Screaming Penguin

My thought on this is that IBM is canning folks to appease to the stockholders. European workers are just too costly, Probably more costly than U.S. workers, as the Euro is stronger than the dollar. I also know they are moving operations for many things to South America and Inda (oooh, what a surprise). Basically, out with the old, in with the cheap new. This tactic occured in 2002 when they canned over 15000 workers. Eventhough I'm not getting fired, I am pissed. Come on, 13,000 people fired just in the blink of an eye? I keep hearing that the "top 50 managers" are giving up pay increases. Big freaking deal! I have some inside info.... I know that in one department in IBM Global services last year's bonuses for some big shots(the list was no longer than a one page Calc Spreadsheet)totaled over 6 million dollars. Why don't they look at that for some savings? Its not rocket science, its just greed. If throughout IBM they would re-evaluate the whole "bonus" thing, they would probably save more money than if they fired workers. The firing on 13,000 people is just the beginning. As always ontract employees are worse of This year IBM said it is going to cut the contract employees salary by 20%. (I'm a contract employeee, I know) To not have the blow come so heavily, they are going to make contract employees take 2 unpaid weeks off each quarter. Most contract employees do not make as much as their IBM counterparts, and are often treated like second class citizens. For instance, IBM had some health fair in which they were testing cholesterol and blood pressure. After standing in line, they looked at my ID badge and said "Oh, I'm sorry , this is for IBMers only" (thats a whole other topic in itself) I know this os off topic too... IBM sucks...at least when you are a contractor(but I needed a new job at the time) I'm on the market for a Linux sysadmin job. Linux at IBM is a joke. IBM doesnt even hire Linux specific employees, they use AIX admins who feel Linux is quite inferior to AIX. There is no dedicated Linux team at my area, probably will never be one, yet 95% of my accounts I support have Linux systems.

Hi there, My husband and I recently moved near RTP and started to look for IT work. Fortunately, his phone has been ringing off the hook - but only with offers for temp/contract jobs. He's considering an IBM contract job working through CDI, but we need to know - Does IBM ever pick up contract employees for perm positions? CDI says they offer "healthcare insurance" - however, when I saw the premium price - (we would have to pay - 800.00 per month for a family of 3 - not including dental.) I nearly fainted - then I got really angry. How do these companies expect people to pay for that kind of premium when this particular job pays under $20 bucks per hour? We really don't know what to do here. Should he hold out for a "perm" IT position somewhere, or is that just a pipe-dream in the volatile world of IT today? This whole situation just plain STINKS!!!! Any comments from IBM insiders would be appreciated. Thanks.

Hi, im working in the acct/finance dept here in Kuala Lumpur, malaysia. what u ppl have just described, its exactly the same here. the turnover rate in my dept is so high, its unbelieavable. we have ppl coming n going very fast, in some cases, less than 24 hours. and to be honest, they will be considering centralising the entire worldwide consolidated accounting operations here in KL. Why? its cheap. most accountants here are paid between 2300 and 3000 ringgit here a month (not counting managers), which works out to round USD 600 - 700 a month. they don't pay us any overtime when we have to work during public holidays and weekends, all we got is a replacement leave, and the managers here expect us to take it sportingly. and here's the best part, while top management here in KL told us that our bonuses and salary increments for this year would be frozen, those at the top would be getting fat and juicy pay increases and bonuses. doesnt take a rocket scientist to figure out that the lower ranks here in IBM are treated worse then trash. O yea, and btw, all the contract staff here in my dept, they not only are treated like 2nd class citizens, but are denied a lot of other basic job benefits such as medical insurance. it's really such a sham. IBM really stands for I've Been Mislead

I will buy a iraquian PC clone, faster than anything from ibM... bhaaaa