Thread regarding IBM layoffs

I retired 6 years ago after 35 years, but I can confirm that saying you worked for IBM opened many doors that would not have been opened for other companies.

One thing that I had to be careful of was, when someone asked who I worked for, I had to be careful how I answered it because it could come across as boasting when it wasn't meant to look like that.

And when you would answer IBM, the people would always ask "How did you get so lucky to get a job with IBM"?

After Gerstner took the reins, the questions went from "How did you get so lucky"? To "How have you been able to avoid being resourced"? Times sure did change when Gerstner was brought in.

Well for all the lucky ones who did get a pension and retire from IBMUS their pensions are covered by the PBGC.gov. Most up to 100 percent. I suspect the Feds would tell IBM to shut up and pay up before they used public funds to cover their outstanding employee pensions that the government already allowed IBM to cut pre retirement back in 1999. Pensions were frozen then! Read about it. IBM has been screwing employees a long long time.

I hope that we can do one thing in 2018, which is to stop fighting about 'sides' in politics and understand that these changes that got us to this point have been occurring through both Democratic and Republican administrations, as both have sold the working people of this country out to corporate interests. NAFTA, Glass-Steagal, Citizens United, this new tax bill - all hurt us immensely just to make the richest people in the country richer, and bought and paid for by them using the politicians we elected. Yet another one in a long parade of D's and R's who said he was "for the people" and promptly sold us out. Time to organize again, and rebel against CEO pay and income inequality.

Hasn't even begun. If you're lamenting over lost reputation, what will you do when you are notified that your pension is gone?

Yeah, it's going there, count on it.

It was the age of the "blue suits", when corporations hired the majority of Americans before outsourcing and H1B's allowed them to discard Americans like commodities. Those were the days when you could expect to career at one company and retire with a decent pension. Those days are long gone.