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Making ‘Dinobabies’ Extinct: IBM’s Push for a Younger Work Force
The New York Times ^ | Noam Scheiber

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Miscellaneous; Society
KEYWORDS: agediscrimination; bigtech; ibm; labor
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To: anthropocene_x

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.”

These top IBM execs really don’t understand discovery, the permanence of email, or creating liability for an open and shut discrimination case. Get ready to write some fat checks.


21 posted on 02/14/2022 7:26:53 PM PST by Flick Lives (The CDC. Brought to you by Pfizer.)
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To: Chode

It’s from the movie “Horrible Bosses”...

Kevin Spacey plays himself in the movie.


22 posted on 02/14/2022 7:28:56 PM PST by rlmorel (Nothing can foster principles of freedom more effectively than the imposition of tyranny.)
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To: toast

Corporate jobs are the worst. Dealing with narcissistic people and f’ning liberal politics are enough to make most honest hard working people want to vomit.


23 posted on 02/14/2022 7:32:12 PM PST by dragonblustar (2 Peter 2:14,1 Corinthians 6:18-20)
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To: anthropocene_x

A defense contractor I put 25 years in (and I was a relative noobie at that) moved out OWGs (figure it out). In a couple years they had gone from a powerhouse to the punchline of a bad joke.


24 posted on 02/14/2022 7:34:11 PM PST by Tijeras_Slim
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To: anthropocene_x

At our company we routinely hire older workers. When I mean older, it’s people in their 60’s, sometimes 70’s. They have a lot of experience to bring to the table. Then again we are small, light industrial manufacturing, not a large corporation. It doesn’t matter if someone just graduated from Oxford. They cannot stack up against 30+ years of experience.


25 posted on 02/14/2022 7:37:58 PM PST by packagingguy
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To: rlmorel

LOL... of that i have no doubt


26 posted on 02/14/2022 7:39:33 PM PST by Chode (there is no fall back position, there's no rally point, there is no LZ... we're on our own. #FJB)
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To: anthropocene_x
There's something to be said about older workers who have cultural memory of what was done in the past, what worked, and what didn't.

Without them, the youngins could end up making old mistakes news again.

27 posted on 02/14/2022 7:44:36 PM PST by yesthatjallen
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To: packagingguy

I still have four over 65 and two more over 60 in my office staff of 8.
Best hires ever.


28 posted on 02/14/2022 7:49:18 PM PST by steve8714 (Evidently the Oxford comma is racist, sexist, or homophobic. You decide which.)
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To: anthropocene_x

Most major corporations have done this for decades; it’s the historical military promotion system of ‘up or out.’ It’s just that they have mostly had to camouflage it of late.


29 posted on 02/14/2022 7:50:37 PM PST by Glenmore
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To: anthropocene_x

I completely did not understand the term “dinobabies”.

It just seemed bizarre to me. What are these people taking?


30 posted on 02/14/2022 7:51:00 PM PST by rlmorel (Nothing can foster principles of freedom more effectively than the imposition of tyranny.)
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To: anthropocene_x

“… employees designated for layoffs were officially allowed to apply for open jobs within the company…”

This was done at a hospital where I used to work. All employees were ‘laid off’ and then required to reapply for their jobs. Administration refused to ‘rehire’ most of the older nurses, technicians, etc. Caused a huge stink. This was around 1989 ish.


31 posted on 02/14/2022 7:52:35 PM PST by Islander7 (There is no septic system so vile, so filthy, the left won't drink from to further their agenda.)
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To: qaz123
There was a claim that the Super Bowl was by millennials and for millennials. But what is the age group of NFL management and owners?

Roger Goodell, 62
Jerry Jones, 79
Stan Kroenke, 73
Mike Brown, 71
Janice McNair, 80

The oldest NFL team owner is 97, the youngest 55. Average age: 69. It is a rarity for an NFL player to stay past 35. Tom Brady is an anomaly. So Baby Boomers, and the Silent Generation, and even one from the Greatest Generation, are still in charge, for all the rap music at halftime and woke slogans left over from 2020.

