Has anyone been part of a voluntary separation conversation?
This gentleman‘s conversation of voluntary separation seems to be IBM‘s one sided message to the media. Not staff.
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As a US person I'm curious what the voluntary package is in EU. 1 month? 3 months? 6 months? Let us know.
I was offered 3 months or relocate (after 20 years of loyal service!) Sc--w that!
Hat off to Germany and Canada and other countries who support citizens and community over top heavy cash rich companies who treat employees like farm feed. These countries back strong labor laws that will fight for fairness for the individual! These are the countries where RA'ed IBMers refuse the voluntary separation offer to get a better arrangement with success.
When they announced the RBA accounts they said you wouldn't be able to see it until sometime in Q2. There's an FAQ on w3 with answers to lots of these questions.
Sorry for anyone, who lost the job. But has anyone who lost the job in the US after Jan 2024 discovered the "retirement benefit account"?
(The new account which replaced the 401K match).
It is the first "account" where I cannot see the account or know the balance and can only use some calculator to predict its balance.
yes, voluntarily means you agree to some pay off to leave. This means less headache for IBM at some cost. Alternatively, depending on the country local employment laws they, IBM, will look to unload you by other means.
That could be:
- going the proper redundancy way, giving you the local minimum which in most cases will be less than the voluntary package (otherwise the voluntary package wouldn’t be attractive). They won’t do this by default because it’s a hassle.
- put you on a PIP then terminating when you don’t make it
making your life miserable while sticking to your contract: e.g. making you come to the office everyday, or setting expectations that you will find difficult to meet (basically PIP). Then terminate when you break something in your contract or PIP performance or you will leave if your own accord. This is even cheaper but runs the risk of taking longer and they have targets to meet.
So you can choose what game you want to play. Most will settle for the voluntary deal and move on. Probably the less stressful and why stay when they really want you gone. But it’s a choice for each person in the situation to make for themselves.
Seems that It's financially better to resign voluntarily. 'Voluntarily' in IBM terms means agreeing to leave by signing for a severance package, as termination is imminent regardless
See here for an explanation of the voluntary packages in Europe that were mentioned in the media:
Recap of information that IBM gave to the European Works Council ==> https://rsuibmsegrate.altervista.org/20240208.pdf
Key phrase in paragraph 8 of the pdf linked in #1: The IBM European Works Council (EWC) was informed at the meeting that IBM aims at offering voluntary packages as much as possible to ensure that employees in scope of this Resource Action can leave the company as ambassadors.
Net Net
This means that alot of the employees who are impacted in Europe, will have the choice if they want to accept the package and exit the company or not.
Three things to remember:
(1) this is not a new policy
(2) in past job actions that were governed by the European Works Council, only a small portion of targeted employees, who had a choice, opted to take the package
(3) In the US, RA'd employees do not have a choice to opt in / opt out of a resource action.
offered voluntary separation - didn't take it - package was 'ok' but I prefer to keep my regular paycheck. situation is different per country (europe here)
a discrepancy with the story given to press
Maybe there is nobody left in communications to spin it.
I have not heard of anyone getting voluntary separation. There is also a discrepancy with the story given to press about single digit layoffs in a few departments; it seems to be a mass layoff.