IBM fires small-town workers
theguardian.com
IBM fires small-town workers
1–10 of 43 posts
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#2Killing itself for $20 EPS.
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#3When your compensation consists of $500,000 fixed salary with bonus of $2 mil - $5 million, naturally you're going obsess over Wall Street numbers.
I think executives should be penalized for layoffs, because with proper resource management, layoffs can be greatly minimized.
In fact, EPS increase through asset sales, layoffs, stock buyback should all count against their bonus figures.
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#4To me, IBM is a dead company, no matter how cool Watson is. My perception of IBM is a consultant company. While IBM research still makes tons of awesome progress in AI and security, IBM looks like GE and Bell Lab to me. I don't know who is the legacy now... I wonder how IBM employees feel about their job.
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#5As opposed to doing what? Keeping these workers on board as an act of charity? IBM operates for the benefit of its shareholders, not its employees; also, water is wet.
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#6This sucks for the people concerned. But IBM's core responsibility can't be to maintain comfortable jobs that aren't sufficiently profitable. The world has changed dramatically and IBM hasn't changed with it. The longer you go without shedding the dead weight, the more painful it gets, but you still have to do it.
The article suggests that shedding jobs equals not investing in the future, while also mentioning several paragraphs later that IBM is investing billions in new business areas. Increasing EPS means freeing up more cash to invest.
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#7When your compensation consists of $500,000 fixed salary with bonus of $2 mil - $5 million, naturally you're going obsess over Wall Street numbers. I think executives should be penalized for layoffs, because with proper resource management, layoffs can be greatly minimized. In fact, EPS increase through asset sales, layoffs, stock buyback should all count against their bonus figures.
> with proper resource management, layoffs can be greatly minimized.
This is a pretty bold assertion. We're not talking about a few jobs at the margin, eg. one report speaks of 25% of the hardware business.
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#8"Employees in the US, and in those small towns, also say they’re unhappy that IBM is shrinking in America while outsourcing to countries like India."
Aren't they laying off in India now too?
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#9Rather like when the GMG (guardians parent) let those staff go in some of the local press they own when the margins went down for local newspapers?
Re: IBM fires small-town workers
#10To me, IBM is a dead company, no matter how cool Watson is. My perception of IBM is a consultant company. While IBM research still makes tons of awesome progress in AI and security, IBM looks like GE and Bell Lab to me. I don't know who is the legacy now... I wonder how IBM employees feel about their job.
So GE is also a dead company?