The Legacy of Gerstner (Rapid Destruction) Continues at IBM
What IBM touches (or buys) turns into dust.
Earlier on we showed that more layoffs are coming to companies acquired by IBM, seeing that IBM had no room for all the staff that came with that "purchased revenue source". There's this ongoing discussion about the PIPs, which are explained in simple terms to insiders, outsiders, and people who considered joining IBM:
This is how it's put in a nutshell:
This blog goes back many years, and this same question has been repeated many times over. If you have the patience to do so, you can read back postings and you'll see a response that is similar to the following:
RA's typically happen quarterly. First line managers are informed by division execs a few months in advance that an RA is coming. They learn about general numbers, but not specific names. The first lines already "know" what's coming down, because they and the second lines are always in constant communication with division financial analysts. In other words, they know when they are exceeding expected budget targets. (Remember that one of the first commitments of a manager is to meet budget targets.)
A few days before the RA, the actual names of people to be cut are distributed. These names were determined in advance by division execs (2nd/3rd/4th line) along with division financial analysts. Take out enough employee cost to meet a financial target. This is done a few days in advance, to give managers time to set up meetings with employees or beg the execs to switch who gets cut. (That second part rarely happens.)
The RA happens 30 days before the employee walks out the door. There's a meeting between the first line manager and the employee, and the employee finds out the news. They are typically told to stop whatever they are doing, cease all meetings, conference calls, instant messaging, etc. They are on their own for 30 days while they sort out their own futures.
After 30 days, the employee hands in their security badge, their laptop and/or cellphone. They get a final severance check, and they walk away. They might see their first line manager, or they might see another manager who was designated for that meeting. It doesn't matter anymore.
"Pips not RAs," as another thread put it, are the way forward. "Has anyone else noticed the slew of high performers above band 7 or intern level suddenly getting PIPS post stock crash? We keep talking about RA’s, I think that’s being generous. They’re stooping so low, why RA when you can do backdoor terminations and not have to pay severance? Anyone else seeing this happen to colleagues the past month?"
Someone replied: "The idea is to let go as much seniors as they can. I know lot of smart folks getting into a PIP for nothing... If you are getting into a PIP/RA just sue the company following your local laws. Always, always and always sue the manager, the lead and the company. Your manager is using a rude language with you? Sue your manager. HR enrolled you in a PIP for no reason or using rude language? Sue HR. IBM is letting you go without paying any severance? Sue IBM. Every single employee that is leaving IBM (layoffs) SHOULD sue IBM. They will learn the lesson like this."
Someone else "agreed [that] nothing ever changes around here unless we get sued" (sometimes by the government).
Speaking of the government, remember how IBM was bailed out in the name of "quantum"? Well, the money was wasted on a dud in Albany. They fake or lie about what they are capable of:
They tricked you yet again! Same thing that happens to just about every initiative in Albany: it died. The site simply isn’t equipped or set up to support it. The logistics alone make prototyping difficult, if not outright impossible.
The leadership running the site should have already known and understood this. But, to echo a previous statement, they truly don’t seem to understand what they’re doing. It’s childlike amateurish. Big, big promises, followed by very little execution or delivery.
It is just another example of leadership hyping up an initiative based on their own poor decisions, and questionable judgment, coupled with a fundamental lack of understanding of the business environment and, more importantly, the actual capabilities and limitations of the site they are responsible for running.
As someone put it, "So what does that mean for Anderon and custom quantum builds for customers?"
Well, "quantum" stuff is just vapourware for now.
IBM has no real plan. The same goes for "hey hi" (slop), but IBM can carry on pretending, rebranding other people's (or companies') LLMs as "Bob".
On IBM Consulting restructuring...
Or having RAs.
"Infrastructure Q2 Townhall" was mentioned some hours ago. "Apparently everything is going great blah blah blah. Not one mention of the stock imploding in July and $70B of IBM market value evaporating. My take away is that these "leaders" are professional liars and con-men/women."
"They don’t want they are doing or understand the situation they are in," somebody said. "To believe," someone added, "these leaders are working for the good of all the employees, is naive. They lie to get their bonuses and move to greener pastures."
Another weighed in: "it was a surreal eye-rolling experience, these shysters trying to tell everyone the sky is green even though everyone sees a blue sky....."
How many at IBM still drink their own Kool-Aid?
Someone has just made this observation that the least knowledgeable people move up:
I don't want to generalize, but my observations in over 18 years in IBM are:
1st and usually 2nd line managers:
- the less technical people become people managers
- you would expect some kind of leadership, but they usually just communicate ppts from above, quite often not really understanding the topics at all
- should be leaders, having empathy, coaching their teams, be the best. Not at all, just tracking utilization (quite often on out of reality data), how you do on mandatory learnings, days in the office and other stupidities required by their supervisors.
- keeping their mouth shut, knowing they don't know anything, but trying to act as they do (actually valid even more going levels up)
- At least a basic knowledge of Excel and Powerpoint, usually getting help from their team leads or team members, not much else.
- Lucky if you have 1:1 once a month, usually a small talk, usually just good for them to ask you if you can take more workload, which you will get anyway
- Performance reviews, sh-t show, to just tell you, that you should work on your "time management" or other silly bullsh-t, no real work related feedback
- kind of protected when you have the "managers flag" as who knows why, harder to get rid of.
- some trying to do their own pathetic "Fun" all hands, which are complete waste of time, but remember it took them a month to prepare for an hour of complete brainwashing nobody really is interested in.
= during my 18 years i had like same amount of people managers and i never ever had one who was truly listening, understanding. If i needed some help workwise, toolswise i always had to go to my functional manager/s who where able to understand and take action.
Honestly, quite some of the Executives, Directors, VPs are just sh-t talkers, jumping on any hype that helps them to look relevant, but most of them are just egoistic attention seekers, doing videos, lying, not truly interested in the company, their clients and employees. Just their own ego and their own benefits. IBM mastered this class of useless egoistic psychopaths, who don't care about anything else then themselves. It's pathetic. I hope the time changes some day and there'll be people in charge who actually take care of the company, their clients and the employees.
But in current state of the corporate world, i doubt it. Too many trashy people on top.
"IBM is one of the most overly managed Fortune 500 companies in the world," someone responded. "The reason for this is historical. (Watson Sr modeled IBM on the military 10-1 ratio). IBM has not strayed from that model over its history “except” when Gerstner first came to town. He reduced management by 1/2 and went from 13 levels to 7. After his first 3 years, management has gradually crept back to the 13 levels and now runs closer to 10-1 ratios. Most modern Fortune 500 companies run in the range of 20-25 to 1 employee to manager ratios. Meta is trialing a 50-1. The current executive team needs to look in the mirror, and decide “are they a management employment company, or are they a “technology” company that needs a light management oversight..."
They say IBM never recovered from Gerstner, who instead of saving the companies (IBM and others he claims credit for) set up a collision course of rapid shrinkage. █