IBM to Lay Off Half of Global Services Division

Rolgar writes "Cringely says that IBM has begun massive layoffs in a quiet manner, starting with 1300 employees, but by the end of the year, the total will rise to at least 100,000 and probably closer to 150,000 employees, nearly 40% of their U.S. workforce. Some people will be temporarily retained as contractors at a fraction of their salary, and eventually, IBM will also dump many of the unprofitable customer contracts worked on by Global Services or outsource the work to Asia. If these people are looking for work, that could seriously drop wages for technical workers in the US since they will have to compete with these people for available jobs."

Where's your god now

[Anonymous Coward]

heavily indebted McMansion owners?

Re:Thanks Cringely

[Anonymous Coward]

Yep. I'm not going to believe it until Dvorak writes an article about it.

Why First Post when I can....

[josteos]

Last Post!

(from inside my IBM cubefarm)

Don't Worry Guys...

[FrankDrebin]

...SCO will hire y'all with the cash they win from your former employer.

Re:What the hell *is* IBM Global Services?

[rob1980]

Global stuff. You know. Like... increasing productivity through outside-the-box thinking and a fundamental paradigm shift.

Re:Mismanaged...

[__aaclcg7560]

No, kidding. I had a one-day contract where a group of techs were supposed removed the Token Ring cable, plug in the Ethernet cable from the wall to the motherboard port, and run a network config script. I had to clean up after them because they couldn't read the instruction sheet as they plug the ethernet cable into the Token Ring card and forgot to run the script. More overtime pay for me to pay off my certifications.

Re:Go with GCI, Ta-Ta, Sy People, etc

[Anonymous Coward]

>They treat the employees like cattle (presumably like they do in India) and have little to no benefits.

At least it is a country that worship cows...

It would be bad if they treat employees like cattles in Texas.

IBM = I've Been Mumbai-ed

[Dr_Art]

IBM = I've Been Mumbai-ed (i.e., my job was sent to Mumbai)

IBM-GS = I've Been Mumbai-ed, Gujarati Software

No offense intended to our fine quality Indian software developer brothers, it's just that in Western countries the term "going out for some South Indian" used to mean where you were going for lunch, not where your job is headed...

Re:Go with GCI, Ta-Ta, Sy People, etc

[Anonymous Coward]

What, like my Indian ex-co-worker who bit into a piece of prime rib and said "mmmm.... god"?

Re:What the hell *is* IBM Global Services?

[bynary]

Moving forward, they leverage their intellectual capital in conjunction with the synergistic core competencies of a highly mobile workforce of motivated resources to manage global diversification, decentralize initiatives, and reduce inventory turnover in an increasingly risk averse marketplace. They operate on the principles of a paradigm shift away from participative management towards actionable strategic alliances. Quite intuitive, really...

That's a thought

[geekoid]

or train them wrong.
I spent rwo weeks training my replacment how to write USB firmware...it's a shame we didn't do that.

Dvorak could say anything...

[Dystopian Rebel]

But there is a 60% probability that in his article Dvorak will recommend that Apple be bought or do the buying.

Unless he has already written that article this month. In which case, the probability drops to 40%.

Re:Thanks Cringely

[bunco]

(points) Bigot fight!

IBM fired me, killed my manager and kicked my dog

[Anonymous Coward]

Same here. Not only did they lay half my department off, they also executed the team leader by beheading him and then Sam Palmisano himself came to my house and kicked my dog! I thought it was illegal to kill people, but apparently IBM also owns the US government so they are allowed to do this.

Isn't anonymous posting awesome!

No surprise there

[Wulfseven]

The sun is already setting on IBM, ever since Microsoft came into the scene by licensing DOS with every IBM PC. Adding to IBM's woes are PC-Clone (thank god for that) that allowed competitors like HP and Dell to flourish, OS/2 that flopped and then later IBM relinquished all of their PC/Notebook products to concentrate on their consultancy services. IBM is just too big and slow to adapt to new trends or needs by clients/consumers, which Apple, Microsoft and others have capitalized on. If IBM ever want to survive, they must change.

Re:Thanks Cringely

[Anonymous Coward]

Kissing my wife's ass constantly, and I don't even get screwed. :(

Re:Thanks Cringely

[simontek2]

Email Sam at: [e-mail]

Re:That's a thought

[Anonymous Coward]

or train them wrong.
I spent rwo weeks training my replacment how to write USB firmware...it's a shame we didn't do that.

It looks like you are already using a USB keyboard created by your replacement.

Re:What the hell *is* IBM Global Services?

[bynary]

No, I didn't copy/paste that. I've worked for both HP and Micron. I don't think I have to explain any further...

Re:Holy Outsourcing, Batman!

[sgt_doom]

Actually outsourcing is economics at work.

Actually, treason is traitors at work. If a fellow countryman offshores your job - that individual is a stinking traitor. If a fellow countryman lays you off and replaces you with a legal, quasi-legal or illegal foreign replacement worker, that individual is a stinking traitor.

Traitors should be dealt with in the most severest manner possible.....