Thread regarding IBM layoffs

RE:@GOdT5Iu-acei comment,

You may have worked for IBM for 8 years, but you NEVER worked for the REAL IBM. By the time you were hired under the Palmisano regime, the IBM you worked for was severely damaged goods.

I spent 35 years with IBM and retired when I decided to retire and was not shoved out the door like so many others were. I think your tune would be quite different if you worked for IBM back in the 70's and 80's when everyone looked up to IBM as a great company to work for.

Back then if you were asked who you worked for, most people hesitated to say IBM, because it almost seemed like you were boasting about the great job you had. In fact these people would ask how you were able to get into such a good company.

BUT by the time you were hired into IBM, the questions changed from how did you get such a good job to "WOW, so far you survived all the "Resource actions".

Your bad experience working for 8 short years during the Palmisano Regime at IBM, jaded your opinion of a company that for 70 plus years was one of the most envied companies to work for.

I feel sorry for you in that you NEVER knew what working for the REAL IBM was like and how great a company it used to be.

@GOdT5Iu-4xis Hey Retired. I have news for you: I am the original poster and I worked for IBM for eight years under Sam Palmisano and Ginni Rometty, although Lou Gerstner left before I joined IBM.

I am really, really sorry that an old fogey like you decided to drink the Kool-Aid at IBM and I truly feel heartbroken for people who put their heart and soul into the company only to have all their hard work simply disappear. But the world has changed: lifetime jobs at IBM and other companies no longer exist and people need to adapt to the new workforce.

Restructuring, outsourcing, contractual jobs and so forth are the new reality. Most people who joined in the Sam Palmisano or Ginni Rometty eras knew better than to become too comfortable at IBM. We knew the job was simply a stepping stone and we got what we wanted out of IBM: a salary, any skills we acquired along with the opportunity to put IBM on our résumés.

It's quite obvious that the originator of this post never worked for IBM.

Anyone that worked for IBM in the days of "Respect For The Individual" can affirm that the employees back then were thrilled to be employed by IBM. You never would hear griping or whining and everyone wanted to help their fellow co-worker succeed and make IBM better.

IBM had high standards for hiring and if you didn't pass the employee trial period you were shown the door. BUT, if you passed the trial period and did your job well, you were rewarded with a good paying job with good benefits and job security.

This all changed when Gerstner took over as CEO and he initiated a culture of mistrust of your fellow workers and then it was every man for himself. There was no more of the "IBM Family Values" , instead you had to be constantly wondering who was going to stab you in the back so that they might be able to hold onto their job a bit longer than you. And by the way- the Good Pay and Benefits disappeared at this time also, this was the start of the morale decline in IBM.

Gerstner started this Frankenstein monster, but Palmisano and Rometty have continued the blood baths. Back in the good old days of IBM, nobody was afraid to share their knowledge with fellow workers because we were all working towards the same goal- to make IBM bigger and better. After Gerstner created the Frankenstein IBM, nobody wanted to share their knowledge because you might then look like you know more than them which could be the deciding factor in a job layoff.

I agree, no job is gauranteed and I personally am glad to be gone from this place. My issues are the lies IBM tells. Lies to customers about who is doing the work, lies that people are being let go as there job suddenly no longer exists (tell my customer that, they think differently), lies that the CEO is worthy of a 4.5 million bonus, lies there are 25000 openings in IBM (but none a person on the RA list can be given), lies that they are training people on new areas (watching Ginni yammer on in a 30 minute self promotion video is not training), lies they care about their employees (this one month severance is a slap in the face and don't get me started on the value of the outplacement company) and finally lies that it cares about its stock holders (if they did Ginni, the board and all the upper management team would give back their bonuses they don't deserve).

2gbl - bernie is just a symptom - we lost our edge as it relates to being competative

Vote for Bernie and get everything for free!!!!! No accountability or responsibility, just renege on your debts and let the dumb asses who are still employed and pulling hard pay for your sloth.

After all you are an American and everything should flow to you! Free phone, water is a human right, free college education, rent assistance, heat assistance. Don't say anything true or you are not PC or worse racist. If you are only talented enough to drool then you are worth a minimum of 15 an hour or put another way 30K a year to know absolutely nothing. Then pick up the health care at discount and all the other freebees the Dems want to give you and just kick back. People, its over.

@oap I see your point, yet, it's difficult to live an ascetic life. I like my car, it is really one of very few things that make me happy right now.

@jox If you live like that for 10 years, you'll be retired at 35. Live as cheaply as possible and don't waste your time chasing the American dream that no longer exists

@jux so cut all expenses, live in a rental, drive a beater, confine yourself to your house. Live your life like this and at 65 you'll turn around and ask yourself: where did my life go

I too agree no one is guaranteed a job. As such, the working world no longer views employees as living, breathing individuals who have lives outside their job...they are viewed a "human capital" available to have and hold or to dismiss at will. Because we have developed such a disposable view of almost everything that exists today, I suggest the employees must adopt a much more cynical and real view of their working career. Stay mobile in all you do. Rent and rent cheaply- DO NOT OWN A HOME, if married and both spouses work-save one salary and live on the other, do not buy new cars..but used (our family income is well over $100,00 easily and we never spend more than $4-5000 for a vehicle), forgot eating out, buying coffee from Starbucks and it's peers, forget name brand clothes (most are cheaply made and sold at high prices), the list goes on and on. Give your employer a good days work ..but nothing more. They deserve no more and no less. In the end they care about the bottom line.....not your personal life.