Have people who keep complaining about being laid off because of their age considered expanding their skill set? Keeping up with the times?
Because from where I'm standing, most of the folks over fifty who were shown the door were so stuck in their old ways not even ten elephants pulling could get them out.
It's not always a conspiracy.
@2mqk I agree. Workers starting before around 2000 intended to make IBM their lifetime career but IBM took away their future. Younger workers don't plan to stay in one place for long, certainly not long enough to become truly valuable to a company. How can anyone in IBM still wonder why so few employees have long-term skills and commitment? They did it to themselves.
Mid career IBMer here. Dead weight occurs at all levels. The CBD program brings in people with skill sets we cannot use because, despite our urging, they bring in business students not technology students. The executives are useless as they are out of touch and hidden from reality through so many layers of bureaucracy. There are some good IBMers who care to upskill and some who don’t care. It really has nothing to do with age and everything to do with correct hiring and promotion practices as well as pay for performance, neither of which exist presently at IBM. It’s so unbelievably simple to fix the problems.
I submitted - and have since received - 7 patents from the last year I worked for IBM. That's in addition to the 9 patents I received in previous years. 6 of these patents were related to artificial intelligence and blockchain - areas that IBM declares strategic. Even with these recent achievements, IBM started managing me out after 28 years of service.
Do I have the skills that IBM needs? IBM told me no. I tell it differently. I just say: I can't help IBM.
P.S. I have never regretted foregoing severance and accepting a better position with a competitor. From this perspective, I can only encourage IBM to stay on their current path.
I'm an older Band 10 IBMer who's worked in management and as an SME. I've spent most of my 30+ years in Technical Sales, Sales, Product Management, Channels and a few other customer-facing roles.
I can honestly say I haven't been impressed by IBM's new hires over the last 5-10 years. I don't know if it's because IBM doesn't have the reputation it once did so the quality has gone down or because new hire work expectations are so very different (probably healthier) than what older IBMers have grown up with. I probably pulled a dozen all-nighters in my early years working on customer migrations or system-down situations. I can't imagine any of the younger folks I know having the passion and commitment to put up with that kind of work effort.
So, I don't think IBM's very real attempt to rid the company of older folks is based on any realistic assessment of skills. I think IBM -- as a whole -- prefers younger workers because they're viewed as cheaper, more easily "molded," and not having any preconceptions about making a career with IBM.
In my experience, almost none of the above is true and IBM executives are -- like always -- cluelessly searching for easy solutions as they continue to make excruciatingly poor decisions on far more important decisions affecting the company's future.
IBM is a career killer < most recruiters will tell you they have trouble marketing IBMers
Why?
At IBM you are a one trick pony, your position is way too narrow and most companies need someone with multiple technical skills.
So to any millennial who feels like a hot shot working for the IBM, the joke is pretty much on you.
If you had any brains you would be getting on your horse and high tailing it out of there.
@1teu It's only a predicament because IBM is using a leaf blower instead of a broom. Normal attrition is healthy but a reign of terror is destructive to the company as well as the targets. The older workers are not giving the company everything they would give if the company wasn't trying to destroy them.
I've been thinking about this topic a lot. Companies need younger workers on the job so that they can influence all parts of the organization. These are the company's next clients - IBM has big names on the client roster, but slowly those folks are retiring (see Pepsi CEO).
If older folks don't make way for the younger generation, where are we going to end up? We need a mix to keep a healthy balance.
A new broom sweeps clean, but an old broom knows the corners. Both have value to IBM. Consider that it's not an either/or predicament.
Also. I am 50.
Written from the view of someone very young who trusts management. I trust nobody anymore and IT is changing almost every single day. Young H1-B visa types know very little and outsourcing to Wipro and others is just an expense game. Notice that the Watson health care option has been devastated by job cuts so it ain't just the old folks!!! The ONLY IT field worth time anymore is CyberSecurity and that means getting an CIISP and other certs. Disclosure - I am an over 50 and working in cybersecurity and it is fascinating, pays well and the outsource firms know nothing about it. As the writer of the initial post knows nothing about corporate world and lies.
@1lox -- In reference to the GAAP-to-non-GAAP bridging categories, see the below link to a previous post on this board, which is a link to an article whose author highlights these bridging categories from the 2Q18 Results quite nicely:
https://www.thelayoff.com/t/UgXPVrY
I am an old IBMer. I admit I don't know everything there is about all the new technologies (some will survive, some are fads). But I see the young people who hire on and they don't either. They have to learn just like I do. What makes me worth more money? I know how to work in the real world and they don't. They demand too much and perform too little. They don' t know what's important. Even in the cutting-edge areas I see the best performers are 40 and over while the "kids" come and go. So I don't care if you call it a conspiracy or not. Cutting people because they're older is just stupid. And they will learn that eventually, when it's too late.
Check the quarterly statements for why older workers are being targeted. Go check the GAAP /Non-GAAP bridging categories.
Its not hard to figure out why there are layoffs every quarter and why they have to continue for the foreseeable future.
@ hai
No this dumba$$ needs to stay right with IBM. This person is not ready for the real world. Get back to your XBOX / PS4 your missing out on some great game time.
When Ginni shows up just drink the kool-aid... Maybe make a suggestion that it should be carbonated and taste like a monster drink.
I have to lol @ post
If anyone should be getting out of IBM/IT while they are still young its YOU Einstein.
IT is becoming so automated that most should probably updating their skills in another field entirely. More importantly the younger generation as you have a longer road ahead of you.
The once defacto standard MCSE/CCNA certs have now become a waste of time and money in today's market as most admin tasks have been automated.
It's not like the software side is much better.
Web programming (PHP/MYSQL especially) jobs have paid c-ap for years now because every script kiddie jumped on the bandwagon thinking that's where the money was. NOT
The % of companies that farm programming overseas has done nothing but grow over the years.
You will NOT/NEVER be able to compete with the low cost associated with farming out SW.
Advice to millennial's working for big blue
Hone up on your Excel skills, that's about the gist of it working for IBM.
You will be nothing more than an Excel monkey with hooped ears and a bushy beard.
Think how pathetic that looks on a resume. "I update old Excel sheets all day long"
As Archie Luxury has said about the IT job market - "IT'S GAME OVER F'ers"
Simple math
OLD = a lot of money / tons of skills / has to train snot nosed lazy fools to take over job. Has Mortgage.
YOUNG = 15.00 an hour / no skills / gets trained by older worker to replace them. They probably still live at home.
Now go sit in the corner and s--- your thumb and STFU!!! When we point at you just nod. You cheap fool.
If you are fortunate enough to survive that long you will learn to recognize the difference between nonsensical management fads that come and go and the "real work" that keeps the lights on around here. 2/3 of surviving in corporate America is knowing which is which. You might do well to spend time with people who have survived IBM's ups and downs.
People of any age can be fired because they are not relevant. Whether their skills are a precise match for current IBM needs or not, people over 50 are being fired to make room for people under 25. And among the many recent graduates I've worked with, most have barely any technical or workplace skills, so it isn't really about that. I agree it isn't a conspiracy, it is just lazy leadership working toward a cheaper, more compliant workforce that will stay a few years and then move on. This is IBM's vision for the future of the company, if you share that vision this is the place for you.