IBM's PIPs and RAs (Layoffs) Going on, Interns as 'Scabs'
Published yesterday afternoon: It's Friday. A Ton of People Departing From IBM and Red Hat. Lots more since:
So yesterday we saw many people, not just interns, saying they were leaving IBM. Those are just the ones who speak about it in public in some particularly dodgy platform (which undergoes layoffs) and it's just a small subset of the whole.
In recent hours people began speaking about new PIPs:
"Should I expect to be on the RA list in September?"
Some people say that is the plan and said so last week as well.
As somebody put it in another thread:
An IBMer walks into a bar and the bartender says, "Why so blue?"The guy answers, "I've been RAed."
And the bartender says, "So AI can make PowerPoint presentations now?"
The topic then shifted to the hype factor ("quantum") or buzzwords factory: "in Albany plenty of people (most) who were in the RA were not on a PIP or even labeled as low performers . I only know of one who was on a PIP at all there. They got rid of many through PIPs there but separate from RA"
"Yes," someone replied, "virtually all, if not all, of the Albany personnel affected last round were demonstrably high performers and recognized leaders. Their removal resulted in the loss, abandonment, or significant disruption of numerous projects and strategic programs that had previously been driving meaningful progress."
Another active thread about Albany:
Going back to the previous thread, regarding PIPs: "PIP is leverage against a lawsuit being filed by all those on the RA list once they are shown the door"
"...we need to use it against them. If you are put on pip and were a star performer before. Document and sue," someone replied.
On whether the bosses are aware of this, somebody argued: "I do believe that first line managers are kept in the dark until shortly before the hammer comes down. I probably witnessed over 30 RAs , if not more , in my 18 years there. Over that time there was always the knowledge of an RA looming . No one ever knew if they were on the list in advance or the day of the RA"
That's "correct," somebody said, and on what managers know: "Consulting has way more than 13 layers from the bottom to Arvind in many places and I guarantee at least in North America the average span of control is way less than 10 employees per manager, probably closer to 5. It's not uncommon for a Band 10 to have no direct reports and to be the only direct report of a Band D who reports to another Band D who has 3 or 4 directs and who reports to a Band C who has just a handful of directs and reports to another Band C, etc. up the chain. In fact there are absolutely Band Cs with no direct reports which is completely ridiculous."
It seems like a consensus (also in Reddit, we took a quick look). It appears like there's a large chunk of layoffs coming. The PIPs just "groom" people for dismissal; if they challenge that in court, they'll be accused of being shoddy performers. IBM's lawyers might say they were "given a chance" (PIP). █