Anyone hearing about potential cuts coming up? Trying to stay ahead of the news.
More coming?
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This thread is about as informative as asking if the sun is coming up tomorrow like it has for 454,000,000,000 years. It's IBM I've Been Mugged after all and it is lies wrapped in a cabal wrapped in an inigma. Anybody have a better description than dumpster fire?
Reminder, during the 4Q Earnings call on January 28, 2026, the company indicated there would be layoffs in 2026 at levels similar to 2025. The words they used were:
“For operating pretax margin, we expect about 100 basis points of expansion with workforce rebalancing fairly CONSISTENT WITH THE PRIOR YEAR."
Translation: Layoffs in 2026 will be similar to 2025 levels. And “Workforce rebalancing charges” means restructuring costs tied to headcount actions: severance, role eliminations, org redesign etc.
Not happening everyone calm down
@bm+1kjx78wwh thanks for sharing
During the 4Q Earnings call on January 28, 2026, the company indicated there would be layoffs in 2026 at levels similar to 2025. The words they used were:
“For operating pretax margin, we expect about 100 basis points of expansion with workforce rebalancing fairly consistent with the prior year.”
FYI: “Workforce rebalancing charges” means restructuring costs tied to headcount actions: severance, role eliminations, org redesign etc.
@2c3 this is a second line manager lol
@29f they deserve it the most. It’s a money pit that doesn’t generate any revenue.
@2c ... Not true, first line managers are aware with upcoming layoffs. They rank employees, they perform some "analysis" of the impact of headcount reduction on current deliverables. So, if they might know the exact date of the layoff, they are aware of it.
Watch out for the slimy behavior of these useless pieces of sh1t.
@2bt 1st line mgrs have no idea. Last layoff they found out a day or two before
@29f hard to know if you are sarcastic or not. The managers all say we are but the said it before the last super large layoff too
@293 Albany is safe
@28g we were told ibm never had a layoff before this last one and management in Albany is saying we won’t have one this year most likely since we just had one!!
@256. I miss counted. It’s 7k actual employee shrinkage and 8k speculative layoffs for 2025 given SW hires.
But Albany site is completely safe and exempt for any layoffs coming
@256. How do you think IBM shrank 6k worth of head count in 2025. OF course there were layoffs. Most likely approx 7k worth given that IBM hired in new hires via purchasing SW companies during the 2025 calendar year, and yet shrank as a company. This is quasi confirmed via IBM taking a 700 million dollar restructuring charge during the 2025 operating year (eg 1billion = 10k heads). Net net yes there were layoffs in 2025 (I’m speculating 7k worth) and there will be another 7k worth in 2026, as IBM pre-announced restructuring charges in 2026 would mirror 2025 charges.
@24e so no layoffs?!
According to the 2025 annual report after all purchases (SW and consulting) plus RA’s/PIP’s IBM shrank 6k worth of employees world wide in 2025. That’s down from 270 to 263 or slightly over 2%.
@bm+1kjx78wwh thanks for sharing
During the 4Q Earnings call on January 28, 2026, the company indicated there would be layoffs in 2026 at levels similar to 2025. The words they used were:
“For operating pretax margin, we expect about 100 basis points of expansion with workforce rebalancing fairly consistent with the prior year.”
FYI: “Workforce rebalancing charges” means restructuring costs tied to headcount actions: severance, role eliminations, org redesign etc.
@1py aren’t they usually announced each year by the end of March? That’s what it’s been since 2023
Did Arvind say there be none in 2026?
@1g: Funny comment, Is Santa Claus real ?
