Outsourcing at IBM
On outsourcing by IBM, 20 hours ago: "When management run out of ideas, they reach for outsourcing. It always ends up the same way. Shareholders enjoy a bit of "breathing space" and then company's performance nose dives. Next step is administration, bail out or sale to asset strippers. That is also vote of no confidence in British workers. People should take notice."
Costa Rica (unpaid or low-paid staff, aka "Intern"), 7 hours ago:
This morning we mentioned several claims of IBM RAs this week. Those claims came from numerous people and some claims said that the lists for a major RA were being passed around/assembled.
Whatever it is, the consensus is that an avalanche will sweep away any PIP survivors. IBM has already marked about 40,000 for potential removal. It calls them "low performers", which is a misnomer because it has nothing to do with performance (a better label would be "non-essentials"). At Microsoft, 60,000 workers were asked to go just over a week ago. They call it "buyouts"; Facebook and Google (GAFAM) did the same days later.
Cheapening of the workforce is hardly a new problem. It happened in many industries over the years. Slop is one way to deskill workers and then pay them less (or fire them, then replace them with low-skilled scabs). Luddites recognised this many years ago.
Pointing this out isn't racist. In the days of the Luddites it could not be spun as such; with globalism, however, it's a convenient go-to straw man. █