IBM's Fresh 'PIPs' (Action Before Layoffs)
"PIPs" are an acronym that's used a lot at IBM (same for "RAs") but not only there. There are some names or acronyms similar to it elsewhere. Yesterday in a 2-hour conversation I learned of some new HR tricks for fleecing people and denying them severance they're fully entitled to.
At times like these, even once-reputable employers resort to PIPs and other procedures/tricks for denial of workers' rights. At IBM this became so notorious that they adopted terms like "PIPmunks" - referring to top-level management and maybe line managers as well.
The above thread, which is still very active, serves to suggest IBM layoffs still carry on (lots coming up soon at Microsoft as well. "It Looks Like Xbox Could Be Phasing Out Physical Games Entirely," says a headline this weekend, but the real news about XBox is more layoffs). IBM staff is blasting the management for it and calling for accountability in another thread. They're also sick and tired of the hype, the vapourware, the lies. As someone put it yesterday: "Hello, Quantum. Fare thee well, AI, we hardly knew ye. And before that, Cloud."
"Quantum is just the latest buzzword to throw off the stench of failure from the hounds. It’ll buy Alvind a year in which to fire more people, place quarterly paid PR hype at CNBC and Forbes, and milk himself another fat raise. Rinse, repeat.
"It’s not even clever financial engineering at this point; they’ve downgraded the grift to a call center scam with Jim Cramer shilling for Alvind's Silver Solution, I mean "Quantum". And it’s working. Because he kissed the ring of Dear Orange Leader. These guys all belong at The Hague.
"Any guesses what will replace Quantum next year when that, too, inevitably fails to materialize? My money’s on IBM Teleportation."
IBM has almost nothing left to show. "Quantum" earns it mockery from insiders (not a new problem) and Microsoft tried the same, only to be publicly ridiculed within hours or days (it was a smokescreen meant to distract from Microsoft's decision to shut down "AI" datacentres, contradicting prior messages). █