I heard a rumor that some employees at the 3600 Steele's head office in Toronto are no longer being asked to come into the office to colocate with their Squad but instead recently were directed to go back to workimg-from-home. The reason is to empty out office space that can be rented out very profitably to other companies. A large space on the second floor is already under construction for this reason. Have you heard rumors like this one? Is this happening across other IBM locations?
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Interesting topic! Could use some data points though. if your group is being encouraged to go back to working from home can you comment here?
Rather than mgmt playing musical chairs at the office, they should look for another job.
Rather than worrying about getting free coffee, I would spend my time looking for another job.
Beer in Europe, we have it easy . Health care too .
I am in LA, we have Flavia coffee - it's pretty good
google.com/search?q=flavia+coffee+pods&tbm=isch
Our free coffee is nasty, old and dirt dry. Its provided by the leasing company and not IBM.
IBM does not even pay for our cell phones why would they give us free coffee?
There's a location in Boston that does, but only for the staff from an acquisition. Probably part of the transfer requirement to do so for a while. Other folks are not invited to partake.
Most offices still don't even have coffee. Or decor more current than 1987.
I understand that the Software Lab on Warden Av. has been providing free snacks for a looooong time.
"They are actually encouraging people to come into the office these days as well with free drinks, free coffee, free snacks on every floor."
What locations other than 3600 Steele's head office in Toronto are they doing this?
IBM's gross profit has being in decline (over trailing 12 month period) since 2012.
So actually they aren't managing their costs very well, and from a purely investor point of view, if IBM need to stabilize this decline they need to reduce their operating costs, since its unlikely to be offset from new product sales. Therefore the only thing to do too easily reduce costs is too layoff people, to try and stabilize the decline.
To make things even worse, they were doing heavy stock buybacks to try and stabilize EPS - but that hasn't worked either. The whole thing is in a deadly spiral down to the bottom. Rometty is the CEO and is accountable for this shambles. She is to blame and should be terminated.
I've heard you are safe when working in a building and working remote you are at risk.
My experience I have seen several people in our office get RA'd and all the remote workers on my team are still employed.
So you can put the baby to bed with the myth that working remote will end up in a layoff.
3600 now has frames, to put in badge access, around the G-H and E-F elevators on the 2nd floor, and a frame between E-F and C-D on 2nd floor. My guess: space on 1st & 2nd floors E thru H may all be leased out, with rest staying IBM, unless they land a really big lease for the entire G-H or E-F tower, which seems unlikely.
Being in an office is only good for office politics..and s---ing up.
Working remote - just another easy way for HR to eventually lay them off
@1unz A good leader can build a remote team. If you need to watch your employees every minute you are not a leader.
Amazon and Microsoft beat IBM because they have better products that not only do what they say on the tin but actually work.
Well you could get paid more if IBM stopped leasing the office space.
I agree with @iunz
Wonder why Amazon and Microsoft are beating us?
Because instead of whining about working in offices and commutes, they get work done.
That being said, they pay more than IBM.
How many of you would stop whining if you got paid what our peers get paid?
You can build relationships over the phone
You can’t build relationships over the telephone.
Working in the office was not good for camaraderie at our location. It was good for cute young girls getting moved up the food chain, but that's about it. Glad they dropped the CL as now it creates a level playing field for everyone. If you cant do the job from home and constantly need someone to show you something then you should have never been put in that position in the first place.
What the hell are you talking about -iunz. There's no "camaraderie" at IBM. Everyone is too busy back stabbing one another to try and safe themselves from the sinking ship. They may have rebranded the PBC process, but the bottom chunk and over 40s will also be sent for termination each year.
@1unz not with the horrible open floor plans they implemented. Worst thing ever for productivity.
I've been working remote since 2005 (still do, one of the lucky ones). I have great relationships with teammates, am far more productive without 90 minutes a day in the car, and far cheaper for the company to house. Make me commute, and they'll lose 20% of my time. Put me in a bullpen to flock with social butterfly's and you might as well fire me...won't be able to work with that noise.
Working from an office is good for camaraderie. You can’t build relationships over the telephone. It was smart that IBM tried the forced relocations but they ended up retaining more unhappy people than shedding malcontents. A failed idea all around.
True
They are actually encouraging people to come into the office these days as well with free drinks, free coffee, free snacks on every floor.
That makes sense. They used the colo to fire older workers that were less likely to move. Now that those cuts are over, they need to save the $$$ again by allowing workers to work from home. It was all a ploy to begin with.
3600 is a massive location and there are several empty floors in several of the modules so RESO has been trying to optimize the empty space.
They are actually encouraging people to come into the office these days as well with free drinks, free coffee, free snacks on every floor.
It's a trap!
Wait sorry - was there a change in systems leadership this week or were you referring to a promotion from a while ago? Is Tom R out?.?
On colo - one can only hope that’s gone. Any idea if that new rule is for development only or if it is also for marketing?
No surprise. IBM is going back to the same old approach: cut your way to prosperity.
At least this time the cuts may result in reversing one of the two dumbest strategies that did nothing but increase cost. We can only hope that the nutty 'market' alignment in S&D is next. We just got a new gm (there was cheering in the halls when the old one was 'promoted' to systems gm), so there's hope.