I don’t know how to frame my mentality when going to work each day, knowing every colleague/management is backstabbing each other to death, as the decisions from above change on a seemingly daily basis.
I’ve adopted the collecting paycheck for nothing mentality. I don’t care if I get RA’d at this point, it would probably be a good thing!
Too many managers... that is where the cost is... I am in US Lab Services, Band 9... my cost is $240 an hour... trust me, I don't get paid (salary, benefits, etc..) that... the reason it is $240/hr is because I have to pay for the too many useless managers. A bloated hierarchy of people doing nothing but enriching themselves at the expense of the company.
There was another post with someone saying that GTS is 35% of IBM revenue but only 1% of income... if that is true, that gives you a clear idea how useless this company is at managing its business... Again too much fat, to many non-billable people (managers)... and after last year and this year layoff, it is only worse because they laid off a lot more of billable people than managers!
This is a dying company, slowly, but dying for sure!
IBM’s biggest problem is they can’t cut the costs. Since 2015, IBM has spent approx 67 billion per year in costs of running the business even though they have spent 25 billion in restructuring. The net is they refuse to get out of businesses they shouldn’t be in. If you look at 2014 they spent 75 billion as a cost of running the business. What was the change from 2014 to 2015? They got out of chips, and Intel. (Hard choices but lower costs) IBM is in the same place now GTS spin off is sacrificing revenue for hopefully much lower costs. Yep hard choices but hopefully lower costs
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/IBM/ibm/operating-expenses
Just read the financial pages. IBM doing this re-org is dictated by financial engineering. I guess at the same time it gives them opportunity to cut the dead wood (old geezers) and promote the most loyal subjects. Much like Game of Thrones.
OK maybe I am missing some information, but every time I read about IBM/Newco strategy I come to the conclusion that instead of 1 huge dying company whose employees are suffering and being laid off constantly, that we will end up with two large dying companies joined at the hip whose employees are suffering and being laid off constantly. And for the parts of the business where they contract to the other half, doesn't that essentially double the number of management layers vs. what it is today?
I am not trolling, I truly do not understand why and how splitting up IBM will really change anything. It seems to me, that this is just a different kind of rearrangement of parts, vs a traditional internal shuffling.
It’s interesting to watch IBM size Newco. The sizing has changed since it’s announcement as IBM has decided to exit or aggressively downsize parts of IBM that they feel are important, but don’t fit into Hybrid IBM go to market strategy. An example of this is TPP. IBM did not expect TPP to shrink like it did during the Covid fueled 2020 business atmosphere. IBM views TPP as essential, but throws it into the legacy infrastructure bucket that is shrinking at double digit rates. I expect TPP to be included in Newco along with parts of GBS that IBM has chosen to exit, due to their non-strategic industry outlook. What does that mean? It means Newco will have more revenue than IBM first announced, but Newco will be far more closely aligned with IBM via the dividend, debt, and labor content. Newco will be structured around almost all of GTS less TSS, most of IBM’s high labor content contracts (TPP and outsourcing being an example), and GBS contracts that don’t fit into IBM’s go forward industry/strategic partnership model. Newco and IBM will no matter what happens, will be joined at the hip with Newco being slow/zero growth high labor content, and Hybrid IBM being structured as strategic IBM relationships, built around AI, Cloud, and higher risk/reward endeavors.
It's a strange beast working at IBM at the moment. I've yet to see the final breakdown of who is actually moving over to NewCo (specific people) but I have seen the breakdown of managers and numbers of people that are moving over with them. I'm in F&O and our manager told us there would be a split amongst his staff, some going, some staying but that he couldn't tell us who. We know for a fact that he decided a while ago (who was leaving and who was staying). So, at the moment, everyone is living in limbo not knowing if they are coming or going, or indeed being RA'd. I'm seeing terrible management at the top of the food chain (esp. from our VPs) making terrible decisions on how to support our customers. Clearly they just don't have a clue how to split the company effectively, and for all intensive purposes seem to be making panic decisions weekly, with little thought for long term solutions. I guess this is what happens to a company when the type of managers you hire are all sycophants.
More RAs are coming so don’t be discouraged, your time will come...
I’ve checked out and would welcome an RA. 30/90 sounds real good right now.
"...Only a fool puts any effort into this job. Those who work have extreme stress, suffer high anxiety, and get laid off. Those who play the game and do nothing are the ones who survive and thrive. I put in 39 years at my “job”; actual work performed could have been accomplished in about two honest years. I paid for my house, put two kids through college, have a vacation condo in Oahu, and a seven figure pension/401k. All thanks to knowing how to play the game. ..."
This is exactly what's wrong with the whole world... LOL!
They are working collapsing teams in NewCo Rapidly. It’s clear there will be many layoffs in Q2 when the merge is complete. I do my normal job, but there’s no point in working nights and weekends like I used to do.
Only a fool puts any effort into this job. Those who work have extreme stress, suffer high anxiety, and get laid off. Those who play the game and do nothing are the ones who survive and thrive. I put in 39 years at my “job”; actual work performed could have been accomplished in about two honest years. I paid for my house, put two kids through college, have a vacation condo in Oahu, and a seven figure pension/401k. All thanks to knowing how to play the game.
I do my work and did it very well for last years.
The only reward for work at ibm is more work, no raise, bonus or even appreciation. Just more work.
I don't blame people who don't work here because the management is complete sh– and doesn't care about employees
It's an art form that is really nice to know how to apply when you've mastered it.
Before retiring on my own as soon as I qualified for Medicare, I spent at least 25% of my career getting paid big bucks and not doing any work, in three different 3 - 4 years continuous stretches.
If my boss is reading this, f— you. I know exactly what you’re f—ing doing, manipulating me, knowing there’s no pot at the end of the rainbow.
It is all about doing the least at IBM these days.