There will be no RAs in 2026
@1cy true that. Lets not over complicate this. IBM does whatever McKinsey tells them to do such as here where McKinsey tells the world "...India is the workforce for the world...". https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Ga-krrYgak SMH
@1ad. Yes that is the plan. Think lower costs by any means as the mainframe market is flat (eg no new customers coming onboard). ÌBM has followed a typical strategy to lower costs
- Abandon commodity markets (pc, hda’s, intel servers, etc etc)
- Outsource / spinoff (kyndryl)
- Offshore labor / repeatable tasks / maintenance (eg India growth)
- Abandon legacy (eg buy innovation and layoff legacy)
- Automate (eg AI replacing labor). NOTE this impacts onshore and offshore labor
IBM has adopted all 5 over the last few years to goose the bottom line, and that will continue as the 5 strategies move up scale as AI improves
@19q I am assuming their goal is to get rid of “low performers” in high cost regions
@18n. Do you really think IBM will get rid of the bottom 15%? That would be 270k x .15 = 40k worldwide. Perhaps 8k in NA and perhaps 6k in Northern Europe. Instead I suspect 2-3% cuts, with perhaps 5-6% if you account for band 6 hires to backfill the RA’s.(eg 5k out with 2.5 k getting hired as band 6’s). IBM is running out of targets in the rest of the world. IBM’s ultimate goal is to
- Lower costs, thus band 6 and younger employees are desired
- Lower the average age of the employee population (32-35 is the goal)
- Recenter the growth areas of IBM to India (eg AI and hybrid have been and are moving)
- Recenter IBM mainframe around an India skill set (1st phase move repeatable tasked, 2nd phase move legacy support, 3rd phase move AI/ hybrid support, final phase get NA and Northern Europe employee population down to 5-6% on shore
@18n same. I want the severance and not to deal with getting fired next year when they try to call me a low performer again .
If I received a bottom 15% rating for 2025, does that likely mean I will be on the RA list? Because at this point, I would rather deal with the stress of an RA and finding a new job than deal with IBM for one more day.
Current IBMer: With the new "push everyone down the rating scale" yearly evaluation system I heard they expect to get a lot of people to leave for free. Either because they got pushed to CORE or because they are low. No cost there!
I would never refer someone to work at IBM that I liked! I hope all of you have reviewed IBM on Glassdoor.
@fg how do you know? I heard February a few months ago. (Can’t wait to leave this place and get severance ).
yes there will be RA (US) announced sometime in march with 1 month notice.. they will spread it out like previous year over several months to void WARN
@d6
they are just harvesting the company
they don't care about its future
or if it will be able to do great things
the word parasite keeps coming to mind
I heard there's going to be a massive RA in the US and Europe at the end of
@d0 All small country offices will close , no need for offices remember this is the cloud an AI era 4-5 european offices to remain all the rest via partners
@D6. Job 1 at IBM is lower costs! Quality/skill/knowledge doesn’t matter as IBM is a monopoly when it comes to Mainframe and thus can outlast the “skilled experienced” void. It’s logical for management to say they are going to hire a bunch of band 6’s. It allows them to reduce band 9’s and up. EG it reduces costs and fulfills Job 1.
There are few hundred who were forced to accept "early retirement" or "else". They are leaving IBM by the end of the month. Many of them are highly experienced people whose knowledge was acquired over decades and were responsible of critical products. They will leave a void that won't be filled with either AI or newly hired engineers. The Indian id1ot at the top does not care.
- 200 people will be ra'd in Italy
RAs happen always, at least annually, sometimes twice a year. Sometimes they’re larger in scope and require an Employee Consultation (nothing changes though) and sometimes they’re targeted… think 5 people on a call and they need 3 to go. So, are there any RAs in the future for IBMers? Yes. Yes there are. These are two main ways to leave IBM… retirement or redundancy. Plan for the latter!
During the 4Q Earnings call on January 28, 2026, the company indicated there would be layoffs in 2026 at levels similar to 2025. The words they used were:
“For operating pretax margin, we expect about 100 basis points of expansion with workforce rebalancing fairly consistent with the prior year.”
FYI: “Workforce rebalancing charges” means restructuring costs tied to headcount actions: severance, role eliminations, org redesign etc.
I see no PIP at all in our org and also no news about layoffs as stock is doing pretty well! Tbh, we are actually safe for this year atleast lol
@a6 so no RA this spring?