IBM reviews

After 34 years I was selected to participate in a "Resource Action". I was given 30 days to find another job or be out the door. (I was out the door.) These RAs, always the end of the second month of a quarter, are designed to lower costs quickly. They are a common occurrence and because there are so many organizations the overall numbers are never high enough to get media coverage. It is a cloud over every employee's head. Executive management doesn't want to hear bad news, so middle management will spin any problem to save themselves. Even bad programs/products get out the door, the management in charge get their awards and move up and out before stuff hits the fan. Then new management has to fix the problem that they didn't cause. Non-performing employees are kept around because headcount is so micromanaged that if someone is let go, there's a good chance that there will never be a backfill. So, managers are continually faced with the problem of keeping a bad performer around just to save the spot or save it until they're forced to make an RA selection. Expenses are micro-managed. In my Group, if you asked for $8 business cards, you had to go through reviews and get half a dozen upper managers to okay it - oh, and provide a list of external customers that you interfaced with to prove that the cards would be used in a clear revenue opportunity. Just before I left, the edict came out from CHQ - no external monitors or minidocks if you had a laptop. SW and HW developers writing code, running scripts, compiling, debugging in multiple windows, why would they need an external LCD monitor to actually see what they're doing??? Penny wise and pound foolish. Be prepared to buy things you'll need to do your job with your own dime. It is clear that the goal is to reduce US headcount and increase headcount in those countries where the P/Y rate is a third of what it is in the US. That would be a good financial decision if those individuals had the necessary skills AND if they stuck around to do work and provide continuity. Turnover in those countries is very high because the employees are focused solely on making more money (who can blame them). IBM is clearly not the company I went to work for 34 years ago. We used to be proud to be IBMers. Today it is a paycheck. IBM tries to recruit from the best schools and the pay is competitive in the beginning, but by year 4, those hires will be behind their peers in other companies. IBM may have more patents than any other company, but it doesn't play out in how they reward their employees in job opportunities and advancement.

- Overtime is expected. Constantly. We are told, "It all evens out eventually," but no amount of comp time makes up for the amount of hours I work. I'm pretty sure now that they don't care if we burn out within a few years; there's always someone cheaper who will take our place, in their minds. I haven't worked <60-hour week for the past two years...and I've only been here for three. - I'm definitely not getting paid enough to work the hours that I do. - Management at the highest levels are absolutely not aware of the demands being placed on those actually doing the work that they require. Because someone at the top said, "jump," everybody asks, "How high?" for fear of making the wrong person angry. - On the same note, requirements for projects grow, while company resources go down. There simply aren't enough people to complete the work that we have piled upon us in any sort of satisfactory way. We were told earlier this year that we should figure out ways to "do less with less"...so why aren't we actually doing less? - There is too much of a focus on quantity and not quality. Why aren't we selling as much? Because the work we do is shoddy at best. Because of the insane requirements heaped upon us at the beginning of a release, designs aren't thought through, and subpar products are released as a result. - Those that speak loudest get the most rewards, even if their ideas go nowhere. I've seen people advance to the highest pay and responsibility band despite having little to nothing to show for it. Meanwhile, the employees that actually provide value are left behind. Eventually, they leave, while the loudest speakers remain and continue to drive the company further into the ground. - I feel as though I was sold a lie when I signed on to the company. I was told that I could do anything I want; that I can create a career here; that the sky is the only limit. However, despite expressing a desire to seek other avenues or more creative ways of doing my job, I am pigeonholed into the same position repeatedly, with more responsibility for my current position being piled on. There is no time to develop other skills, and what used to be a skill quickly becomes stagnant. I absolutely do not feel free to pursue other paths, because I am constantly told, "You are needed more here. If you don't like it, you can leave." - Too much of a focus on being physically present. If I want to work from home, I should have that option, particularly when I have demonstrated that I can be trusted to actually produce good results while still working from home. The "back to the lab" initiative makes no sense - to be told that we must be present to be remembered makes absolutely no sense when most of the development teams are scattered all over the world. Most of my team isn't local, but they still know me and trust me. But apparently a few rotten apples that have abused the system while producing terrible work have ruined it for everyone. Because they worked from home too often, everyone else has to suffer. - On the same note, zero work-life balance. They've stopped calling it that now - it's now "work-life integration." To me, that just says, "We expect you to work more than we want you to have a life outside of the company."