Interesting article.
The company I work for has a workforce wherein fully half of them will be eligible for retirement within the next five years. There are typically a half-dozen retirement parties each week. The company isn’t forcing them out, they are leaving - in many cases careers of over 30 years (one guy had 45 years under his belt).
The company itself appeared to be largely ignorant of the accelerated rate of departure of its brain-trust - the accumulation of tribal knowledge - of its workforce. Now they’re trying desperately to identify, collect, transfer, and preserve that tribal knowledge.
I wonder if IBM even cares that they are shedding their best n brightest?
I wonder if IBM even cares that they are shedding their best n brightest?
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They didn’t care in the nineties and they don’t care now. Very poorly managed company from a value perspective.
“I wonder if IBM even cares that they are shedding their best n brightest?”
They care... about the share price. The risk analysis of losing good people is acceptable which is why they do it.
No. IBM is one of the biggest outsourcers in America. For instance, CenturyLink (real example) will outsource to them, including sending the employees for they systems outsourced to become IBM employees. This means that CenturyLink can say that they didn't fire anyone.
Once IBM gets these systems it just keeps them running, not doing a lot of enhancements or conversions. It will squeeze as much labor out of the systems as possible, because that is how they make money. The absolute fewest employees will be kept to keep the systems running.
Then after the system is at its end of life, it will turn it off and lay everyone off.
So no, it doesn't care that it is laying off people. That is the whole point of the exercise, to make their partners look good, and take responsibility for the firings themselves.
Not a year goes by anymore where IBM doesn't fire tens of thousands of employees, but they never run out of employees either.
A friend of mine works in the elevator repair trade. They have the exact same thing going on. The company he works for is going to lose more than half its experienced folks within 10 years or less. In many cases, they don't even have someone junior working their way up. That company is fucked, because there is no way they are going to be able to even fill the slots with mouth-breathers, much less folk who know what they are doing.