IBM tells managers to come to the office or leave their jobs - CNN - Senior Developer IBM Employee Review

1.0
Jan 31, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get a paycheck, this week.

Cons

This CNN headline on 1/31/24 is exactly why I left years ago as these so-called leaders were doing the same thing; cutting staff under the thin veil of what they called "co-location". It is nothing more than that. My advice? Leave! Your quality of life and career will improve, drastically. Just ask anyone that took the leap they'll all tell you the very same thing. There are still entire teams that even when on site, work at great distances from each other across vastly different time zones; they are not working together even when in an office - it's a ruse. Those of us that built what used to be idolized as the great IBM of old, is long gone. We built IBM's reputation - not the recent leadership (if you can even confer that on them). Also long gone and buried with Old Man Watson (9-edge, face down as they say) is the company's original mantra - "Respect for the Individual" and "Think" there is no respect anymore - and these greedy executives don't and can't think; employment is purely transactional and employees became faceless widgets long ago. Current employees are paid just enough but have been loaded with FUD - too scared to leave and ridden by first-line managers that only carry out orders from above after getting their spine-ectomies. Those with skills and value can do far better elsewhere and avoid getting stomach ulcers from living under constant anxiety. The new generation and top talent demand remote work options. My advice to you is this: take a clue - exclude Big Blue from your short list of best places to work, unless you want to work under constant FUD. Don't walk away - run!

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5.0
Jul 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great place to learn as an intern

Cons

No cons! Great job to have

4.0
Aug 26, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Disclaimer: A lot of what I'm writing below of course depends on the work area and management chain. But I found this to be fairly pervasive policies in IBM in my 9+ years with the company. 1. IBM's policies and management are very flexible when it comes to working remotely or accommodating various life situations (sick days, doctor visits, etc.). Management is encouraged to measure an employee by their work and impact, and not by hours spent at their office. 2. Great colleagues! Though unfortunately, many have been leaving due to the instability of IBM's HW development business. 3. At least in my area, there's a high level of flexibility on which projects should I undertake based on my and my management assessment of business impact.

Cons

1. Unfortunately, IBM still uses the "normal distribution" rating system, where at the end of the year each employee is ranked as a top contributor (5%), above average contributor (15%), average contributor (~75%), and bottom contributor (5%). This curve is difficult to apply in the R&D world, where you may have many members of the team working long and hard hours, and end up being "average contributors" at the end of the year, because there just isn't room for all to be top contributors. 2. The above may not be so disturbing, if only IBM didn't practically cancelled all raises, performance bonuses and incentive for the non top-performers. I've had a consistent "above average" rating in the last 4-5 years, and my raise and performance bonus were ridiculous mere 1.5-2% of my salary. Were I rated "average contributor" I would have gotten NOTHING. So you can imagine that people can go year after year without any raise to their salary. From talking to manager friend, this is IBM's way to eliminate the non-top-performers without having to fire them, as part of its direction of reducing US manpower. 3. Hiring freeze in many areas - again, as part of IBM's attempt to reduce its workforce across North America and Europe we see many jobs move to the India and Far East markets. This is of course upsetting to see local teams shrink and disappear, especially when many great local IBM colleagues and experts begin to drop out. From my experience thus far working with India SW teams - they are still very far away from the standards I would have expected from US and Europe based teams. 4. Poor top down communication about company's and divisions' future. Employees learn from rumors and news websites what's about to come...

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IBM Response
10y
Thanks for sharing your experience, and we're glad that you've had a positive experience working with talented colleagues and taking advantage of IBM's programs. IBM is in the midst of a major transformation, --our Systems business is going through its own changes to strengthen competitiveness. Change is never easy. As part of our transformation, we just launched a whole new approach for how we are coaching employees, delivering feedback and managing reviews. No distribution guidelines or what some think of as 'stacked rankings." What's particularly great is that this was co-designed with our employee base from all over the world... to the tune of hundreds of thousands of page views, comments, on-line debates and discussions. IBMers even named the new system Checkpoint, to reflect the regular feedback rituals we're adopting. Managers are more empowered with the new methodology to help them acknowledge the great work of their teams and help their employees develop professionally. These steps and more are showing up in our employee surveys as well. So IBMers are feeling the change. We are confident these changes will help us in continuing to attract and retain great talent.
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