Posted on 05/21/2017 1:57:15 PM PDT by RoosterRedux
International Business Machines is giving thousands of its remote workers in the U.S. a choice this week: Abandon your home workspaces and relocate to a regional office -- or leave the company.
The 105-year-old technology giant is quietly dismantling its popular decades-old remote work program to bring employees back into offices, a move it says will improve collaboration and accelerate the pace of work.
The changes comes as IBM copes with 20 consecutive quarters of falling revenue and rising shareholder ire over Chief Executive Ginni Rometty's pay package.
The company won't say how many of its 380,000 employees are affected by the policy change, which so far has been rolled out to its Watson division, software development, digital marketing, and design -- divisions that employ tens of thousands of workers.
The shift is particularly surprising since the Armonk, N.Y., company has been among the business world's staunchest boosters of remote work, both for itself and its customers. IBM markets software and services for what it calls "the anytime, anywhere workforce," and its researchers have published numerous studies on the merits of remote work.
In the past, IBM has boasted that more than 40% of employees worked outside traditional company offices, and a May 4 post on the company's Smarter Workforce blog stated that "telework works."
(Excerpt) Read more at foxbusiness.com ...
That is a factor of the person, not the location.
Attrition may be the entire point but I imagine the stats show less productivity among those not in the office as wel (in aggregate).
I really loved their machinery. I cut my teeth on the IBM 1130 and later on the 360/370. I miss that stuff.
Not unless your hyper security requires a intranet setup. Networking from home is ok if you are writing a cookbook.. but advanced tech, probably safer inside. Maybe Hillary is getting hired there and they have to publish the rules in crayola.
I’m a project lead with 30 people working for me and I wear jeans every day. On Friday I wear faded ones ;)
I find most people aren’t disciplined enough for the telework thing. Some are but most are not. I am not very effective from home.
This monday I will be working by myself at the office while my co-workers get the Memorial Day day off. I will relish it : )
2 co-workers on the east coast office will be there so we can instant message if need be. Not expecting many calls.
I get paid extra too : )
Collaboration is a joke.
My good friend has been on job interviews where management tries to goad him into the office “to collaborate.” His response is always the same:
“If local collaboration is so important, why is most of the team in India?”
In the end, all that matters is price.
In my friend’s experience interviewing, the companies that are hot on “collaboration” always have the worst open-plan offices. He calls them “buffet table” office layouts.
IBM is having serious financial issues. This ploy is just a way of getting folks to quit, and guess what? No severance, re-employment support, unemployment, etc.
Part of this Reduction by Relocation effort involves workers who support overseas clients. Those workers can relocate to the overseas country they support, at that country's prevailing wage.
As usual, follow the money!
That was SOP for a home office back in the mean old days of the 80s. The hardware, as a whole, was too darn larger otherwise.
I stopped wearing a tie at IBM in the early 70s. Never saw short pants though and this was in San Jose.
Stay away from IBM. Been there, done that.
NYC after-hours work email ban ‘great for business’, councilman says
If so, I don't blame them.
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