Hands Up If You Want To Volunteer For Layoffs, IBM Tells Staff (theregister.com) 34
Paul Kunert writes in an exclusive report for The Register: IBM is asking staff who want to take voluntary redundancy to raise their hand as it embarks on a new round of global job cuts, though roles in Europe and within a handful of departments are expected to shoulder the brunt. The Resource Action, as Big Blue likes to euphemistically refer to layoffs, shouldn't be a massive surprise to anyone with more than a passing interest in IBM as it was signaled last month in a Q4 earnings call. Insiders told us this latest process is not considered to be financial but "transformative," although IBM was quite clear in January when CFO James Kavanaugh discussed achieving "$3 billion annual run rate in savings by the end of 2024." This is a third bigger than the initial ambition. The Reg understands that 80 percent of the reduction target is aimed at Enterprise Operations & Support (EO&S) and Q2C missions, Finance & Operations (including Procurement, CIO, HR, Marketing & Comms and Global Real Estate).
The European Works Council, one IBMer told us, has informed staff that circa 50 percent of IBM's reduction goal will impact staffing levels across the European continent. As if often the preferred route, IBM is seeking employees that are happy to take voluntary redundancy, rather than ditching someone that doesn't want to leave. The sources we spoke to did not reveal the total population in scope for redundancies or the numbers of volunteers being sought. IBM did not confirm the numbers either. [...] Slovakia, we're told, is to feel the tightest squeeze with around a third of IBM's cuts in Europe landing on its International (shared services) Center in Bratislava; the Center in Hungary that supports EO&S/ Q2C, as well as the Finance function in Bulgaria are also going to absorb what our sources described as the most dramatic staff reductions.
The European Works Council, one IBMer told us, has informed staff that circa 50 percent of IBM's reduction goal will impact staffing levels across the European continent. As if often the preferred route, IBM is seeking employees that are happy to take voluntary redundancy, rather than ditching someone that doesn't want to leave. The sources we spoke to did not reveal the total population in scope for redundancies or the numbers of volunteers being sought. IBM did not confirm the numbers either. [...] Slovakia, we're told, is to feel the tightest squeeze with around a third of IBM's cuts in Europe landing on its International (shared services) Center in Bratislava; the Center in Hungary that supports EO&S/ Q2C, as well as the Finance function in Bulgaria are also going to absorb what our sources described as the most dramatic staff reductions.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: IBM (Score:2)
There was a thing with chess and jeopardy.
Re: (Score:2)
'Cause that totally makes the company a higher-quality workfarce.
This is not uncommon. (Score:5, Insightful)
No news here. Why not ask for volunteers? People close to retirement may choose to leave rather than someone who needs it lose their job.
Also not always usefull (Score:5, Interesting)
I worked for CSC for a number of years, and there were layoffs there too. I applied for the voluntary layoff every time. But they never wanted ME to leave. It was always the guys working in the less profitable areas, or with the older technologies. Never us making money hand over fist.
And as usual, the same day they announce the layoffs, they go and hire a nearly identical amount of new people with different skills that are now the "new business model". When all they REALLY had to do, was to retrain the current staff. But hey that would require investments in education.... Wasn't there once a company with the motto "no learning - no earning" ? Wasn't that... Oh yeah... IBM...
Re: (Score:3)
My dad worked for CSC for a while too. I recall him coming home early on Fridays because once he hit 40 hours that was it. Overtime had to be authorized so hello weekend.
it's cheaper to get new workers vs paying more for (Score:2)
it's cheaper to get new workers vs paying more for the older ones.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I find that most of the time, it doesn't. On paper it many times looks cheaper but that mostly means, the company doesn't know it's costs. What happens is that it drives the experienced staff nuts (some leave) because people are making mistakes that were solved 5 years earlier. So all that retraining and loss of experience severely lowers productivity which translates to cost.
Another factor, people who change jobs often get far higher growth in their salaries than loyal employees. So an equivalently ski
Re: (Score:2)
Re:This is not uncommon. (Score:5, Insightful)
A voluntary layoff program isn't this. And those who take it are usually younger workers who know that they will find a new job in less time less than the severance package so it's a chance to get a bonus for switching jobs. It tends to attract higher-performing younger workers.
I'm not disagreeing with asking for volunteers. But I don't think the group that steps up will be those near retirement.
Re: (Score:2)
But I don't think the group that steps up will be those near retirement.
No they'll be the smart people who know will easily find another job and are keen to take a big paycheck. The rest of the people will be left trying to unravel the mess the leavers dropped on the way out.
Re: (Score:2)
Why not ask for volunteers? People close to retirement may choose to leave rather than someone who needs it lose their job.
Exactly. That's what I did when my (former) company did the latest round of downsizing.
I fell a little bad for the guys left behind to "do more with less", but I'm pretty happy about my mental health boost.
