Thread regarding IBM layoffs

The process could be described as a bit inhuman or cold. Two weeks after my last work day I was called by an IBM Partner who really wanted my help with a client. As per his level he steamrolled the conversation until 5 minutes in I got to say "I was RA'd, I don't work there." His response "Ohhhh...." then he promptly hung up. Once you get the RA tag it's like you have rabies to corporate and people are afraid they will catch the RA disease too. People who have been RA'd know of what I speak.

Good story about Scandinavia. IBM closed the storage L1 support out of the US and moved it to Bulgaria. Well, they should have brushed up on the Bulgarian labor laws. One of the gotchas in Bulgaria they have strict laws about overtime and taking vacation is mandatory (same as in Brazil). Still, Bulgaria has way cheaper labor costs......

Opinion surveys are the strangest thing. Management keeps asking us to tell them what we think. But they don't want to hear the true answer, and everyone is afraid to give them a true answer anyway. But they keep asking for some reason.

Working at IBM now is very strange . You work for a group that is trying to help customers but another IBM department is trying to outsource your job and the executives don’t understand why everyone slams them on option surveys.

You can respect a company that downsizes to move to a new strategy. But IBM obviously has no strategy, or maybe it has too many and cant pick one. IBM downsizes for its own sake just to make money for the BOD.

Do not hold IBM as heartless per se as every corporation is generally heartless. That said, IBM has done it's damage. In the 1950s there was a good career field as a draftsman. Thousands were laid off when technology called CAD came in and everything could be done on an AT 286 system and that was that. So sh– happens in this world, often bad severe sh–. Cyber security seems the BEST career choice right and thank god I got into it.

"...and at a much lower salary"

Really, the whole point. Temporary cost-cutting to save $$$.

Corporations are heartless that look only at the bottom line. My wife started with the (unnamed) hospital before it even opened worked 30 years in ER, ICU, labor and delivery and finally in training. She trained what she thought would be her assistant and one day she went to work 2 corporate suits told her empty her desk her position was eliminated. She did get a severance package. The person she trained was younger and at a much lower salary and took her job over (she lasted 6months and quit) Age discrimination happens all the time.

Fake post.

The speed at which careers end is a disturbing aspect in all this. Someone on Armonk has a spreadsheet that shows how RAs meet a KPI. Divisional VPs and general managers then inform directors of required numbers and wait for a list of workers to be terminated. First and second line managers then carryout the layoff. All of this happens in weeks.

Compared to the length of service of many employees, this process is seemingly unfair. It may not be ethical or smart but it is legal - at least in the US.

IBM can't do this kind of layoff in places like Sweden. Rather than slow down the process, IBM simply pulled out of most of Scandinavia. What can we do here?