IBM to Lose 13,000 Jobs

KingDaveRa writes "The BBC is reporting that IBM is losing 13,000 jobs. This comes after disappointing financial results. Most jobs will be going in europe."

Comments

Losing your job is hard

[Aussie]

Must be really bad to lose 13,000.

Re:Losing your job is hard

[OpCode42]

Oh how appropriate/ironic (delete as misunderstood) that the parent post is marked as redundant!

Re:Losing your job is hard

[MartinG]

Losing your job is hard

No it isn't. It's incredibly easy to lose your job. You hardly have to do anything. In fact that's the best way. Hardly do anything and I assure you that you will lose your job.

Re:Losing your job is hard

[MORTAR_COMBAT!]

sometimes I get tired of this "public servants are lazy leeches on the working stiffs" sentiment. actually my wife works as a district attorney (criminal prosecution). she makes $35K per year when others with her same degree earn hundreds of thousands in firms. she works her butt off, dealing with murderers and rapists on a daily basis, receiving threats on her life.

not to mention police officers and firemen who put their life on the line every day for even less money than that.

all to have themselves lumped into the statement (and I can assure you common public sentiment) "Unless you're a public servant... in which case, doing nothing will result in a promotion."

guess what; getting a raise of any kind as a public servant is quite a thing. sometimes entire classes of public servant have to go on strike to be recognized with even a pittance of a raise after years of watching prices go up but not their wages.

many police forces and district attorney's offices are understaffed, underpaid, and overworked. we see a few ficticious examples on TV perhaps to the contrary, but those are really both few and for the most part ficticious. yes there are lazy podunk police precincts, there are abusive cops, etc.

but there are a hell of a lot of people working their asses off in dangerous conditions for little pay or chance of meaningful promotion (where promotion means more than a different placard for your cubicle).

and don't get me started on the National Guardsmen or Army Reservists, or even full-time military.

public service can bring an immense amount of meaning to one's life. it's simply too bad that so many want to demean all public servants because of the atrocities of a few or television's take on a few in some of the largest cities in the world.

maybe you mean the clerks at the DMV, or the post office, or garbage men, or the psychiatrists at the VA. guess what, not even all of them are lazy assholes who would prefer for you to wait as long as possible.

yes, there are lazy people in public service. there are lazy people every-damn-where in America. if you find it okay to call all public servants lazy, then perhaps you also find it okay to call all Americans lazy?

My uncle

[MaestroSartori]

has just been laid off from the Greenock plant, where he was involved in manufacturing for 20 or so years. He's now working in a call centre handling mortgage applications... :(

The UK as a whole seems to be moving towards this kind of economy - jobs involving manufacturing, especially, are going, to be replaced by jobs where you can be sacked at the drop of a hat, and are generally pretty poorly treated. Sad.

Re:My uncle

[Monkelectric]

Welcome to the world economy Europe. Thats been going on in the US since the 80s. It SUCKS. We can't figure out a better system, why don't you guys work on it for awhile and get back to us with something. Whats your hourly fee again?

Re:My uncle

[Saeger]

We can't figure out a better system ...

A better system would be to provide a living wage (as opposed to the welfare dirty word) to those people whose jobs are increasingly replaced by automation and cheap labor. If you're one of the lucky few who still does USEFUL work in exchange for something, then you get extra incentive gravy for your WANTS, while those not so lucky/smart/quickly-adaptable get enough redistributed gravy to meet their NEEDS. Nobody should have to live in mortal fear of losing their job (unless you're one of those asshole sadists who believes that keeping the serfs suffering is a great motivator and makes it easier to keep control (and if so, fuck you)).

Robotics, IA/AI, nanotechnology, and other exponentially advancing technology will inevitably lead to this kind of world. "It's different this time". We can either choose a humane leisure society fed by intelligent automated production & fair redistribution, or we can choose to continue the greedy ratrace to the bottom as the wealth gap widens.

(I'm sure a lot of people who worship at the alter of dog-eat-dog hyper-capitalism and "globalism" will just write me off as some kind of idealistic-socialist-commie-hippie or whatever. Oh, and I am one of the "lucky" ones, but I've also got a conscience.)

Re: My uncle

[mikael]

I'm curious about that -- how do you think it could have been avoided?


Mrs T. was keen to cut away the dead wood (the declining shipbuilding industries) in order to give tax breaks to the South East. Not a bad thing by itself, but the money saved would have been better invested in retraining and education for the communities in the North of England. At the time of these cutbacks, the local people were crying out for financial assistance in regenerating their cities, but Mrs T. wouldn't help - She was only interested in tax-breaks for the City. As a result the Militant faction of Labour gained power. This led to Mrs T. imposing rate-capping on the various Labour city councils. Both sides (Militant Labour and the Conservatives) realized that this was going to be the class war of the decade and were determined to fight to the bitter end.

