The Latest IBM Layoff Rumours

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 26, 2026

IBM layoffs never stop, they're persistent or what some have dubbed "forever layoffs" (or rolling or silent).

But that doesn't mean we oughtn't keep track of them. In more recent months it looked like many Red Hat staff got laid off silently. It impacts many projects outside Red Hat, e.g. GTK. Earlier on 400+ Red Hat engineers got laid off and the media ignored it all.

Earlier this year we mentioned what seemed like silent layoffs at IBM's Neudesic [1, 2] and we still see more of this:

Our suspicion is justified in light of mass layoffs at Confluent and mass layoffs at IBM's HashiCorp a few months ago (the media didn't cover that at all):

Still going on. So it seems....

There are also PIPs, as mentioned the other day, citing this active thread. The consensus seems to be that people put on a PIP ought to leave. "By now," says the latest comment, "it’s pretty much the manager's call to put someone on a PIP. I saw the HR email sent to them and it basically gives them two options: 1. If the manager feels like the person has already caught up on performance, no PIP is needed. 2. If not, then PIP it is. So, if you've been PIP'd, it means they really want to get rid of you because your manager had the choice in his/ her hands."

Prior comments say the same: "sorry but you should start finding something else ASAP" and "if true start looking for new job asap" (PIPs are for silent layoffs at IBM).

Another new thread says "IBM EMEA Talent Acquisition Team Laid off". To quote:

Hey folks?

Is it true that whole IBM EMEA Talent Acquisition Team (90%) is laid off who was supporting Kyndryl Account?

Only a few are retained who were on B5.

Any comments?

The comments there agree and expand:

what a total waste of good employees, if true.

To get excellent employee retention results and get rid of the riff-raff and undesirables who are only worthy of being put on a PIP, you must lay off 90% of the IBM India Talent Acquisition Team. All they do is hire their unqualified relatives and close friends (it's not called the IBM Friends and Family Hiring plan for nothing).

On the broader picture:

IBM has been getting rid of US "talent acquisition" (that makes me laugh since at IBM that is an oxymoron like Jumbo Shrimp and Military Intelligence) for a long time to places like Costa Rica etc. Most of these people have: 1. NO EXPERIENCE in IT. NONE. 2. Cloud none. 3. AI none. 4. Data center none. 5. Speak and write english well - NO. 6. Are now mostly young females - yes. 7. Have any actual experience with ANY IBM offering or solution? No None. The perception they send to the world is atrocious in their weak and amateur attempts to "recruit" in LinkedIn etc. Like everything else at IBM, it had a foul smell and works as well as a donkey on ice skates in a hockey rink.

And on nepotism or worse:

you are spot on....IBM hires the most attractive ladies of the right persuasion now to show the senior executives a good time when they visit these places to indulge their wildest fantasies.

After all, the IBM company doesn't sell technology solutions any more but personal solutions of another kind....just ask Arvind and Krabanaugh.

What has happened to the company that invented so much of modern computing? █