IBM’s sacking spree reaches Australia and as staff wait to exit they're being offered $4k to find new workers
(2020/05/27)
- Reference: 1590553068
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/27/ibm_australia_layoffs/
- Source link:
IBM’s [1]new round of “resource actions” – Big-Blue-speak for sackings – has reached Australia, The Register has learned, and will result in the creation of new cross-disciplinary teams to serve clients.
We understand that staff in IBM’s Australian offices were summoned to unpleasant meetings on May 18th and told their last day at the company will be July 31st, 2020.
Staff were told they can escape redundancy by explaining why their role should be preserved. One soon-to-be-former IBMer told us they have been offered the chance to pen a “written defence” of their role, but that their manager advised this is a nicety that allows the company to demonstrate it has conducted a consultative process. The staffer does not expect to survive the round of redundancies, or that defences will be successful unless they demonstrate a redundancy translates directly to substantial revenue loss.
We understand that IBM plans for slimmed-down workforce to meet client obligations by creating new cross-disciplinary teams that reduce the need for collaboration across different IBM business unit. We’ve been told that client-facing IBMers often need to assistance from product specialists who aren’t permanently attached to their teams and that this arrangement can make for slow responses and frustrated clients. IBM hopes its new way of working will bring more multi-skilled workers into client-facing teams, a plan that’s termed “Agile services”.
We also hear that the Australian redundancies have predominantly impacted older staff and that at least 100 full-time equivalent staff will depart, with perhaps double that number impacted.
IBM has not responded to our request to detail how many redundancies were made, the profile of those let go, or its plans to serve clients as it reduces its team.
“We have no additional comment other than what is available in the public domain,” a spokesperson said. At present there’s precious little in that domain other than a canned statement to the effect that “IBM's workforce decisions are in the interest of the long-term health of our business."
A final indignity: staff told they're no longer required are still receiving emails pointing out they can be rewarded with up to AU$4,000 for referring new hires to IBM.
And to make matters worse, those emails are still landing in Lotus/IBM/HCL Notes inboxes! ®
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/22/ibm_layoffs/
We understand that staff in IBM’s Australian offices were summoned to unpleasant meetings on May 18th and told their last day at the company will be July 31st, 2020.
Staff were told they can escape redundancy by explaining why their role should be preserved. One soon-to-be-former IBMer told us they have been offered the chance to pen a “written defence” of their role, but that their manager advised this is a nicety that allows the company to demonstrate it has conducted a consultative process. The staffer does not expect to survive the round of redundancies, or that defences will be successful unless they demonstrate a redundancy translates directly to substantial revenue loss.
We understand that IBM plans for slimmed-down workforce to meet client obligations by creating new cross-disciplinary teams that reduce the need for collaboration across different IBM business unit. We’ve been told that client-facing IBMers often need to assistance from product specialists who aren’t permanently attached to their teams and that this arrangement can make for slow responses and frustrated clients. IBM hopes its new way of working will bring more multi-skilled workers into client-facing teams, a plan that’s termed “Agile services”.
We also hear that the Australian redundancies have predominantly impacted older staff and that at least 100 full-time equivalent staff will depart, with perhaps double that number impacted.
IBM has not responded to our request to detail how many redundancies were made, the profile of those let go, or its plans to serve clients as it reduces its team.
“We have no additional comment other than what is available in the public domain,” a spokesperson said. At present there’s precious little in that domain other than a canned statement to the effect that “IBM's workforce decisions are in the interest of the long-term health of our business."
A final indignity: staff told they're no longer required are still receiving emails pointing out they can be rewarded with up to AU$4,000 for referring new hires to IBM.
And to make matters worse, those emails are still landing in Lotus/IBM/HCL Notes inboxes! ®
[1] https://www.theregister.co.uk/2020/05/22/ibm_layoffs/
Re: Pleased I no longer have to fear this b/s
Anonymous Coward
This time they supposedly used Watson to identify who to target. Based on who I know have got their pink slip and including myself it can't have been too sophisticated an algorithm - every one of us had over 20 years of service with IBM.
Re: Pleased I no longer have to fear this b/s
macjules
Me too. Best bit about not working there? No longer waiting for 5 minutes for Notes to load on a Mac laptop.
Pleased I no longer have to fear this b/s
It's a perverse pleasure of mine to read that nothing has changed since I left Big Blue - well, not exactly nothing, after all Ginni is a gone-burger too - but I do feel sorry for all my colleagues who continue to live in fear of their career terminating at the whim of an accountant in Armonk.