I am relatively new to IBM (3 yr) - someone in a thread below mentioned "The layoffs of 1993 and great Pension Fiasco of 1999" - would one of you who have been around for a while be able to shine more light on the two events mentioned here? I am interested about '93 as it was a proto-RA and '99 as it addresses something that my generation has no clue about (pensions)...
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Nailed it here:
Change is generational and as such entire lives are spent while the wheels of change turn ever so finely.
I understand you because you do make sense, however there must, when all is said and done, be trust between the employer and the employee. You cannot hire on out of college and think you are ready to be gratified financially or otherwise due to your abilities. It takes years to become a competent journeyman employee that can be trusted to do the job competently with a customers fortunes at stake. Ibm has lost sight of this dynamic and is paying the price in terms of both employee and customer trust. It will not end well.
I do respect the millennial's reluctance to give all their holidays, evenings, weekends, birthdays and everything else that really matters in a family dynamic for the 'needs of the business'. The 'business' has proven to be a one way street and you guys/gals know it. You guys have simultaneously made me both angry because of your reluctance to play the game which my generation always did to the last day of work and glad for you at the same time because I knew you would change things. Change is generational and as such entire lives are spent while the wheels of change turn ever so finely.
@1edi and @1jzl - I am the original poster and I appreciate your insigth.
Yes, my generation has learned from our parents - we do know how hard they worked, long hours, weekend work, missing family events, etc. And we also know that they got screwed and that the executives ended up taking the lion share of productivity gains.
I believe that this is the reason why most of Millennials are adopting an approach where they want an instant gratification for their effort - in a corporate environment this is a big change as an old mantra was 'keep quiet, do what you are told, do not complain, you'll be paid later when your career develops' - this is all good but since we saw what happened to our parents, that 'later' component is making Millennials antsy and they kind of want everything like right now as that 'later' thing may never happen. I hope this makes sense...
1993 was the first mass layoff in IBM history. The stage was set by John Akers' famous "water cooler" speech in 1991, resulting in several weeks of employee revolt. Akers was gone soon after, replaced by outsider Lou Gerstner. Gerstner started the trend of discarding traditions like full employment and respect for the individual, but the company did well. It's only in the past few years that the business itself has been failing.
Say you started at IBM at 20, were promised a pension of approx 40% of your best 5 of last ten years. You would also receive medical insurance as part of your pension. You worked like a dog, you were valued, you were happy.
Then one morning after 19 years of this happiness the company came out with an email that said you no longer were eligible for said pension but were going to be given a 'lump sum' a pathetic lump sum which would grow at the rate of T bills plus 1%. It is with this that you will live on in old age after giving 19 years of your life believing the original promise.
You should know that T bills yield virtually nothing and that plus 1% probably does not even equal the inflation rate, so IBM actually is investing our money and paying us as hostages less than inflation. Food stamps are in the average IBM retirees future.
If you were of a certain age, 40 I think, you could keep the old pension BUT it would not exceed more than 30% of your best 5 of 10 and the medical insurance went away except for a notional account which retirees can buy insurance from guess who? IBM! and at a ridiculous rates. IBM assigned a pot of money to retirees and set the rate at which they would steal it back.
IBM is a pathetic outfit now. Wasn't always. Is now though. I hope it meets a deserved fate.
Your generation has a clue...American political leaders sold you and your future down the river for profits and votes. Never has a government pension been reduced but the government did allow these corporate ripoffs of employees to occur. We sued as a class action and really got only pennies more as a result. I may be slightly off on some of my numbers here as it is getting to be a while a go and I am undernourished and living in the cold because I can't afford better.
My advice, get a government job handing out welfare and food stamps to the starving private sector workers. Every government worker is a hero you know...just listen to the liberal media.
@1hry - thank you
The pension change of 1999 is when IBM said employees that were younger than 40 got changed to the new pension plan and older employees stayed on the older plan, even though that one changed to. The new pension plan just had some money in a bond fund that grew and there was a bump in the 401K funds plus a future health account established if you stayed from 40 until age 50.