IBM Innovation: It Has Invented New Methods of Silent Layoffs or Secret RAs
How IBM disguises mass layoffs now (hours ago, with highlights added by us):
See also: Anderon - Like Kyndryl - Could be Far Deeper in Debt Than Its Alleged Worth (Vapourware)
In recent hours:
Under strict NDAs (which extend to keeping secret their very existence!), IBM casualties are forced to either keep silent or say nice things about IBM, the company that has just pushed them out. To the NDAs there are typically things attached, such as severance or long-term benefits (maybe even the pensions). These sorts of NDAs are illegal, but since when does IBM follow the law? It is too resourceful when it comes to lawyers; enforcing laws against IBM is expensive and time-consuming.
Thankfully some people talk about IBM anonymously. As somebody put it some hours ago, "well, ask yourself this: how does IBM respond to a crisis? What is the one thing it always does? And, for that matter what is the one thing IBM does to increase the stock price when things seem stable? The one thing it always does? That is today's IBM CEO model - so simple a chatbot designed in the 1960s could do the job. Let's call it "Arvind". It turned 63 this year."
Another one said, "I used to love working at IBM. But Arvind took a big dump on its culture and left us with nothing but a share price that most of us never benefit from. Worse each office feels... dead. What was great about IBM is now utterly and completely dead."
And a longer comments 9 hours ago:
Albany is a textbook example of what happens when IBM’s culture is replaced by years of entrenched cronyism. The leadership may wear the IBM logo, but they’re “IBM” in branding only. Put a blue wrapper on it if you like it doesn’t change what’s inside.The focus isn’t on advancing IBM, strengthening the science, or creating long-term value. It’s on self-promotion, protecting personal empires, and making sure the same familiar faces continue rotating through the same leadership chairs. When ambitious promises don’t materialize, as many of us very recently remember, the priority shifts from accountability to finding the nearest exit while someone else inherits the mess.
It’s a shell game: make grand proclamations to elevate your own status, collect the recognition, then quietly move on before reality catches up. Rinse and repeat.
IBM’s culture didn’t slowly fade away here it was replaced years ago. What’s left is a group that enthusiastically invokes IBM’s values when they’re convenient, while treating them as optional when they’re not. They proudly wear the carcass of IBM culture like a costume, hoping no one notices there’s very little of the real thing underneath.
This is where IBM stands now. Silent layoffs, low morale, intimidation, and bluffing.
Last night we published "IBM Has Embraced and Rewarded Liars" (cheating one's way to the top).
Why?
"Because they are Incompetent Business Managers," as someone put it hours ago (proposed acronym expansion for "IBM"). █