The days of mutual respect and loyalty between management and staff at IBM are long past. IBM’s one-time core principle of trust and personal responsibility in all relationships no longer applies to its executive ranks (nor do the IBM Business Conduct Guidelines.) Don’t overly invest in your career because it’s guaranteed that your employer at most makes extremely short-term investments in you.
Know that your 1st or 2nd line manager may have been coerced to sign a justification for laying you off written by higher ups and certify it as their own assessment. The documented decision making process and paper trail scrupulously follow the law. The actual decision process is a different matter. IBM’s no longer squeaky clean in this century; it just presents the outward appearance of being so.
In IBM even band 10 and band D employees are disposable interchangeable parts now. The situation has become similar at other major tech employers. Show your next employer no more loyalty than they show you. Beware of loyalty to your local team. Big businesses get a free piggyback ride from that loyalty to your local team. They count on it!
Even if you’re the best in your country or geo, they can always find 2 or 3 lesser talents in a far cheaper developing country to replace you. They won’t think twice before doing so … even to someone who walks on water.
This. OP: @ce+1k9hfmk62