Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S. • Hacker News Board

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#331

Post by twa-kifla » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:06 PM UTC

bcg1 wrote: post #329

mtbcoder wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's assuming one has the ability to sock away enough savings to ease the burden of any long-term unemployment. The reality though is that millions of US citizens do not even have this option, even knowing full well that they need to be saving more. They simply cannot because the cost of living is too great and wages are too low. The fact that the US is "not a social country, you are on your own when shit happens",…

We're talking about tech jobs here, not minimum wage jobs that don't provide a living wage. I think the point is really that most people conflate their NEEDS with their WANTS and end up living hand to mouth because of it. If you are a tech worker in the USA and you don't have extenuating circumstances that eat up large portions of your income (like child support, back taxes, massive student loan debt, etc) and cannot…

I can attest to that. I came to the US half a year ago on a work visa (not H1B) from an European country, with dependents in tow. Earning modest tech salary I was able to "sock away" more earnings in that time than I would be able to in my home country in three years. My observations is that people here simply live a lifestyle that matches their income.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#332

Post by anfroid555 » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:08 PM UTC

Sad to see one of the giants slowly dieing that you grew up with.... Hard to change the direction of a major company

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#333

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:12 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #54

revelation wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company is it's employees. If IBM still has cheese slicer designers in 2016, it's because they failed to train them. The discussion we're having here is because there seem to be no repercussions to their failure.

> A company is it's employees But they are not the same group of employees though ;-) that's the point. > The discussion we're having here is because there seem to be no repercussions to their failure. Ok and how should we punishing all the failed startups though? Who is holding them responsible for their failure? > it's because they failed to train them We should try. But in general this is like the idea of "Why don…

When a startup fails, the management are generally out of work as well.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#334

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:14 PM UTC

rdtsc wrote: post #143

Spooky23 wrote: post #112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When you're at will, it doesn't. When you are covered by a collective bargaining agreement and contract, it happens all of the time. In my city, when the administration introduced unsafe conditions and unpopular schedule changes the firefighters union picketed the home of the mayor and fire chief, and successfully sued. A friend worked for a manufacturing company where the Union sued over chronic and egregious misman…

Wonder why more software jobs are not unionized? Hollywood and move industry has some of that. Teacher, pilots, firefighters do it.

This industry is full of libertarians, full-bore objectivists, "fuck you, got mine"-ists, and scads of people who think they're 10x engineers and don't want to be compared to the plebs.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#335

Post by GFK_of_xmaspast » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:20 PM UTC

dandelany wrote: post #152

reddytowns wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn English and its lack of gender non-specific pronouns! Seriously, though... what is the implication that I am missing? What is the point of bringing up the CEO's pay? Should it be government mandated, is that what you all believe?

Singular "they" is gender-neutral and grammatically correct, I don't know why more people don't use it.

"They" is just as singular as "you" was way back when.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#336

Post by alanwatts » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

nickff wrote: post #81

ryandrake wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$6.2M sounds like a lot for any single human being.

$6.2M is not a lot for a big company if the leader can increase sales or profits by even a few percent... which does not appear to be the case here.

This is assuming those increased sales and profits are disproportionately attributable solely to the executive. In reality it is the army of sales reps and engineers which do the vast majority of this.

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#337

Post by iofj » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:21 PM UTC

dredmorbius wrote: post #276

hga wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, before the oil embargo. Since the DoD and NASA/the space industry were and probably still are the biggest buyers, and US airlines were completely regulated in that period, oil, or rather, distillate prices wouldn't have had a great effect. For that matter, certainly nowadays higher oil prices can mean more business for airplane companies as that makes buying more efficient planes more important.

Possibly a short-term uptick, but problematic longer term. Take marine shipping as a similar case. Recent vessels were desiggned for high-cost fuel and slow sreaming, or so they tell us. But petroleum prices, and bunker fuel, have plummetted. Hulls last 20+ years. And shipping overall is down. Problem is demand-side.

> And shipping overall is down. Problem is demand-side.

Really ? All economic indicators (manufacturing index, employment, ...) seem to indicate otherwise. If problem is indeed demand side, wouldn't you see a serious crash right about now ?

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#338

Post by alanwatts » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:22 PM UTC

beambot wrote: post #194

fdej wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, there was some recently published research that claimed to find that most of the effect attributed to CEO performance actually can be explained by random fluctuations. Make of that what you will.

How do companies perform with no CEO? Regardless of the firm's performance, it's a difficult role to fill -- especially for a large, multi national conglomerate.

If I'm not mistaken, a public corporation must have a CEO by law?

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#339

Post by marcus_holmes » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:24 PM UTC

jacques_chester wrote: post #60

marcus_holmes wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

According to the article IBM bought Softlayer and has only just launched BlueMix. I tried Bluemix and found it unoriginal and a cit crap. Not that the world of cloud services moves according to my preferences, but I'm not seeing it used anywhere else either. If IBM is "prominent" in cloud services it's from acquisitions. Whereas AWS pioneered the cloud industry. This is certainly "doing things right" in that it's pro…

> but I'm not seeing it used anywhere else either. Bluemix is a re-branded Cloud Foundry. IBM donates engineering to the Cloud Foundry Foundation. CF is used in a lot of places. Disclaimer: I work for Pivotal, the leading donor of engineering to Cloud Foundry. We have our own distribution of Cloud Foundry, PCF, that is a competitor to Bluemix.

cool, new information, thanks :)

I'm still not seeing BlueMix itself used anywhere ;)

Re: Reports Coming in of Big IBM Layoffs Underway in the U.S.

#340

Post by Lawtonfogle » Fri, Mar 04, 2016, 2:28 PM UTC

twa-kifla wrote: post #331

bcg1 wrote: post #329

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about tech jobs here, not minimum wage jobs that don't provide a living wage. I think the point is really that most people conflate their NEEDS with their WANTS and end up living hand to mouth because of it. If you are a tech worker in the USA and you don't have extenuating circumstances that eat up large portions of your income (like child support, back taxes, massive student loan debt, etc) and cannot…

I can attest to that. I came to the US half a year ago on a work visa (not H1B) from an European country, with dependents in tow. Earning modest tech salary I was able to "sock away" more earnings in that time than I would be able to in my home country in three years. My observations is that people here simply live a lifestyle that matches their income.

Yeah, people always question why I'm not living bigger than I am. They don't understand putting half their income into savings instead of spending it on the now. The part that gets me is that when bad times come, people will look at my like I'm privileged and should share, forgetting that they already benefited from their extra earnings that they choose to spend instead of save. (To be clear, I'm talking about people who could've saved but didn't. I am not talking about the people who, through no fault of their own, never had a chance to save.)