Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Layoffs at IBM Carry on (Shades of Enron)

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Mar 20, 2026

An hour ago:

Today marks my last day at IBM for Intel.

Also hours ago:

After more than ๐Ÿ•.๐Ÿ“ ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ๐ฌ ๐š๐ญ ๐ˆ๐๐Œ, I have now closed one of the most meaningful chapters of my life, with ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ ๐…๐ž๐›๐ซ๐ฎ๐š๐ซ๐ฒ ๐Ÿ๐ŸŽ๐Ÿ๐Ÿ” marking my last working day.

After nearly 11 years, today is my last day at IBM. ๐Ÿฅฒ I had the privilege of being part of the early days of IBM Design and most importantly helping build the Carbon Design System into what it is today.

IBM's management is rewarding itself for destroying the company. They've already admitted mass layoffs for 2026, so why are they fattening themselves? Shouldn't they remove/reduce their bonuses to help colleagues stay "on board"?

Enron did the same:

In the year before the Enron Corporation collapsed last December, about 100 executives and energy traders collected more than $300 million in cash payments from the company, according to documents filed today in bankruptcy court.

More than $100 million -- much of it previously disclosed in the form of salary, bonuses and loans -- went to Kenneth L. Lay, the company's former chairman and chief executive.

A majority of the cash payments went to employees of units whose profitability has been called into question since the company's collapse. In Enron's energy-trading unit, for example, John J. Lavorato, a top executive, and John D. Arnold, a gas trader, each received cash bonuses of $8 million to keep them from leaving Enron last fall.

Also here:

Before collapsing last year, Enron Corp. paid out $744 million in salary, bonus and stock grants to the companyโ€™s 140 senior officers--an average of $5.3 million each.

The company disclosed the payments Monday in a court filing that provided the most detailed accounting yet of the companyโ€™s payments to executives and other employees--including $100 million in retention bonuses to about 300 workers.

The filing also details $3.6 billion in payments to creditors and others in the three months before Enron filed for bankruptcy protection Dec. 2.

The sums collected by top Enron insiders provide a stark contrast with the modest severance payments to the 4,200 Enron employees who lost their jobs around the time of the bankruptcy filing.

So far, the most any of the fired workers has collected is well under $10,000, Lowell Peterson, a lawyer for a number of those workers, said Monday. In a recent settlement still awaiting court approval, the group won several additional payments up to a maximum of $13,500 per person, he said.

Is IBM another Enron? โ–ˆ

1 hour ago:

Ogilvy and IBM split, ending 32-year partnership amid WPP reset: Report

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