So it seems the 'Bench' program has started at Kyndryl as they sort through staff and seek to layoff folks that they feel have reached an end to their usefulness. They'll be going through the motions of finding these folks roles but really...they need to cut bodies given the earnings and stock price. Sucks for those that gave so much of their lives for this place...not all of us were floaters...
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Spain worker here.
Requested reduced hours in order to take care of my kid back in Sept 2023 (legally allowed until kid is 3yo in Spain and job is supposed to be protected). Worked until end of Nov for the same customer, but they didn't want to have someone with reduced shift so they asked or someone else, so they benched me.
Took the remaining 3 weeks of annual vacation during December, and had a meeting with the bench manager who said should have a training and education plan done.
After sorting out some 2fa problems (because I was never issued a company mobile and now the verification no longer works with SMS, but with an authenticator app), did not complete the plan on time. They requested to do so, and I did catch up during the next 2 weeks.
When met with bench manager, HR rep was with her to inform me i was being laid off. So, no PIP was even done here. It was the plan all along.
They said it was a fair dismissal, i'm challenging that in the courts because it's about a 30%-40% difference on my severance.
Argument is the lay off was because of my reduced time for child care, and not for business reasons, and certainly not for performance issue after having 3 very good performance reviews in the past years.
To me, this whole bench program is a deception to reduce staff, by consolidating work onto remaining employees, that will result in more overworked personnel getting burned out. The bottom line is to save on money to increase share holders dividends, by throwing away any sense of corporate stability. In the long run, this will impact customers that depend on Kyndryl for stable IT services. Getting rid of experienced folks, leaving less experienced personel is bad for corporate morale, when done in a sneaky stealthy way.
I heard the new plan is to remove the employees that were placed on the bench and — at least partially — redeploy them to perform some of the duties of the overhead folks being laid off this week.
A Canadian friend linked me this site. Known them a long time. I got into contracting a long time ago because of the d-mb stuff like this that happens to corporate full timers.
What's f***ed up is that you can easily read stories of people being on the bench at IBM for many, many months - these go back a while. Look at reddit etc...took me five minutes to find. It boggles my mind that this level of mismanagement has zero accountability or any attention.
I have a feeling that most of their HR has no idea what's going on either as it smells of extreme incompetence. I was told there is almost no meaningful communication from management, and that there was almost nothing in writing! You gotta wonder why.
So is corp lying, not good at their job, or is this just some weird layoff plan? None of the above seem great.
My 'benched' friend that works in this dumpster fire also mentioned that his ex-coworkers are actually angry at the company for the treatment they've gotten, not to mention their irritation that Canadian 'benched' people have been paid for what seems to be about 6 weeks while they are buried. I was told none have found a new job internally. If there actually ARE any.
Dilbert cartoons would have ripped this garbage to shreds. Why would anyone want to work there knowing this is how they treat people?
I'm glad my friend lawyered up as they don't work here in the southern US where the worker protections pretty much suck. I make some space and pray every day that they let them go and package them out or something. It is all so weird.
What a sh** show.
How can they afford to have all these people sitting around. It's been over a month? Like in IBM, the bench is where careers go to die? I suppose there could be something to Robert Hanlon's quote - "Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity". It all seems so poorly thought out and poorly managed?
Great summary of how this is working - https://www.reddit.com/r/kyndryl/comments/xcc6ts/comment/ja2qehf/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
Kinda the way it is -
"I guess it depends on what you want.
It's in transition to put all operational roles in silos before parting it out to lower cost geographies. Gen-X and boomers have a number on their backs unless they're in difficult to replace legacy roles. There is constant pressure to do more with less, which often results in incredibly poor work life balance. They are grinding down the people in crucial legacy roles. The bench program is a bizarre silent layoff tactic noted elsewhere on the 'net. Maybe dev roles are different but I think contracting would likely be fine and full time roles probably a mistake as the 'core values' and internal propaganda etc that they constantly go on about seem little more than legal boilerplate. Publicly traded IT services companies are not a great place to land as shareholder value takes precedence over doing the right thing time and time again. In summary/tldr: it's a modern outsourcing shop. If your view of the world is purely transactional you'll be fine here, but if you're looking for more than you won't be happy imho."
Got laid off along with 500 others
https://www.theregister.com/2023/01/05/ibm_redeployment_orders/
Look familiar?
If you've been removed from a current job, involuntarily, that looks like constructive dismissal to me. A quick look shows most of the employees under one of the new bench managers have a lot of grey hair and a high incident of senior position holders. Hmmm, doesn't seem like anything going on here...
I was looking up the law in Canada, Ontario, BC etc and looking at Constructive Dismissal - being on the bench seems similar and it feels like a scam to not pay people their severance. It seems like they're cutting, sorry...'benching' older workers just like IBM. The leadership seems to more or less be the same....if you can fight this it may be worth it.
Constructive Dismissal
Reduced Compensation - Your employer cannot significantly reduce your salary, commission, bonus, benefits or pension entitlements for any reason
New Work Location - If you are relocated to another work location, and your commute between work and home grows longer or suffers because of the move, you do not have to accept this change
Demotion - You are demoted because your employer wants to hand your position to a new employee, or they feel you are not suited for the role. This is not permitted under any circumstances
Change in Shift or Work Hours - You are asked to work longer hours than originally indicated. Maybe your hours of work are scaled back. Your shifts change from early mornings to late evenings.
Toxic Work Environment - An employee is not expected to remain in a workplace where they are facing discrimination or a 'poisoned' work environment. Examples include harassment, se-ual harassment, unwarranted discipline and discrimination.
Temporary Layoff - Unless otherwise outlined in an employment agreement, an employer cannot put you on a temporary layoff. Doing so amounts to a fundamental change in the employment contract
All I see are Kyndryls saying they’re been on the bench. The company has a lack of skilled resources in many areas, should repurpose the benched folks to advance their business impact.
I saw this coming and split in October when I was on the bench for 4+ months. There used to be 150-200's of U.S. based jobs posted for Kyndryl on Linkedin when I was looking in that time frame. Now, I see there are just 28 jobs in the U.S. Lol... So glad I left....