IBM Hides Its Own Destruction (and Red Hat's)
Recent hours:
People point out that IBM skirts the WARN Act: (we've covered this numerous times in the recent past)
"We can soon expect to see LinkedIn updates on how grateful we are to have been provided the opportunity to work for IBM," somebody says in relation to PIP-like RAs:
"Alignment to be finalised by Monday 27th at which time manager communication starts," one recent comment says. That's 6 days from now (if true).
IBM and Red Hat are having image issues because of the way their staff is treated. Speaking for ourselves, we spoke to some insiders and they provided us with information. Despite all the posturing, many at Red Hat are suspicious of IBM and even strongly hate IBM, with some alleging that Red Hat's culture as a company is now dead. There are also silent layoffs (be sure IBM is a champion of hiding layoffs, as it had almost 35 years to 'practice' and 'perfect' that).
In a now-deleted tweet somebody said this week: "My dad worked for IBM in storage sales and, when he got cancer, they boosted his quota to 300% more that his career best quarter and when he only hit 250% they fired him to get him off the payroll and out of their insurance pool [...] Dad got another job with a better company and was still making sales a week before he passed away ... The main point is that IBM is an evil company filled with evil people and it should be burned to the ground [...]"
If Red Hat behaves suspiciously (almost openly hostile towards the Free software movement), consider who runs the show. Shortly after IBM bought Red Hat we saw Red Hat attacking the FSF's founder and it would no longer give money to the FSF. We pointed out (at the time) that IBM's (or Red Hat's) arguments were hypocritical at best. Some of their ringleaders (based on public evidence) were probably motivated by antisemitism.
So mass layoffs will continue at IBM. Some call these "forever layoffs" or "silent layoffs" because this is how IBM knows it can evade/avoid WARN notices. In other words, it can pretend the layoffs aren't happening. It uses NDAs to compel people it pushes out (without prior warning or without PIPs, RTO etc.) to say nice things in public. It's like scenes out of '1984', which is what a now-famous advertisement from Apple compared IBM to. █