2009. There are no plans for anything to happen in 2010 either, but you can never see into the future."

  That was in July of 2009. In October we were all called into another meeting with the same manager - this time he did it via a telephone conference call, he didn't have the nerve to face us in person! And he told us that almost all of were going to be laid off and replaced by Indians. By May 2010 we were gone (three people from the department were actually kept on.)

  So yeah, never trust a word from upper management. :-)

  But maybe I was better off anyway. I got an email just yesterday from one of the three guys in our department who was kept on. The subject line he gave the email was: "Shoot me now - it would be a kindness" Apparently things have gone to hell at the customer location since the Indians took over, and he's right in the middle of it.

• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: Retiring Soon Under the Old Plan - Maybe Some Suggestions" by "llizbutler". Full excerpt: Hi, Can I ask a simple question. I read these posts and am confused at what is a basic concept I guess I should understand. What is a "second choicer"? Obviously I am not, because I do not know what it is. I was 39 on June 30, 1999 with 19 years of service. I expect to be forced to retire this year at 50 yrs old and 30yrs of service with no access to healthcare, but I do qualify for a small pension and my 401k. Thanks for the clarification.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Re: Retiring Soon Under the Old Plan - Maybe Some Suggestions" by "madinpok". Full excerpt: When IBM rolled out the Cash Balance plan in 1999, at first, they said only employees who were within 5 years of being retirement eligible would have a choice to stay with the old retirement plan or go with the C-B plan. Everyone else would be forced into the C-B plan.

  Several months later, due to the great uproar that resulted over the C-B plan, IBM said that they were changing the rules and anyone who was 40 years or older with at least 10 years of service as of July 1, 1999 would now have a choice as to which plan they wanted to be in. This group of employees became known as the "second choicers."

• Glassdoor IBM reviews. Selected reviews follow:
  • IBM Senior Consultant in Washington, DC: (Current Employee) "Good company, good work opportunities, not enough pay." Pros: Free schedule: as long as you get the work done, it doesn't matter as much as other companies where or when you do it. Entry level graduates can accelerate quickly in the first 3 years before stalling out. Good benefits. Fully vested in 401k from the start. Cons: Pay less than competitors Too big of a company. Mandatory 44 hour work week. Expectation to do Human Resource roles and other 'give back' to compete with your peers for year end ratings. Advice to Senior Management: Keep the good employees you have by giving appropriate raises. Rather than maintaining the same consultant plan as every other company for which the only way to get a decent raise is by switching companies. After X many years of increasing profits: 1% raise... is that a joke?
  • IBM Business Intelligence Software Development in Boulder, CO: (Current Employee) "Heavy emphasis on solving day-to-day problems with some work developing solutions to future problems." Pros: IBM name and the wide range of experience with front end development and heavy SQL programming. Cons: Contracting atmosphere - no job security. Number one priority is keeping the customer happy, not your technical skill set. Advice to Senior Management: IBM just posted a record earnings quarter, yet cut back on services or outsourced it to India. They are trying to keep up with Google and Apple, instead of Oracle and SAP. Seniors run with the 50+ age group in marathons, not the 20ies crowd; why not IBM run with their own age group...not the young kid?. Just like a senior who doesn't accept their age, IBM may pay for their aggressive actions with the equivalent of an economic "heart-attack"/
  • IBM IT Architect in Baltimore, MD: (Past Employee - 2010) "Good place to start." Pros: Training for 1st 2 or 3 years, many co-workers with knowledge & experience, interesting projects, working from home is prevalent. Cons: continuous layoffs that don't account for performance, benefits below average and dwindling, overwork is normal, management is harsh toward any discontent in the ranks. Advice to Senior Management: Value your technical people and give them time and training to grow their skills. Stop the continual layoff mill. Listen to the workers, even when you don't like what they have to say.
  • IBM Anonymous: (Current Employee) "Hardly no training or preparation for work." Pros: Company's reputation...who doesn't know about big blue? Cons: No proper training/preparation for new hire. Low payment with rare/no increase. Unclear career path and no appraisal. Advice to Senior Management: Need to focus on human resource and company culture, do not just to look at figure.
  • IBM Project Manager: (Current Employee) "Long hours, good place to get into I.T. but unable to grow career after short period of time." Pros: Access to new technology, exposure to client work environments if in Services division. Cons: Global Resourcing is key to the success of the company. Need an MBA to get in, but the old guard creates a glass ceiling so there is no room to move up, and the salary/comp is reflective of this state. There is the constant quarterly chase to make the Wall Street expectations, which is getting more and more difficult to attain. Advice to Senior Management: Short term tactics to keep the stock price up is resulting in talent drain. Soon enough the old guard will retire and the workforce that has been adapted to being treated like contractors will no longer provide a pool of leaders to draw from.
  • IBM Technical Support Engineer in Dublin, County Dublin (Ireland): (Past Employee - 2009) "Great people, Bad Management." Pros: People are great with very different skills and knowledge, always ready to help out. Good company to have on your CV but... Cons: Too many useless managers and middle-management. You are squeezed for everything (clocking time, holidays requests...). Most of managers do not know how to deal with employees and do not treat them very well. No recognition in your work and not a place for careers growth.. Advice to Senior Management: Treat people with more respect and appreciate the time they spend solving customers problems. Salary is very low when starting at the very bottom where you have to filter all the angry etc.. customers before escalation..
  • IBM Anonymous: (Current Employee) "Great for career development, but not entire career." Pros: Great career development, learning opportunities, and networking! Cons: Easy to get lost in the maze and bureaucracy. Difficult to advance and the yearly raises and overall compensation are relatively poor. Advice to Senior Management: Streamline processes and focus on retaining good employees.
  • IBM IT Specialist Advanced in Saint Louis, MO: (Past Employee - 2010) "Good and bad. The offshore of jobs causes undue stress in one's life." Pros: Working from home. Many accounts to move around to. Very limited contact with management if you are performing your job well. Satisfaction of performing your job well. Customer contact. There are a lot of very good people to work with that you run across within IBM even though it is mostly in conference calls.

