Discussions About IBM Layoffs in June, Including by RTO and PIPs
IBM is in bad shape as the hype (or "bubble" or "pump") is deflating and mass layoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to conceal, as are the empty (abandoned) buildings.
Consider Confluent. Layoffs that impacted almost 1,000 people and not a single news site covered! 3 hours ago:
2 hours ago somebody spoke of IBM "Consulting RAs June 2026" and added: "Just got word. First RAs (IBM doublespeak for "layoffs", as layoffs have legal requirements and "RAs" don't) hitting today, to continue the next few weeks. 10 people today on my team, with "lots more" expected over the next few weeks. The team I'm in should have been spun off to Kyndryl but we were acquired just late enough that we weren't. Management thinks it will be as bad if not worse than last year's, and I've been explicitly warned to stop all non-essential personal spending from my boss (who I know well outside of work), even though I'm not on the chopping block" ("I wish I was on that list before being told for RTO - Are they playing favorites when it comes to deciding between PIP, RA, RTO etc?" said the first comment).
There is meanwhile also a round or "RTO layoffs". Based on yesterday's discussion. "They’re pushing more and more towards 3 days in office," someone said regarding "Cloud RTO sounds like layoff" and the comments lend credibility to that. "Albany is already full on 5 day RTO but with recent announcements not as much to do. There are people who come in and just sit around all day," somebody said.
16 hours ago:
IBM doesn't actually care about "working closer together for more productivity" and "team building." They also don't care about you. If they did, they wouldn't force an RTO mandate when gas was so expensive. An executive team at a decent company would be more lenient right now to help people out. Especially in light of the fact that raises will be peanuts this year and they've already taken away so many other things. The only office near me is over-crowded and setup so that you can't actually take a client call without disturbing everyone else around you unless you're lucky enough to get one of the few small rooms. The amenities are bare bones. It wouldn't surprise me if they decide to take away the bathrooms next to "increase productivity."This is all for one thing only - to cull the herd. You are nothing to IBM but an expense on a spreadsheet. This company and its executive leadership are sht.
RTO to make people miserable and "to cull the herd".
In more recent hours:
Are there showers, fitness center and yoga classes onsite that are being offered as incentives to come to work? That may be a motivation for some but if the expectation is that most people would resign, that would make it look like the real objective for IBM is to save money they would otherwise pay as severance. To ask them why they are calling people back to office when it is clearly not going to make a difference is useless, after all, these clowns have only been trained to run the circus by their masters, not to answer questions or think logically.
"Yet more legacy getting outsourced," somebody said elsewhere, pointing to this report. Then there the PIPs being discussed:
PIPs are window dressing for judges and juries; they are not plans to jolt an employee back into long-term strong to superb contribution (‘it’s a marathon, not a sprint.”) I have over a third of a century at IBM and spent over a quarter century in IBM management. Despite what HR claims, almost no one passes a PIP. PIPs fail by design at IBM. Senior management and HR review every word of every plan. They wordsmith repeatedly until failure is the foregone conclusion of a seemingly reasonable plan.The trap is fully set and personalized before the employee hears the news of the PIP. Management has already been penning an intricate paper trail of superficially valid but highly selective evidence for over a year at this point. This trail specifically includes a summary, but not the verbatim text, of the intermediate negative feedback the employee was given with verifiable timestamps. Argument to the jury: this paper trail shows that we warned this critter repeatedly months and months ago; he did not change; then, out of mercy, we gave one final chance in the form of a PIP. Much later when the PIP trap is sprung, it is almost impossible to contest this paper trail. One party has a fictionalized account in writing; the aggrieved has only his unverifiable recollections from a distance of months.
I know of two PIP survivors, and I have initiated or advised on far, far more PIPs than that. Within 3 years, senior management had found other ways to force the two survivors out. Life during a PIP is far from pleasant. And if one does survive, the powers on high strive to make the next stage of one’s IBM career even less pleasant.
PIPs are window dressing for judges and juries. They greatly reduce legal costs and court-ordered damages arising from disputed involuntary employee separations. This is a big cog in IBM’s financial engineering machine.
Another one asked: "How come no one files an internal grievance that the pip state is being abused and misused?"
Wrongdoing cannot be reported at IBM anymore. Wrongdoing is what they call when one reports wrongdoing by management. █