Re: (Score:2)
"People close to retirement"
There was someone in my office who had his retirement scheduled, was asked to extend, and then got laid off. He basically got paid extra to do what he wanted in the first place. Of course the company was fucked because they no longer had the guy who was so important they had asked him to not retire yet, but that was no longer his problem.
The zoom meeting starts- (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
The last person to try that was Budd Dwyer
Re: The zoom meeting starts- (Score:2)
He retired himself, though. He wasn't asking, he was telling.
What's the severance package these days? (Score:3)
In the old days when there was a decent severance package, volunteering for layoff was a good way to retire with a bonus. Other than a few specific times there wasn't a formal way to do so, but there was an informal path. Way back when I was on vacation over the layoff. When I came back someone I enjoyed talking with was gone. I found out he had been laid off and left with a smile on his face. (He was quite a bit older than me.)
Re: What's the severance package these days? (Score:2)
IBM gave me two months' severance and I was just a support guy, although to be fair I was level 2 support at Tivoli which was pretty high-end. I had almost another month of sick and vacation time that got paid out, too.
Re: (Score:2)
In the old days it was something like two weeks per year of service, to a maximum of six months. The other aspect that affected where I worked was that the state required 90 days notice prior to layoffs of some size or greater. (Forget the threshold) So they'd lay people off immediately and they would be on the payroll but not working for 90 days. Then the severance kicked in.
I manged to survive the layoffs at IBM, then was sold to Global Foundries in 2015 with 5000 friends and a bunch of real estate.
Re:What's the severance package these days? (Score:4, Interesting)
In the US now, 2 weeks, at one time I think it was 1 week for ever 6 months of employment. The 2 months "given" is due to a Federal Law for Large Companies. In many cases IBM calls it severance and lets they person go to prevent sabotage. The law specifies 2 months notice to Employees before the are laid-off.
This article seems to be for European Employees, maybe due to their Lay-off Laws. I wonder what the severance package is for Europe ?
If this option was given in the Department I use to work at in IBM, 90% of the people would volunteer to get 6 months of Unemployment (of course that depends upon the US State).
Re: (Score:2)
Europe isn't a country, the rules vary greatly even within Europe. Typically 2-4weeks per year of employment is standard up to a maximum of 1 year pay in Germany. Look to the Netherlands and it's 1/3rd of a month salary / year for the first 10 years, and 1/2 thereafter with no top limit, and a full month pear year for every year you work over the age of 50. Spain they work on calendar days but a close to Germany. But then you also get some other weird ones like in Austria where employers are forced to pre-f
Does IBM still have any staff left? (Score:4, Insightful)
I guess they could fire their sales staff but that always seems like a bad idea to me. Your company who's only product at this point is consultancy services and old mainframes that everyone hates. Yeah they haven't been able to get off those mainframes but being dependent on a product that people absolutely despise means that if somebody does manage to come along with a solution you're dead meat.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah, I'm amazed that there are any US employees left at this point. By the time I left the company ten years ago, IBM basically meant "International Business Movement" with all of the foreign outsourcing they were doing. Even Indian subcontractors were becoming too expensive at that point, they had to look other nations with even cheaper labor.
Re: (Score:2)
The last I heard if you were an American and you weren't in sales you were fired. I'm sure they have some h1b's but anyone native born isn't going to get a job at IBM.
They apparently have US managers with no direct reports. I'll explain shortly.
Back in the first part of the 2000s, I had a job in a US branch of a European telco. I'm not going to name the company because frankly most Americans have never heard of who I worked for and I don't want to give them even bad publicity. I want to keep it so Americans don't know who they are. My entire department got laid off. They did give us 6 months of warning before the layoffs took place, which I appreciated, a
IBM still the undisputed King (Score:5, Interesting)
And sure enough years later it came out that those layoffs were just good old-fashioned age discrimination with the pronouncements about firing management just being covered for it.
I always volunteer (Score:2)
I Wish I Had That Option (Score:5, Insightful)
In 2018, my employer was a year into a private equity acquisition and the layoffs were about to commence. I had no clue where I would be in the decision process as rank and file engineer of 18 years at the company.
Out of nowhere another software company I had conversations with years ago contacted me and long story short made me an offer to join.
I took the offer (no regrets though I have moved on after 3 years there) knowing it was an opportunity worth pursuing and no idea of my status at the current job. When I resigned, my bosses boss said I was not slated for layoff and asked if I wanted a competing offer. I said no.
But, what I really would have liked would have been to be laid off with a severance of about 80k with a new job ready to start. Hard to align the stars that well though.
Private equity, what a cancer. You can't prevent it, just have to deal with it when it happens.
redundancy (Score:2)
Shouldn't it just be "dundancy"?
IBrM? (Score:2)
The old joke about what the company acronym stands for has has been updated to "I've Been reMoved".