20 years at IBM. Throughout my career I had earned many award.
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I was “aged out” I mean RA’d at IBM. Great reviews, awards great level of customer satisfaction, excellent experience, happy to mentor, many certifications, but pushing mid 60s, highest paid etc. IBM does not care about your accomplishments and contributions one bit.
Wow Fired? I didn't know IBM does that.
RTP campuses had cardboard containers in the halls for victims of smarter planet to dump there stuff on the way out. Those containers has all sorts or awards in them. They matter not these days.
Get a lawyer. Do it today. Don't wait.
The fear based culture is a direct result of IBMs autocratic style of management. HR have tried for years (decades) to shift this to a more ‘coaching’ style but it hasn’t worked.
The management style is very different to the vast majority of Tech/Consulting firms which have a more authoritarian and visionary style of leadership and management.
Yes to fear based leadership! Nailed it.
My product manager knows nothing about the product and refuses to pick up any technical skills whatsoever.
They claim my deliverables don’t add “business value”, but when pressed about their understanding of my work, they know nothing. They can’t even find the readme yet alone use the product they are supposedly in charge of.
How can a manager lead a project if they don’t even know what a repo is?
They latch onto things like your learning badges and “do your checkpoint!” and “make your skills more t-shaped!”
It gets even worse with org executives who just put out a newsletter saying stuff like “design excellence and eminence transform outcomes.” Just random words that managers latch onto but have zero meaning in the context of ACTUAL WORK.
It’s so embedded in the IBM culture that all true creators are stifled until they reach a breaking point.
Managers’ gravity only pulls in other unskilled and stubborn people until it’s a bunch of incompetent, mean-spirited, and afraid people at the top.
Good luck everyone!
Most often, fear-based leadership stems from the company's or manager's total lack of confidence in their own abilities. Rather than let the light shine on them and reveal their flaws, they use fear so that they can thrive - at the expense of the employees they're supposed to be inspiring to do their best work.
I have no word for how low IBM has sunk. I am happy to have abandoned ship. Best of luck in your life outside IBM. Let me share with you that my life improved in so many ways after having retired a few years back.
Didn't you notice the treatment the older employees were getting for the past 20 years or did you just ignore it until it became your turn ?
No sympathy for you !
You LET it happen.
IBM management have lost their moral compass. If you are old and expensive, you are targeted and vulnerable to layoffs and/or PIP, regardless of performance.
company is dying. what do you expect
I am the originally post. 3 he-l months.
Sorry that happened to you. It seems it will be a common story going forward. Hope you can afford to retire. Today's job market (and the culture of the work world in general) is just too miserable. Best of luck!
Sorry to hear it! How long did the process take from when you first received the PIP?
I hope you find something that treats you better and helps you get to whatever finish line you originally had in mind.