32 posted on 02/14/2022 8:05:07 PM PST by Wallace T.
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To: Wallace T.
There was a claim that the Super Bowl was by millennials and for millennials.

Couldn't have told from the half-time entertainment, which could not have appealed to anyone younger than 45.
33 posted on 02/14/2022 8:22:20 PM PST by AnotherUnixGeek
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To: proxy_user
IBM has been losing business and revenue for decades.

IBM is lucky to have any workforce at all. They've missed the boat on nearly everything. They're only looking for younger talent to pad the pay and compensation for their executives.

34 posted on 02/14/2022 9:28:11 PM PST by T.B. Yoits
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To: Tijeras_Slim
I recall we work(ed) for the same employer. I just passed 30 years. At 65, I'm the oldest on the current contract. Fortunately, I was a senior developer on 80% of the suite of applications that are now being containerized and deployed from the cloud with kubernetes. I'm weighing adding a CySA cert this year and polishing machine learning skills as the customer is anxious for that capability. Data science work is fun too. The place hasn't grown old and boring yet.

Last year I had an interesting challenge getting 2010 vintage OSGi wrapped around 2020 vintage Spring Boot and getting all of it to play inside a Windows Docker container. Getting that container deployed on Rancher RKE2 kubernetes was the next level of challenge.

35 posted on 02/14/2022 10:11:40 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: Islander7
I was supporting a contract and got moved from a "surge support developer" to the technical project manager with 15 reports. Another parallel group with more people burned all of their pool of funds. The solution? All of my staff was let go and I had the "pleasure" of doing all of their technical work and managing the interface with the customer. It worked out and we delivered ahead of schedule. I did have to "apply for my job" in a manner similar to your example. I was the only "hire" back into the "group".
36 posted on 02/14/2022 10:17:33 PM PST by Myrddin
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To: anthropocene_x

IBM has done this before.

Some new guy wanting to get ahead suggests why not re-organized, it will save money!

“Great idea, Jones” Start this right away and there is bonus money in it for you”

This has been happening for the last 4 years at my last company I worked at. Big company. About 4 years ago all the upper managers were told that worked at the west coast offices had to move to New Jersey east coast office. If you did not you would lose your job. Imagine sunny California and now winter and higher taxes and mosquitos.

Next the IT dept I was a part of had the Director and his 3 upper bosses all be replaced by people from India.... They in turn started firing half the IT dept and outsourced to Microsoft and Oracle. Other depts were also having many people replaced. The older more experienced and of course higher paid were leaving one way or another.
My manager and supervisor had no future so they left within 2.5 months of each other last year. The new manager is in Mexico and the new supervisor is in Poland....
I came across a list of Help Desk people dated Dec 2020. 17 of 33 people left by the time I left in Nov 2021 !!
That was not all of them as the entire dept in India was replaced by people in Poland. Also any new hires are from CapGemini which is a temp agency.

Some people are getting a lot of bonus money. All I was hearing for those years were many complaints about things not getting done and no one to contact anymore.


37 posted on 02/15/2022 12:49:23 AM PST by minnesota_bound (I need more hash brown patties! )
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To: anthropocene_x

Experience equals dinobaby.


38 posted on 02/15/2022 12:52:50 AM PST by NetAddicted ( Just looking)
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To: minnesota_bound

I had a co-worker who helped train me in back in 2003. I was flown out for training to the east coast office who had been employed there for several years already. He stayed in the Help Desk and later ran the server that we did our tickets on among many other things. He would also take calls as well if we were short handed. Last year he was let go when we switched to a different software for our tickets.
The new director said he did not have the skill set needed for the Help Desk.... They were hiring people left and right from a temp agency as so many had already quit that he easily could have continued in his job and help train them.
Instead they insulted him with “he did not have the skill set needed”


39 posted on 02/15/2022 12:59:17 AM PST by minnesota_bound (I need more hash brown patties! )
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To: Flatus I. Maximus

I’d be perfectly willing to come back as a contractor……..for a price. It’s going to be a price significantly higher than I was being paid previously.


40 posted on 02/15/2022 1:39:16 AM PST by FLT-bird
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