The collateral damage of this war, was that the middle classes left the inner cities a generation ago, moved down South and have never returned. It was only a decade later with financial aid from the EEC that the North of England is slowly regenerating. But the only new business that are setting up are service jobs: supermarkets, pubs, nightclubs and maybe the odd software company,.which usually gets bought out.

Instead, the communities in the North of England have continued emigration, with everyone who could, having moved down to the South of England, which itself is now becoming overcrowded and overpriced (So overcrowded, that they even building flats and houses on the communal piece of grass in the squares (three streets facing each other).

The current Labour government is trying to fix this "North-South divide" by dispersing asylum seekers and moving government jobs away from the South of England, but everyone wants to stay where the wealth is.

Re:My uncle

[LWATCDR]

"That's called socialism. This is a democracy. Be sure and understand that distinction as it leads to a government-controlled life."

This in one of my pet peeves.
Yes it is called socialism but you can have a socialist democracy.
You are confusing economic systems with political systems.
China has less of a socialist economy than Sweden does. But Sweden is far more democratic than China.
I agree that giving people money for nothing is wrong. It is degrading and self defeating. What we need get back to is the idea that there is dignity in all work. It does not matter if it is picking up trash in a park what you earn is yours.

That's good!

[Anonymous Coward]

13.000 new OSS developers.

Re:That's good!

[Anonymous Coward]

And 13,000 new 0.1 version desktop managers or graphics engines on SourceForge...

Wheel? Never heard of it before!

See the opportunity

[dublinclontarf]

This is an opportunity for all those who lose thier job to go and start thier own company, I think that there is a need in the European market for more small I.T shops. But are we Europeans up to it? At least the Irish are.

Re:veryhai

[shyampandit]

Heh, you have a very weird logic there.

Atleast if the jobs went to India, someone would gain, as Indians would get more jobs.

I dont know why this resentment over jobs going to India. India is a poor country and many people cant find jobs easily and there is no welfare system, so if you dont have a job your as good as on the streets. India can use all the jobs it can get!

erm

[Turn-X Alphonse]

The blerb is misleading. This was reported earlier on BBC news 24 (about 5 hours ago) and they said IBM hasn't said where they will be cutting the jobs back. It could be in several places not just Europe.

Dont forget about Poland

[AdamPiotrZochowski]

IBM is expanding in Poland, hiring almost 200 people in Cracow alone, and so are
many other big name companies like Motorolla, KPMG, Lufthansa, 3M, Phillips:

http://miasta.gazeta.pl/krakow/1,35798,2689839.htm l

everyone in europe is moving to Poland, its as nice as Ireland, just as many drunks
but much cheaper, people are educated, and lots of beautifull clean land.

--
/apz, Don't kid yourself. Little is relevant, and nothing lasts forever.

Advice to the corporate slave ... A Rant

[Ice Station Zebra]

If you work in the corporate environment you should remember that you don't matter. What you do doesn't matter. You should be ready and willing to do anything...anything for the corporate bottom line.

The stock holders must be paid first, the CE0, the board, everybody with VP in their title second, and --- if there is anything left --- you.

That doesn't mean they won't take your stapler and forget to pay you. It means that you are nothing to them, all those times you supported the Republician party because you believed in lower taxes and less government, lies. Your pay has decreased since they took (and I really mean took) office. Sure, the price of your home as gone up, but the bank still owns it and you pay even more in property taxes and insurance costs. Oh, and don't use that insurance. Too many claims (and by too many I mean one) and you are off looking to the state for help, because no one will insure your castle. And you now that government help is bad. You don't want to be a welfare queen do you?

So, follow my advice. When the corporation tells you to bend over and take it up the arse. Just do it. Then, head straight for the nearest pub. You will need a good pint and this may be the last time you can afford one.

They're Not Lost....

[bobdobbs3]

IBM didn't "lose" 13,000 jobs - that sounds as if they misplaced them, or had this happen to them. Not so. IBM *cut* 13,000 jobs. Or *slashed* 13,000 jobs. In a related news item: 13,000 IBM *workers* lost their jobs.

Re:moving to cheaper countries

[JohnnyKlunk]

It's already happening. I don't know why the media hasn't picked up on it. I've got friends at a major UK corporation. Some time back they were all outsourced to IBM. Now they're being flown to Bangalore to show people there how to do their jobs.
Once they've handed their own jobs to these people they then get moved to 'project teams'.

Will be interesting to see how many redunancies are made without ever suggesting that the jobs have been moved to India.

Re:veryhai

[ErikZ]

Notice how all those countries who were "exploited" back in the 80s now are much better off and are headed to 1st world status.

From a 1st world view, these jobs are horrible. From a 3rd world view, these jobs rock.

"Losing" is completely the wrong verb.

[Anonymous Coward]

This article's headline is completely wrong.

IBM is not "losing" jobs; IBM is firing people.

The only way IBM could lose jobs is if it's Human Resources Department realized it could not locate the job descriptions for 13,000 people.

Worse still, can you "plan to lose" something? Of course not. Losses are unintentional.