back to article IBM puts Global Tech Services staff at risk in 'skills remix'

A second round of UK redundancy consultations are set to kick off for IBMers working in the Global Business Services (GBS) division, company insiders have told us. Big Blue initiated numerous job-cutting programmes this year as it reacted to fewer big ticket outsourcing deals and the rise of cloud computing by sending more …

  1. MrKrotos

    Lol, love the Craig David Ref :P

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Stuffed shirt management weasels gonna party like it's 1989

      Bit forced for my taste.

      Still, it doesn't deserve contempt- that ought to be reserved for IBM's own spokesman and "requires IBM to continually remix skills". Yeah, you're down with the kids using that newfangled dance music lingo in your latest weasel-worded attempt to justify short term share price boosting by laying off staff.

      Perhaps you could throw in a mention for that "E" drug (it's short for "ecstasy" apparently! (#)) which is really popular at those raves popping up all over the place.

      You utter f*****g tossers.

      (#) Remember when everyone called it "E" (along with accompanying bad puns and innuendo)? (##) Interesting that even though ecstasy- and crappy dance music- has held on far longer than anyone might have predicted in the early 90s, pretty much no-one has called it "E" since that decade ended.

      (##) A la "Everything Starts with an 'E'" and the infamous "Eezer Goode, Eezer Goode, He's Ebeneezer Goode".

  2. Beachrider

    IBM just isn't the old-IBM...

    IBM is changing the way that it relates to its people. It isn't a sudden change, but it has gone to new levels. A friend of mine did a 500 person presentation at Share in the USA and he was laid off 3 days later. The presentation was not the issue. There is just a LOT of stuff happening in parallel with business-building processes at IBM.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: IBM just isn't the old-IBM...

      "but it has gone to new levels." I presume you meant "new depths".

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: IBM just isn't the old-IBM...

        I think they meant "levels" as in Dante's levels of hell.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    The irony...

    IBM wants to make redundant some of its staff as part of a relocation effort.

    Yet the majority of the skills that they want to capture are found in the very same countries where they want to reduce head count.

    IBM is also paying top dollar for those who have Big Data skills (proven skills) as well as Data Science Skills. Those at risk for being redundant don't have the skills or the capacity to retrain for the skills.

    There are a lot of bodies now trying to do 'big data'. Unfortunately they still don't know what they are doing.

  4. Howard Hanek
    Unhappy

    Pirates Did It Better

    .....they had the drama of 'Walking the Plank' while cruising shark infested waters. Perhaps when IBM relocates all their facilities to India they'll revive the tradition.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Pirates Did It Better

      I know a IBM type person and he is stationed(?) in SE Asia. He is a stalwart when it comes to IBM. He thinks they can do no wrong. Other IBMer's I know that have been let go cannot say anything nice about IBM other than they gave decent anniversary gifts.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Pirates Did It Better

        Decent Anniversary gifts? - an un-engraved pen that turns up about 7 months after your 10th anniversary with zero fanfare. Used to be a Mont Blanc. Hate to see your idea of a crap anniversary gift!

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Not about skills....

    Its about pure corporate greed and a crappy business model.

    They have cut people and skills to the bone. There are no longer enough staff to fulfil the obligations they have made to their clients. The managers are so removed from the staff they are responsible for that they are ineffectual and unable to address their needs and concerns, let alone that of the client. They hide this behind processes and vastly inflated costs.

    IBM used to be synonymous with quality. I can assure you that really isn't the case any more.

    1. pavementeater

      Re: Not about skills....

      Well said, as a former IBMer what you said was spot on.

      IBM is really good at inflating their metrics and pushing their staff to double and at times triple the required load + SLA agreements ... X contract requires IBM to staff 100 on site IBM starts contract with 100 but then slowly trims that staff to 40 while keeping same SLA and metric agreement bla bla bla.

      IBM has been laying off employees in in the States main in their Global Services side of the hours for the last 5 years. The first 3 years it was their typical stealth layoffs then came the mass lay off here kicked in 3 years ago. in the 10 year I was with IBM I had two managers and both had 0 / ZERO knowledge about what their staff actually did and no back ground in anything IT related they only had back grounds in HR and one in sales.

  6. Epping

    IBM Shameful

    With a not so secret intention to have global staff deployment ratio of 30/70 percent (30% incountry & 70 % off shored) there will be plenty more where these have gone. IBM cares naught for customer satisfaction, or appreciation that customer loyalty is something to be earned. The arrogance of Ginny and her cohorts is simply astounding, this is 'asset stripping' from the inside. Someone with the muscle needs to remove this woman and her lieutenants from their positions in the corporation, and try and save IBM before the final nail is driven into the coffin.

    I've been with the company for over 20 years and each day I feel more and more depressed with our direction

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Its not the staff on the coal front that's the problem

    If you have failing business units then the first thing that should be looked at is the management structure and style. If they actually looked closely enough they'd see the same managers and directors moving from one failed business unit to another and then you see the company fail.

    Inside of IBM you can see them line up their next role ahead of time and then disappear into the ether and leave a mess behind them, then the teams on the sharp end of the stick get "resource actioned".

    Maybe if IBM could point Watson at their own management and work out who are the "movers and shakers" and who are the "rats from the sinking ship", they'd actually get to a better position overall.

    No-one likes failure - but if your management doesn't have a sales strategy other than the one vomited up from Sesame Street MBA school of no thought then in reality you cannot expect anything else.

    PS - I've been in IBM and left, I'm not bitter as it was a good experience but there's great people there and great technology , just don't tell the management that as its outside their "growth and development through acquisition strategy".

  8. cashback

    I left last month after a long "career".

    It's a company spiralling down the corporate plughole.

    Run by spreadsheet accountants in New York.

    Sad state of affairs, I really need to flog the IBM shares I accumulated over the years before they're worth jack shit!

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