IBM reviews

This practice is failing. It failed in integrating the Meteorix acquisition by not providing the tools needed to succeed and then replacing the bonus with a small %'age of that amount as salary. The practice appears to be losing at least 1 experienced consultant per DAY and replaced by new consultants with 0 experience. This translates to the worker that stays there continually expected to do more while pay does not increase. This practice is led by SS who was the previous CEO for Meteorix. Meteorix was successful in spite of him because he had smart people around him that he was able to empower to make the practice successful. As part of IBM, he now has to stand in a boardroom and fight for his practice to get a piece of the pie against more experienced/groomed executives in other practices that are more politically savvy and he is failing miserably. His leadership team are all frustrated and handcuffed with no ability to improve the situation. It is astonishing and sad to see how quickly the great Meteorix practice has crumbled and fallen apart as a product of IBM's acquisition. The technology at IBM is lacking. It still uses Lotus Notes (IBM Notes) which is a great tool for administrators but lacking from an end user perspective (compared to Outlook). Other tools necessary for the job are rudimentary and may meet the needs of a large consultancy but does not work well with the Workday practice with a predominantly remote workforce. It has recently introduced Concur, Webex and Outlook but the execution is lacking (Outlook is just a front end replicating Notes) so you always feel like you're getting a knockoff version of what the real tool should do. The pay is not comparable to Workday eco-system standards. Base salary pay seems like it is 10 to 15% under what you would see at other Workday partner firm practices. Also, there is no bonus for utilization (this may be a "pro" for some) so your "total" pay will be 10 to 20% less than other Workday partner firms. While employed, I got more spam at my work email address (from internal IBM) than I do in my gmail box. There is so much junk email coming from executives about things that you will have no interest in and you wonder why the organization is paying executive salaries to a glorified blogger. There is no "unsubscribe" option for these. The intranet has a wealth of information but is set up like a flea market. You'll have to dig thru the content that is 10 to 20 years old to find the info you need, and hope that it is current. Everything goes to a call center which seem to be in the Philippines or India. They are generally helpful for simple troubleshooting but they read from a script only so if you have anything out of the ordinary, you will spend an exorbitant amount of time trying to get something resolved. I went from spending 5 to 10% of my time on "administrative" tasks while at Meteorix. With IBM, this was closer to 15 to 30% of my time. This is less relevant now since utilization bonuses have been taken away but you will still find yourself working more hours because of the lack of efficiency. Communication from leadership is non-existent. Townhalls are a lecture with no Q&A opportunity and there have been no comments/communications to dispel or confirm rumors that affect the practice (are remote workers required to come back to the office? rumors still exist that retention bonuses will not be paid in Nov 2017). What little communications that I did get were given at the last minute (we missed the cutoff for the salary remix so it will be in 7/31 payroll instead of 7/15). Meteorix was a crystal clear lake with open/consistent/clear communication from leadership. IBM's acquisition stirred up the sand and has made everything cloudy. The management team for this practice seem inept and incompetent.

- Pay is just enough under what it should be, and they make you feel bad for getting that. I worked with my manager on a project before I was actually on his team (I was under a different manager at the time), he would constantly praise me for my work and tell me I should have a promotion and move up to band 7 (IBM's ranking system for your experience level). When I got moved to his team I reminded him of this, even sending back the emails where he specifically called this out. He dragged out the promotion for roughly 5 months, finally telling me that even though I don't deserve it they are promoting me and giving me a raise. The raise was not exactly what I had been expecting (other band 7's discussed their salary and the raise I received was roughly 20k under what theirs). A very confusing process getting told you deserve a promotion, wait you don't deserve this, here it is...you didn't earn it. - The bonus system is designed to make you feel like you are not working hard enough. At the beginning of every year you decide how you are going to improve and discuss this with your manager. At the end of the year, even if you hit the goals and went beyond with glowing recommendations from the clients you were graded average and told to improve next year. - The travel. I worked remote, not sure how to put that in the location...but don't get tricked by that. When I first joined IBM I was told 15% to 30% travel, for 2 years I was only home maybe 5 weeks. I may have been ok with the travel if I was busy working on something that needed to be worked on at the client's workplace, but I literally would be told to sit at a desk and do nothing for some of the clients while IBM argued with the client about the contract. - Vacation and paternity. I was never approved to take a vacation even with over 100% utilization (which at the time was about 44 hours a week for client work). When my first child was born I was supposed to get 6 weeks paid paternity, I had to kick and scream to get 2 weeks (even though I had just finished a client's project and had nothing else lined up because I thought I would be out for 6 weeks). - Management and general disorganization. When I first joined IBM it took 6 months before I got a manager (I joined during a reorganization of the company). It was a very confusing time since I worked remote and did not know how to do things like find a client project to work on. When I finally got my first manager he was a developer with a team of people who developed...I was a UX designer. He constantly wanted me to go back to school to learn to develop and would not help me with client projects. Summary, not a great experience for me and I was relieved to get out. I am now healthier due to less stress and not eating like crap on the road, I see my daughter every day at 5:30pm, and I took my first vacation in roughly 3 years. IBM was a dark time in my life that almost ruined my marriage and had me regretting the various life choices I made to get there.