Thread regarding IBM layoffs

HW sales support in the office 5 days per week or find a new job - no exceptions

On May 3rd on the watching IBM Facebook page somebody posted that colocation is coming to Canada soon.

@isor Is this "My guess is if you get 2.5 weeks per year service + 8 weeks notice + vacation you can count yourself lucky. " based on recent guidelines to Management, or actual recent öfters, that you are aware of?

If IBM is so broke why are they hemorrhaging money by leasing office space?

Where is Bain when these decisions are being made?

Someone has dropped the ball here.

FIVE days a week? since when is that acceptable at IBM? not in the last 10 years. its a slave ship.

No self-respecting person should ever work for a company in decline. The math is simple: loyal employees who follow the ship down are "part of the problem" and new employees who join once it bottoms are "part of the solution". The brand sticks. That's why I quit 3 years ago.

IBM is replacing old businesses with 50% margins with new ones at 30% margins which means the company has to manage down cost by over 20% before you even account for the revenue drop of 20%. Staff levels will stay flat, they'll just be all offshore. It's not complicated.

Simply put, IBM has not invented a marketable product in over 20 years despite the ridiculous R&D spend and claims. The company is a follower. Look for even worse margin pressure as the "new" businesses get old real fast.

PREDICTION: by 2020 IBM will have less than 20% of it's staff in developed nations. There is just no other way to do it. Don't be foolish enough to buy into corporate HR fairy tales, the writing is on the wall.

That says it all. IBM will do the "in" thing simply because it is the "in" thing, That's not leadership, it's just pathetic, like an old man trying to regain his youth by wearing stylish clothes and driving a sports car.

@Social_butterfly

@Little_Bird

Social_butterfly, you are correct that there is common law severance at play in Canada, on top of minimum severance entitlements as set by employment standards in jurisdictions including Ontario and BC.

We actually just posted a recent blog, discussing in part the IBM situation: http://stlawyers.ca/ibm-canada-layoffs/

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Reply to Little Bird: thanks for contributing your info and from what I recall you seem to have the facts right about Ontario statutory law, which is the explicitly-written law. The Ontario common law that I am referring to is basically a guideline set by precedent, which is layoff cases that have gone to court.

The one month per year of service (up to 24 months max in most cases) is what I've read online from numerous lawyers, heard one lawyer say it on a radio show week after week and has programmed it into his online Severance calculator (Lior Samfiru), and had an employment lawyer whom I hired say it to me without my prompting him with that figure (2 months ago). The only way to collect this amount is to hire a lawyer and fight for it and of course you may win or lose - I personally will take the legal battle over accepting some paltry fraction of the one month per year.

Yes, the Canada co-location is in the works. They are asking people what accommodation requests they need should they work from an office location. The problem is the communication is really poor - managers are trying to ask these questions without letting the cat out of the bag too soon or stir the pot so to speak. I believe this is a T&O initiative. Can you believe people with no team members in the GTA area having to drive in over an hour or two - just to sit alone at a noisy office location? I would guess this will be mandatory in the Fall as May would be too soon. There was talk of this last year when the US was doing the same but that must have changed due to the "incident" at 3600 last year. Not sure where you get "...Ontario common law generally provides one month per year of service". That number seems far too generous even for Canadians. My guess is if you get 2.5 weeks per year service + 8 weeks notice + vacation you can count yourself lucky. Of course your age, your role and other things would come into play if this goes to arbitration or court. Ontario law currently is 1 week per year service + 8 weeks notice up to a max of 26 weeks which is still higher than our neighbours to the south at 90 days notice + 30 days severance whether you've been with the company for 5 years or 20 years - it's all the same down there.