Former Manager at IBM Research (Yorktown) Says Why IBM is Doomed and the Anonymous Tipline (Speak Up) is a Trap
Two hours ago: (yes, many are still leaving, and writing about that with a similar 'template')
It is a confirmed fact (confirmed by many insiders, using their real names in authenticated accounts) that IBM Research has problems and whole labs get shut down, with more to come soon. We wrote about this yesterday and since then we've seen a few more posts from people who lost their jobs at IBM Research.
One person weighed in to say: (we have no reason to doubt the sincerity)
Don’t expect this to change. I was a manager in research (Yorktown not Albany) for a few decades. In the 90’s I got saddled with a smooth talking technical light weight. He was a world class squeaky wheel. Back then evaluations were 4-point — 1) walks on water; the second coming 2) most folks 3) seriously lacking 4) begin planning separation.I rated the light weight a low 3 and indicated that I would have no issue giving a 4 if upline preferred. The 2nd line was a bit of a schmoozer and rounded this guy up to a 2 since they had personality traits in common. The 3rd line had multiple daily visits from the squeaker explaining his grand contributions and the lower level managers who simply weren’t able to appreciate him. The 3rd line extended to his fellow schmoozer and brown noser the professional courtesy of a 1 and a tongue lashing for us in lower management. (Naturally because of distributional guidance and quotas, other employees took the hit to make room for this guy)
A few years later, this guy left research and repeated the cycle in software group where he spent many years as a technically incompetent DE pulling the same stunts before someone powerful enough saw his true colors. He parlayed the DE position into a senior technical position at one of the big then-new cloud companies. Predictably, he had a steep upward trajectory there too until someone showed him the door.
Pooling my experience and that of now-departed old-timers and my former protégées, I know these games were common in Research from the early 60’s through this month’s 2025 evaluation cycle. They have a track record of over half a century of doing the same thing. IBM is an old dog; new tricks are not its thing.
In case you were wondering, this sort of thing is behind over half of junior technical leadership appointments ( team lead through Director level). Higher levels also involve games, but the game rules are different.
The process is designed to put manipulable bozos in high places so that a select few can pull all the strings. Look at IBM Research’s current “Chief Scientist’ for an example of this.
[...] and of course the anonymous tipline (Speak Up) and reporting on wrongdoing never works at IBM and it never will in a billion years. There is always retaliation, and ways to drum out whistleblowers out of the company on some flimsy pretext or the other. Happens in IBM Consulting all the time. Probably in other IBM divisions too. The IBM Business Conduct Guidelines (BCGs) are a total myth, except for fools who believe in them. Fostering a culture of trust and accountability with defined processes for confidential, unbiased handling is the last thing you will ever find from Alvind and the Pipmunks. Been there, done that.
Many people, even famous people like Edward Snowden (inspired by Thomas Drake, who had said the same about the NSA), realised that blowing the whistle inside an organisation gets you flagged, not heard. I attempted the same at Sirius Open Source - in fact more times than I can recall.
IBM isn't willing to change or to address internal issues. Like we said several times last week, to assume a company like IBM can change course is to assume it's still a healthy company. But it's not - it typically rewards greed and incompetence.
Snowden is still alive and mostly active thanks to Julian's (Assange) girlfriend at the time, Sarah Harrison. He blew the whistle and still managed to live a decent life after that. He just needs to keep mostly quiet these days. █