LLM Slop Helps Obscure and Distort News About Layoffs (IBM, GAFAM)
HAVING just taken stock of all the latest comments about IBM in thelayoff.com (nope, it doesn't seem like there's any considerable wave of layoffs this week), I saw a lot of people resorting to racial stereotypes, however most were objective and polite about it. American (inc. Canadian) IBM staff is being replaced by people in India or from India (for the most part; it is not a generalisation based on job listings). That's just what happens. There's no "Easy" way to put it, some might call it "Impolite" or "Baiting" (even if that's just what happens).
Even the press reports about IBM layoffs have been outsourced to LLMs, as we recently explained [1, 2], and some are based in India, which makes it doubly or eerily offensive. Over in indiaherald.com some hours ago it said: "Amid Layoffs In Us,IBNMTo Shift Hiring To India"
Top of Google News results. That's the headline today. Notice all the typos. The body stands out as obvious LLM slop.
It's hard to find accurate information. Thanks, Google News!
Meanwhile in thelayoff.com, posted "1 hour ago by Anonymous":
Get out while you can on your own terms.
Saddened but not surprised to see another RA ripping through IBM. Having gone through this in 2024 I feel your pain. For anyone who did not get cut: START LOOKING NOW! I was booted after 25 yrs and rated “1” in most of them. Missed family events, etc for the “good of the company” and gave it my all like you all do. My role was in cloud architecture and container orchestration. All skills AK says are needed but apparently not if you are a US based employee. I was not worried about the RA and landing a new role based on my skillset and experience, However, reality quickly struck as no one outside of IBM uses IBM products. All that cloud experience amounted to 0 as hiring managers only want experience with “the big three”. I was often told, “Thanks, but you’ve been in an IBM bubble too long”. Fortunately, I was able to land a role working on AWS. It would have been much easier had I spent more time preparing to leave Big Blue and upskilled on AWS, Azure or Google Cloud. Word of advice: don’t plan on being able to keep ducking the RA Axe. It will eventually find you. Instead, plan your own exit. Train on relevant products. Look for new opportunities. If/when the next axe falls, at least you’ll be ready. Good luck and when you do get out, you’ll wonder why you stayed and sacrificed for so long for a company that never cared about you.
IBM is in a really bad state and at Microsoft a strike may be imminent. They've just had a wave of mass layoffs and shutdowns [1, 2] for the company's fiftieth birthday. What a great party that must be. █