    Cons: The fact is IBM has a plan to get rid of everyone in the USA that support customers and sending their jobs overseas to lesser skilled workers who barely speak English which irritates the customers. Then IBM turns around and tries to re-hire you back as a consultant without any benefits (no medical, retirement or vacation) at a reduced rate. IBM has built datacenters and hire in young college kids without experience for dirt cheap (based on what they pay offshore) and keeps the average overall salaries low which pulls your salary down going in as a contractor. IBM then expects us to support and train the kids they hire. Once the kids have gained some experience and since you're a contractor they terminate you without notice. IBM is a ruthless employer and is only concerned about the profits for the CEO, board and upper management. They care less about the people on the frontline building the company by keeping their customers happy and working endless overnight and weekend hours (offshift) that lessens the customer impact and again keeps the customer happy. A salaried systems administrator works on average 60 hours / week with no consideration from IBM. You're expected to do the work at night and attend the planning meetings during the day.

    Advice to Senior Management: First line managers should be aware that they will be next once all the US workers are gone. They should be fighting for their people and not submitting to Sam's very poor policies. Everyone just under Sam is a "yes man" kissing his ass and will step on lower management just like they are doing to the front line SA doing the real work. The buy back of IBM stock is so obvious as to artificially inflate IBM stock price so management can cash in on their stock options maturing. Eventually it will catch up with you.

  • IBM Software Engineer in San Jose, CA: (Past Employee - 2010) "too much politics and policies, less actual work." Pros: you may be lucky to work on real products and real customers, occasionally interesting challenges to solve. nothing left, used to have great technologies but marketing is bad. the company is too big and not flexible. Cons: too much politics and policies, less actual work everything is getting off-shored, no young talents working in the company. professionals are leaving. lack of motivation. management is seeking every possibility to cut cost and transfer all jobs to India or China. Advice to Senior Management: stop off-shoring and raise your own talents, motivate people and let them grow. respect their interests and work-life balance. market and populate your products, make them simpler/cheaper to start using and understand real benefits.
  • IBM Senior Systems Management Professional in Sydney (Australia): (Current Employee) "It's a complex place to work." Pros: The management has been trained to do things political right. Cons: Very bureaucratic in most places. It's hard to make a change for anything. Advice to Senior Management: Less meetings and more time on technical issues.
  • IBM Anonymous: (Current Employee) "Intellectually Challenging, but Highly Fragmented." Pros: Great coworkers, intellectual challenges, ability to engage the breadth and depth of the IT industry. You can spend a career at IBM and never be bored. Cons: It's become harder to move across groups and divisions at IBM. The financial objectives drive everything, which reduce motivation in the workplace, as layoffs and cutbacks become less influenced by individual effort and capability and more on "wrong place, wrong time". Advice to Senior Management: Need to step back and rethink HR policy and practice. The simplicity of managing employees via numbers may make it easier to hit earnings numbers from New York, but it doesn't bolster the sort of culture an organization needs to succeed in a Knowledge Economy.
  • IBM Anonymous: (Current Employee) "I believe our business is no longer living up to the values to which we aspire." Pros: The people are great and are one of the main reasons attrition is not much higher in the current climate. Cons: We have lost our way with the values that IBM clearly set the public image by. Sadly this is no longer reflected behind closed doors. The constant and ongoing withdrawal of benefits and bonuses is killing the company on its quest to reach the new share price. Advice to Senior Management: We need to go back to treating people fairly and equitably. Everyone understands the harsh market and the drive to a share price, but we are now doing this by steam rollering over the good will of employees. This current goodwill will not last and should not be taken for granted