Bonum Certa Men Certa

IBM is Rotting With "Zero Internal Jobs" and Many PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans) on the Way, Typically a Fast Track Towards Layoffs Without Severance

posted by Roy Schestowitz on May 09, 2025,
updated May 09, 2025

Gladys Knight and the Pips

Earlier today: The Gerstnerisation of Microsoft: Seventh Wave of Microsoft Layoffs (Over 20,000 to be Cut) Allegedly Going to Start Shortly, Probably Start of Next Week, Microsoft Spreads Chaff and Noise Before the Big Axes Fall

Last year: PIP (Performance Improvement Plan) as an Instrumental But Largely Hidden (From the Public) Extra Layer of IBM's Workforce Reductions

This week there's a lot of talking about Google layoffs and next week it might be Microsoft's turn. (See above)

But aside from GAFAM, what about IBM, which controls Red Hat? It has a lot of impact on where GNU/Linux is going, e.g. Wayland by default and GNOME shenanigans.

Well, IBM has loads of layoffs this year. It keeps those cards close to its chest though. Its debt exploded. This week and as recently as last night the GAFAM-owned media parrots false claims from IBM's CEO talking about how "hey hi" (AI) creates jobs for IBM, citing some areas which we know have a lot layoffs, not growth or any new hirings.

At risk of giving air(time) to tribal sentiments, the internal joke at IBM is that to IBM "AI" stands for "All Indian".

The Register verified this, e.g. in "IBM US cuts may run deeper than feared ‒ and the jobs are heading to India" and "Artist formerly known as Indian Business Machines" (referring to IBM).

Here's a message someone wrote 3 hours ago: "May 9 2025 - zero internal jobs posted in IBM, worldwide. External, 1000s posted, 3/4 in India. Tells you everything."

There's a lot more in that thread, including some unnecessary insults which distract from the underlying core message (there's also an obnoxious troll in at least 4 threads this week provoking people intentionally; it's time-wasting and many react by feeding that troll, e.g. right here).

May 9 2025 - zero internal jobs posted in IBM, worldwide. External,

Aside from that, earlier today somebody wrote a message full of typos (probably due to rushed typing with no user account); here it is with some corrected typos: "IBM internal site talks about putting lot of people on PIP [...] I saw starting coming Monday, lot of IBMers in sales will have one on one worth there bosses as they will be put on PIP. another way to get rid of people."

Original:

IBM iternal site talks about putiing lot of people on PIP - I saw starting comig Monday, lot of IBMers in sales will have one on one woth there bosses as they will be put on PIP. another way to get rid of people.

In another thread someone has just said: "Couple of months ago manager promised big layoffs in Canada. Was keen to see them as I work with more incompetent arrogant fools than anything else. Big disappointment - I'm aware of only two having left and one of them might have been a retirement. The train of broken promises never ends."

Sadly there's a lot of fake news about IBM, something along these lines or stuff with "hey hi" vapourware. The employees find that rather grotesque.

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