IBM UK: Oh, remote workers. We want to be colocated with you again

Tosca just wants to be able to survey her domain (and wage slaves) which is tricky if they aren't all coralled into a pen (like pigs to the slaughter). Typical upper management with too much time on their hands.

Co-location work makes us free

I wonder whether they're going to run railway lines to these so-called "co-location hubs".

Warwick

When I worked at IBM Warwick they were closing down one building and renting it out, and encouraging people to WFH to... erm, save money.

Ideally, you spend some of your time at home and come into the office at least once a week to get some face-2-face time with colleagues.

But this is clearly a sinister way to reduce headcount, without redundancies.

London

So, .. workers are spread around the country, often paying for their own office space.

Somehow it makes sense to move or transport all those people to the city with the most expensive office space, the highest living costs and the most overloaded transport system in the country ? So you have to pay them more and add 2 hours travel to their working day ?

Why would you agree to the hassle & cost of moving to be near a "hub" when IBM's declared strategy is to switch the vast majority of its non-sales workforce to low-wage economies as quickly as possible ?

Step 2

Now that you're all here together, you can begin training your replacements.

Been there done that

There were more people (lots more) than there were desks or even chairs for. The message was

'Get to work by 07:00 or else you don't get a parking spot let alone a desk.'

Those who were any good took the message and went. The dross was left to fight it out.

IBM seem to be following the same path. It may reduce costs a bit but what about productivity eh? If you are fighting for a desk or even a chair you are not overly concerned about doing anything productive now are you.

Glad I got out of IT when I did. My bees are much less trouble. Though if they get annoyed they can fight back big time.

In my opinion

it is good to meet face to face with co-workers from time to time - but as a service provider it seems nonsense to enforce an office full time "just-because"

This can cause difficulty for customers as well as the staffers.

It is also against the policy of many governments trying to reduce car journeys etc by enabling people to work from home.

This all seems a bit draconian and may not have the intended result.

Bah!

"Tosca Colangeli, IBM’s UK veep of Systems and Technology Group, warned employees in a recording, seen by The Register, that a “big feature” of 2017 is a “desire to be colocated together in a central location again”."

Interestingly, you can remove the word " colocated" from that statement without damaging the meaning.

Another's experience

My employers has a mix of partial teleworking (3 days a week for many), home-based, and office based. Which group you are in is based on your job and its requirements. In my group we are either partially teleworking or home-based. Other groups are office based but it is pretty obvious if you are in an office based position. Interestingly morale is rather high for all groups as people feel they are being treated like responsible adults. Also, my impression is productivity is higher as befits higher morale.

Itsy Bitsy Morons apparently has serious mismanagement issues beyond the typical PHB/MBA levels of incompetence. Organizations with high morale seem to be able to more with less and this is a leadership issue.

colocated together

As opposed to colocated apart

Tosca-cost-cutter

The lady has form when carrying out the orders from those up high. She butchered ITS (now GTS) when she was last there. She also decimated STG when she was in charge. She not only follows without question but she goes over the top every time. Having her in charge of this co-location shite is bad news for those in GTS.

Do people realise that in GTS you are a resource to be sold to a customer so you spend almost all of your time on customer sites? If you aren't on customer site then you are on the bench. This means that you can (could) live where ever as the customer paid the travel and accommodation. There is NO point making people work in an office if they happen to be on the bench for a couple of weeks as they would have little to nothing to do.

They may do some education, but why would you want to sit with a bunch of people you don't know with headphones on?

IBM for years have been selling sites and downsizing their physical footprint to the point of being fairly ridiculous. Most of the regional hubs are gone. Be interesting to see what they do now this new madness has taken hold.

I can't see it as anything other than a cost cutting move personally. The way IBM views its employees gets worse every year.

Good luck with your lunatic plans enacted by fruit-loop. Don't they realise that the people buying will eventually be the people they screwed over?

Don't they realise that the people buying will eventually be the people they screwed over?

You might think that would matter. It doesn't. As long as you're on the approved list of vendors, the business just keeps on coming.....

Next Phase .... ?

>>> The next phase will see the “solutions, and our CSEs and our pricing and TSMs” from the Sampson House premises, also in the capital, to South Bank. That is phase two in our consolidation, so that has worked very well… there is more of that to come”.

Appears nothing much new here except moving the major deal solution/bid teams from one building to another ... the southern (SO) Deal Hub has been in Sampson House for several years after moving from South Bank when it became increasingly difficult to find sufficient space in South Bank where the team(s) could work together.

Bid teams were/are typically composed of IBMers from all many parts of the country (and increasinly just before I left, from beyond the UK) so most would be weekly rather than daily commuters for the phases of the deal where being together added significant value - and in my view it generally did so.

Used to be (before change in role of the assurance team I worked for and then VR in 2015) part of the wider bid teams and was a regular visitor to Sampson (... did Virgin West Coast a power of good in full fare rail tickets to arrive for workshops and reviews starting at 9 o'clock!) and the northern equivalent based in Warwick.

Move on ... nothing new to see here!

Multiple remote location work fine for IBM...

... if they are all in India.

I Like Working in an Office

I am an IBMer who works at home and would much rather be office based. I believe that having everyone working remotely is one of the biggest reasons the company doesn't feel the same anymore. I like to be able to work at home from time to time but being with your team face ti face is part of the fun of working for a company like IBM.