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IBM Says 'Couldn't Fire 150K US Workers If We Wanted To'
theodp writes "In an e-mail worthy of the Dilbert Hall of Fame, IBM execs responded to Robert X. Cringely's Project LEAN layoff rumors, reassuring employees by pointing out that they've already wiped out too many U.S. jobs to be able to lay off another 150,000. Big Blue's employment peaked around 1985, when it had about 405,000 workers who were acclimated to a long tradition of lifetime employment. IBM puts its current global workforce at 355,766, with a 'regular U.S. population' of less than 130,000."
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Yep sure did. Including my job to cheap out sourced labor at $16hr to people who know absolutely nothing about computers. Thanks IBM... morons.
||| I still can't believe Parkay's not butter.
Recently IBM Global Services has been fighing for its life on many fronts especially when they are competing with IBM Partners.
It used to be the case that the Sales Execs didn't care where the revenue comes from. Partner or GS it didn;t matter. Now GS is walking all over Partners in attemts to wrest business away from partners and as a consequence several partners I work with are getting right pissed off.
Once the quote/order info get put onto the Internal Siebel System, it becomes visible to GS who then walk mob handed into the Parner and take the biz away from the partner.
I see this as a last ditch attempt to save their jobs. Therefore IMHO a reduction in GS headcount is long overdue.
There are a lot of really good people in GS but the metrics in which they are having to work are awful. Many are good ones voting with their feet leaving the dross.
This ends up with the customers suffering as the people left in GS to actually deliver the solution can't.
This is nothing new. I saw this 10+ years go in DEC with their services division. It got even worse when Compaq came in a bought the show. Try fitting a services business model into a volume PC business model. They just don't fit.
Just my 2$ worth.
I think you'll find that "security of tenure" has valid arguments for it in some situations. Perhaps you were not referring to these, but I take issue with mindless blanket statements.
I hate printers.
One can only wish, but I wouldn't hold my breath. After all, we still see Dvorak drivel making the front page. One would have thought that after the "my idle process is hogging 95% of the CPU cycles" whine, that would have been the last any tech-savvy site ever links to Dvorak, right? Well, dream on.
/. gave up on the whole class of "computer pundits" entirely. It's an easy job, and it's really about entertainment not computer expertise, ok? It's just a glorified SF version of the astrology columns in some newspapers. It just requires a thick enough skin to pretend it never happened, or that you were misunderstood, when 99% of the predictions don't come to pass. Better yet, phrase your predictions in a way that (A) gives them a time or an event, but never both, so it can't really be disproved, and (B) in the tried and tested "why X should do Y" way, so if it doesn't happen, it's obviously only because X is more stupid than you.
TBH, though, much as Cringely _is_ just a hack, I'd rather
Briefly, it's not just about Cringely, but the whole caste is little more than a bunch of entertainers, and not one iota more reliable than astrologers. Linking to any of them, not just Cringely, as if they actually predicted something about to happen, is akin to linking to an astrology site. "The great Mr Psychic says this is your lucky day, go do an interview for a job if you're a Capricorn. [Read more...]" No more, and no less.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Whether or not he's got his numbers exactly right, if you've got any doubt there are massive layoffs occuring at IBM...
It appears IBM didn't dispute claims of mass layoffs either. They only discounted Cringley's numbers. IBM seems to be using Cringley's number problem as a red herring agaist the existence of coming layoffs.
Table-ized A.I.
Actually, no. Plus, quality-made goods are becoming far scarcer - so that appliance that once lasted for 10 to 20 years, now usually lasts under 1 year - but costs the same or higher. Ditto services....
Mod Crazyjim1 up. He is absolutely correct.
My daughter is a graduate of the University of Oklahoma with bachelors and masters degrees in human resources, criminology and psychology. Her overall GPA for both degrees was 3.8. By the way, she did all of this while raising three children as a single mom.
Prior to graduating from the masters program she sent out over 50 resumes and responded to many letters of interest from major corporations and government agencies. Every one ended up requiring more experience than you could reasonably expect a recent college graduate to have. It makes one wonder what the point of contacting recent graduates is; better annual reports perhaps. I can just hear these companies and agencies complain that they can't find qualified candidates to fill their positions and have no choice but to out-source.
Don't give up Crazyjim1. My daughter finally found a job, although the pay wasn't quite what she had hoped, across the street from the university no less.
Lean isn't mysterious. It's popular, especially in manufacturing.
It ain't about laying off people. Not if you do it right.
However, for many companies, it's a radical re-think of the corporate culture and hard to implement because far too many managers can't wrap their heads around some of the concepts and think it's just simpler to get rid of people. That's not Lean. That's just stupidity.
--
BMO - "I'm not anti-business. I'm anti stupidity" - Dilbert
Is there such a thing anymore in the US? Or did it all disappear with "trickle down"? Is it only in government where you can expect lifetime employment now? I had an Uncle who put in 40 years with the post office. Retired with 95% percent of his pay till he kicks the bucket. Does anybody know anybody who is still working a non government job with the same employer for over 20-25 years? Do they expect any retirement benefits? Will they be able to trust the company to come across with it?
What?
"Also, consider that IBM's employee headcount doesn't include contractors. I don't know how much including them would effect the headcount, but it's certainly by a substantial amount."
Earlier this year I had my contract with a major bank based out of Charlotte cancelled. My boss was very sorry but as she said, "they do this every year in January or February". Hundreds, if not thousands of contract and full time employees across the world ditched every year...at the beginning of the year. They hire a lot back a couple of months later and in the mean time, whatever reports to the corporate board or stock holders look a whole lot better with that smaller head count and smaller payroll.
I reserve the right to think for myself. Others' opinions are optional. Puppy on lap = typos...not illiteracy.
But I will say this much; my own legal system uses one (1) single core volume of some 3000+ pages. And the German work of codification, BGB, inspired the world as far away as China and Japan.