Insiders Explain Why IBM is Dying and the Inherent Culture Problem
Hours ago:
Being a Sunday, today didn't have much news or comments we could find regarding IBM, but we still see people announcing their departure, which may have been engineered from up above. There are many ways to shave this IBM cat.
"Gerstner put the old IBM out with the garbage and gets way too much credit for "saving IBM" and "changing IBM culture". BS. He cooked the books with financial engineering and cut worker pay and benefits. What I call the G way," somebody wrote a few hours ago.
Remember that Gerstner only recently died and the media was full of hagiographies about him.
"I was there before and after the G way," said the above person. "The last 4 IBM CEOs have been horrific. Covid made it worse."
There have been many comments lately about race lately. Some are too rude to reproduce.
"DEI and Wokeness made it worse," the comment ended. "This video of Arvind talking about hiring quotas made it much worse. IBM for a long time has been like the cafeteria in high school where you had cliques of people who sat together." (It links to this leaked video with Red Hat's CEO and IBM's CEO)
Speaking of a "cafeteria in high school", there is a new thread this afternoon which talks of nepotism and worse:
Why is IBM like this?
I've watched the same pattern for years. The people who get promoted aren't the ones doing the best work. They're the ones talking the loudest about their work. I come in, hit my numbers, solve problems, meet every deadline. I don't make a fuss about it. I just do it. And every time a project comes up or a position opens, it goes to someone who spends all their time in meetings telling everyone how great they are.
The first comment said:
Simple - they need a few "pillars" - intelligent, dependable, conscientious staff who actually know what they're doing - to remain where they are and keep doing the job.The folks who end up training their new superiors.
It's time to go.
The latest speaks of the Albany site, which was discussed a lot lately in the context of nepotism and irrational promotions, not just layoffs [1, 2].
This is the Albany site, it looks like promotions and moves are mostly going to small group of preferred employees. Everyone knows exactly who they are, it is like worst-kept secret. Even if other people do much better work or have bigger achievements, still the same people get the promotions or best roles.If you compare contributions honestly, many others are way ahead, but this never counts. Same privileged chosen few keep getting all chances again and again.
Because of this, many feel the process is not fair. It really looks like merit does not matter, and transparency is missing in how decisions are made
I saw this firsthand in some companies and we've long covered it (currently in relation in EPO cliques). That's the sign a company is dying from within. Insiders just 'milk it' to death. █