Thread regarding IBM layoffs

Indian Business Machines? One-third of Big Blue staff based there and Bangladesh

https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/03/31/one_third_ibm_staff_in_india_bangladesh/

Just shy of one-third of IBM's global workforce is now based in India and Bangladesh, a leaked internal blog has indicated.

World+dog was aware that Big Blue has spent years offshoring roles. El Reg previously revealed the firm planned to employ eight in ten services personnel in lower-cost locations by the end of 2017.

IBM has always refused to provide a breakdown of country-specific staffing numbers, but TJ Shembekar, IBM CIO director for Global HR, released the exact figures this week for one geography.

He wrote to staff in a piece entitled "Travel@IBM is flying high this month" to inform them that more heads had switched to Concur, an expensive management and travel booking system.

"This morning we went live in India and Bangladesh, our largest wave deployment to date! Travel@IBM is now supporting an additional 122,000 IBMers, bringing the total number to over 285,000, across 48 countries," Shembekar stated.

IBM has a little less than 380,000 employees globally, so roughly 32 per cent are based in just two countries. The company has been careful in the past to keep such things under wraps from staff.

"[This] is the number that they [IBM] have not wanted to give out and have been attempting to hide, that India is by far the largest IBM employer in the world by a factor of almost two," an insider told us.

"And of course, the WASP IBM exec board reflects that diversity doesn't it. LOL," our contact added.

So far this year, IBM has introduced wave after wave of redundancies in the UK, and this week kicked off one in the US.

A crackdown on remote workers Stateside was also perceived by some to be a way to reduce staffing numbers: IBM gave workers 30 days to relocate to one of six major hubs across the US or quit.

IBM wanted workers to work "shoulder to shoulder", but continues to promote the benefits of teleworking to customers.

IBM hasn't grown sales for 20 quarters.

An IBM spokeswoman said: "We don't break out employee numbers by country."

by Anonymous
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But, neither you, nor anyone else, knows what a chop shop IBM is running in India. They go to the country, with their world dominating American mindset, forgetting completely that Indians taught the world how to count. And while the ancestors of these guys were still jumping from one branch of a tree to another, Indians were figuring out that the earth revolved round the sun and not the other way round.

A few more details:

  1. The company is more than 150K personnel strong in India. Yet, there is no visible or tangible HR in the country. As a result, people don't get promoted year after year. Also, there are no increments (raises) for employees year after year. How then do these people make ends meet, when the currency depreciates 10 - 15% YOY? Other American cos. like Accenture, CSC etc. don't follow this policy. But, IBM mgmt. is too thick skinned to realize this.

  2. As a result, IBM is not able to hire good quality tech. personnel in India. The employees who they hire can barely write their names. Can you imagine what the consequences of this might be? In U.S.A, even a janitor knows how to read, write and drive a car. So, if you give him a computer, he might still be able to figure out what it is, snap a picture through the built-in webcam and post it on social media.

Unfortunately, an Indian janitor isn't like that. Irrespective of what he may or may not be able to do, he hates his job. The result is that, the client suffers. Just take a look at Energy Australia and Airtel and you will understand what I mean!

  1. The company has a huge number of contract (temp.) personnel on it's rolls. Since their salary is just 5% less than that of a permanent employee, these people can also threaten permanent employees.

  2. Lastly, the whole company runs on what it terms as BCG. Everyone, right from the CEO to the intern is always trying to figure out what this BCG is and whether they have violated it. So, this is used as a tool to harass, threaten and intimidate employees, who are always on their toes to be BCG compliant. IBM uses threats of layoffs and termination, as if they were names to be dropped. So, no wonder, threatening to lay-off / terminate jobs on the ground of BCG violation, is an effective way of browbeating employees.

by AC
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