RA-pocalypse: IBM Tells Workers "Taking a Hike" is Their "Next Step" ('Voluntary' Layoffs), Now It Prepares to Sack Lots of Contractors
Hours ago:
Also hours ago: Microsoft: Our August 2026 Layoffs Are Not Layoffs Because... Reasons (Microsoft sacking contractors this month)
So the "Fresh Round of RAs" (unverified hearsay in Reddit, for now) is being discussed this afternoon. "They have a huge bench in India RN. I guess they have to make room for them," said the first comment. "I heard some NY were let go too," said the next. Third comment: "All U.S. State and local government lobbyists contracts were give 30 days notice to cancel. (haven't heard about federal or other countries)."
There is one sceptic: "false info. as far as i can see, nothing significant was shared on that link, just one person claiming contractor layoffs in progress." Another sceptic: "contractors are working based on a 3/6 months renewable periods. So, when IBM is not renewing the contracts, it is NOT RA's."
It's an HR loophole, that's what it is. We explained this in relation to Microsoft just earlier this evening.
The longest comment is also the most informative:
an confirm but from what I understand it is an isolated case, they were part of an Albany, NY team that has been disbanded. That particular team is effectively a case study in how to ki-l a program. It was reorganized repeatedly, shuffled through multiple leadership chains, and each “new direction” somehow managed to make things progressively worse. Every iteration seemed to bring in increasingly ineffective managers who lacked the technical background and field experience needed to understand the work, let alone lead it.Years of overpromising, chronic under-resourcing, poor decision-making, mismanagement and neglect eventually caught up with it. The final management team at the helm had a reputation and remarkable ability to run projects and programs into the ground and, true to form, they managed to do it yet again. An impressive level of consistency, if nothing else. What a spectacular waste of talent, resources, and opportunity.
Then they began talking about Albany or the hype factor/factory ("quantum"): "I think it was called the Chiplet team, but not 100% sure. It was part of the Advanced Packaging department, which is also defunct now."
One asked, "what team in Albany? How many impacted? Just contractors?"
There definitely is something going on. The question is, how broad is it? How many sites or countries impacted? What % of contractors? Time might tell... █
"People act like this is something new. This has been going on for a long time. It has gotten progressively worse year over a year with this current regime in charge. In every way shape and form things have gotten worse. From product quality., to customer satisfaction, to employee morale, to the axing of experienced and productive employees to save money. . They used to be able to explain it away with smoke and mirrors. By deflecting to the next great thing. By trying to convince the analysts that the next great things are coming soon . That they are on the cutting edge of the latest technology. This was all BS to keep the stock price is high, So the executives could rake in the dough. . I worked at Ibm for 18 years . I finally had to get out about two years ago. The toxicity and work environment was getting uglier by the day . I’ve never been happier to be gone.. Good luck to all of you who hang in there . . The ship is sinking. It’s only going to get worse. I know the job market isn’t ideal for tech right now . But Get your résumé together. Start looking . You may not be included in one of the lifeboats as the ship goes down." -Half an hour ago