Posted on 02/14/2022 6:38:58 PM PST by anthropocene_x
Top IBM executives were directly involved in discussions about the need to reduce the portion of older employees at the company, sometimes disparaging them with terms of art like “dinobabies.”
A trove of previously sealed documents made public by a Federal District Court on Friday show IBM executives discussing plans to phase out older employees.
Now it appears that top IBM executives were directly involved in discussions about the need to reduce the portion of older employees at the company, sometimes disparaging them with terms of art like “dinobabies.”
A trove of previously sealed documents made public by a Federal District Court on Friday show executives discussing plans to phase out older employees and bemoaning the company’s relatively low percentage of millennials.
An email by a top executive, appearing to refer to older workers, mentions a plan to “accelerate change by inviting the ‘dinobabies’ (new species) to leave” and make them an “extinct species.”
Another email refers to IBM’s “dated maternal workforce,” an apparent allusion to older women, and says: “This is what must change. They really don’t understand social or engagement. Not digital natives. A real threat for us.”
IBM sought to eliminate older workers by requiring them to move to a different part of the country to keep their jobs, assuming that most would decline to move.
And while IBM employees designated for layoffs were officially allowed to apply for open jobs within the company, other evidence included in the new disclosure suggests that the company discouraged managers from actually hiring them. For example, according to the statement of material facts, managers had to request approval from corporate headquarters if they wanted to move ahead with a hire.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
IBM is going to be writing some really big checks soon.
L
It sounds like IBM does not understand emails.
They are forever!
IBM has been losing business and revenue for decades. Their idea of how to modernize is comically out of touch - let’s get rid of older people who know what they’re doing, and hire young people who will work for low salaries. What could possibly go wrong?
their mature product line...
I worked for a while with someone who was dinobabied out of IBM.
He came to worked where I did for the five years it took to get vested in the retirement and keep medical insurance until he could finally retire.
He did not look kindly on IBM.
It’s not just IBM, it’s SOP throughout the industry. Apparently IBM is the only one with management stupid enough to put it in writing, though.
Almost invariably, once a company conducts a thorough purge of the old, about six months later they discover they’ve also pushed crucial knowledge and experience out the door. Then they begin putting out feelers to former employees, to see if they are willing to come back as contractors.
I can’t begin to tell you how good it feels to be in a position to tell your former employer to f*** off when they ask you to come back as a contractor. But trust me, it feels REALLY good!
> It sounds like IBM does not understand emails.
They’re not digital natives ;-)
I was listening to a presentation by an MIT cyber security group and they said that as a test when somebody was sent an email saying don’t open an attachment to that email as it could damage your system, there was a direct relationship between seniority and who opened the attachment.
i.e. leadership thought thinks that consequences don’t apply to them.
A good friend of mine just experienced that from AT&T. Don’t know if he has been asked back yet. But this is a guy who knows how to make serious cell tower comms happen.
It’s SOP in corporate America tout court. Once you’re past 50, you’re unemployable. The millennials know this as well as anyone, which makes them even more desperate to move their elders out of the way so they can get the high-paying promotions right now. Age discrimination happens all the time, and is almost impossible to prove.
The IBM execs, older employees themselves, are ok to stay. Just all the other older employees have to go, so they can hire younger, cheaper and lower paid employees. Perhaps some H1B-visa holders.
More accurately,
IBM is the only one SO FAR to be caught putting this in writing.
My kid got a job with IBM right out of college. I thought “score”. But after 8 months he announced he didn’t like corporate life and quit. I thought “WTF?”.
But, he may have been right. He’s doing pretty well training to be an airline pilot.
“older workers”
I wonder what other demographic traits these workers might share...white and male perhaps?
“Up or Out” isn’t just for the military anymore.
I hope the lost wages and lost career benefits, fines and penalties put IBM out of business or close to being out of business. As an older worker challenged because of my age, I want to see these companies pay and pay big.
WTF is that??? LOL!!!
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