Fucking hell, IBM
Is this becoming daily? It feels like I can set my watch to this.
What are the odds they're using the Christmas break as part of the consultation period as they know most of the staff won't be about to kick up fuss...
It wasn't only staff in IBM's Technical Services Support (TSS) unit that this week received the memo urging volunteers to come forward to toss themselves on the redundancy heap, folk in IS Delivery (ISD) got it too. Sources at IBM told us the only difference between the letters the departments received was the name of the …
The conveyor belt is running faster than it used to,.... ~three years ago I put in an EOI, but didn't leave until the following February, seems folks have until next Friday to put in an EOI , ... leaving just two weeks later.
I presume there will be a bung in lieu of notice (although beware pop pickers, if you opt for VR, payments in lieu of notice are taxable, because they are wages, whereas the redundo bung isn't until it's over whatever the limit is now (£30K ish?) so factor in paying tax of some of the bundle.)
I'm serious. I don't pay much attention to the recruitment landscape. Is the above a solved problem now? There is an oversupply of IT professionals and companies are snowed under with qualified applicants?
Because if the answer above is negative - why is anyone still working for unreliable backstabbers like IBM and HPE? I bailed out at the first sniff of being TUPE'ed to Crapita nearly 20 years ago. Even then working for a sleazy outsourcing firm was obviously a recipe for being ruthlessly exploited before being knifed and dumped in a ditch.
... makes you wonder why our Govt and education experts are so hell bent on teaching our schoolkids ICT and coding, when so many IT jobs are going abroad, doesn't it? Do they really envisage hordes of code monkeys being required, but no Infrastructure Technicians or Business Analysts (because these are the roles being axed right now, amongst others) ?
"... makes you wonder why our Govt and education experts are so hell bent on teaching our schoolkids ICT and coding, when so many IT jobs are going abroad, doesn't it? "
A glut pushes down the wages - businesses want cheap STEM/IT labor.
"...really envisage hordes of code monkeys being required, but no Infrastructure Technicians..."
That'll be the DevOps movement to replace all infrastructure with code then? Just kidding, anyone want to bet a pint that a GBS 'resource action' will be announced shortly too, probably January?
Basically, there are so many monster outsourcing deals set to finish at year end and some customers may be choosing to break up and even 'in source' IT back in-house again, after realizing over the last decade that IT is actually a critical dependency for most modern businesses and therefore they should never completely trust all their business systems and applications in the hands of external service providers.
Sad for all those families out there wondering if the statutory minimum will keep them going until a suitable new job becomes available.
...urging volunteers to come forward to toss themselves on the redundancy heap...
Reminds me of a Star Trek: TOS episode. "The computer says that management Vendikar has scored a direct hit on your business unit city. Please report to a disintegration booth within 24 hours."
There must now exist a toxic culture at IBM were staff are constantly worried when will the axe fall on them. The sad fact is that IBM is profitable yet is cutting staff as if there on their death bed. It does seem that they are callous to their own staff. This is the main reason why I will not purchase anything made by IBM. I wonder if any one else feels this way ??
This is the main reason why I will not purchase anything made by IBM.
No need - the government does it for you. It isn't remotely profitable for IBM to work with customers who are real businesses and demand real results with real penalty clauses. Much better to only deal with governments where the more you fail, the more you get paid to fix it.
@YAAC
Your last words are so true.
Any outsourcer on a government account really can’t lose.
Cost plus terms are the easiest to screw government over with. Need a change for some system, then the outsourcer throws as many resources as humanly possible and also buys the most expensive kit for it as the government customer has no clue and the outsourcer gets to charge a cost plus markup on everything. New virtual os = pm, architect, senior virtual os tech, procurement, networks, change management etc all ~ 40 hours of effort and the outsourcer adds a percentage on top of all that. Those same people can prob do 3 or more projects simultaneously within that time scale which is where the outsourcer earns their money.
The incentives set for the outsourcer are wrong and encourages over selling and underperforming.
The outsourcer will not reward their staff for on time delivery, but the sales team will earn more for selling the customer more, when they didn’t need it when the service was in house.
Its actually worse than that. There are lots of useful tricks:
- persuade the customer representatives to sign off on milestones that haven't been fully achieved (so they can make themselves look good (albeit temporarily) to their management
- deliver a system that sort of does what the customer spec asks for, but is unusable.
Furthermore, the threat of a government customer taking legal action is minimal - they know that a large vendor, such as IBM, has better lawyers and that there is likely to be a presumption that the government people screwed things up on general principles.
I still meet quite regularly with ex-colleagues still working at IBM; the general attitude I sense is one of slightly depressed fatalism. The younger ones are probably more upbeat, but then again, they'll find it comparatively easy to get new jobs if pushed. the older ones are pretty much just keeping their heads down and hoping the problem will keep going away.
I suggest that IBM (and other large corporations) move the most senior executive positions, including the CEO and their direct reports, to a lower-wage country such as India. They would have no trouble finding thoroughly qualified candidates, many of them educated at top American business schools, who would save the company (literally) millions in compensation.
As a bonus, an Indian executive team would have much better cultural affinity with the majority of employees.
Hey, look. Someone's gotta pay for the maintenance and cost for the big blue helicopter for Ginni to use.
Here's an idea: Why doesn't IBM mandate the helicopter pilots to form a Employee Consultation Committees or launch an Open Voluntary Separation Programme?
I can just imagine the police interview right now ... and it goes something like ...
Question: So what happened?
Pilot: She said she couldn't take the guilt and shame. Next thing I saw she opened the door and exited the cabin. She dropped like a rock.
1st mate: What do we do?
capt.: man the pumps and fix the breach. Keep throwing able seamen and carpenters overboard to lighten the load. If that doesn't work jettison some of the passengers.
1st mate: aye-aye
Capt.: and make sure our private launch is well stocked with champagne and caviar. This is a beastly job. No one knows how much I suffer...
So does this now mean that the same people attempting to scam us via phone/email etc. will now have access to just send me an official tax bill with a different account number.
Or worse that fake IRS phone call now really being the IRS IT guy with a bribe me and get out free.