IBM – “Like Chinese water torture - drip drip drip”

Pros

If you can start as an executive (VP in IBM speak) you can do no wrong. Mistakes are rewarded, and successes are greatly rewarded. If you are not a VP you will work with some of the smartest, nicest (for the moment) and least appreciated people you can imagine. But that is changing. The IBM US corporate culture used to be a culture of cooperation and working together for the benefit of all, and some of the old-timers still have that attitude lingering around. Try to work with them if you can find them, but their numbers are dwindling because . . .

Cons

The current IBM US culture is a culture of open competition beneath a veneer of civility. The 'nice guys' get laid off, leaving the schemers and back-stabbers and team leaders who understand that whomever reports the status of a project controls who stays and who goes. Lies are commonplace as no one ever tells bad news. Low level management is swamped, impotent, and powerless. Yearly appraisals are a farce - the ten percent 'fast-trackers' are openly praised and rewarded and everyone else is left alone or fired. There is no 'meritocracy' at IBM. A true meritocracy would know that it is possible for everyone to be meritorious, especially if you have hired the best people there are.

At IBM the appraisal system is more of a lottery where one out of ten is treated as a champion and everyone else, the other 90 percent, are considered not good enough. The 90 percent, the serfs, are expected to fight amongst themselves and compete for the prized top spots. Since the contest for top dog is rigged and secret with no clear metrics, the serfs pretty much ignore the ratings and do what they can. Why work hard when you aren't rewarded? Why work hard when It is easier to play games and surf the web and grab open source stuff and pass problems around. If your job is a game of musical chairs for a year and a mad scramble at the end to pick the loser then why bust your butt? If the stock slumps no matter what you do then why bust your butt? If the company doesn't care about you then why care about the company?

Layoffs are kept as secret as possible and happen quarterly. Actually the IBM management style is mostly secretive. Metrics change. What was good last year is bad this year. You never know where you stand. You may get a bonus 'variable pay' or get laid off. Management, even first line managers, are always 'somewhere else' talking about 'something else' and are hidden as much as possible. As a result fear is commonplace. It is every man for himself and nobody really knows what 'doing a good job' means anymore. Some of the best and brightest are layed off so what exactly does 'doing a great job' mean?

Advice to Senior Management

I don't know if it is a blessing or it is a curse to have the knowledge of how great IBM used to be and how far IBM has fallen.

You should be ashamed of yourselves, every one of you. Shame on you. You have taken a great company and turned it into nothing but a 'business case' for enriching yourselves at the expense of the workers, the customers, and the stockholders. You have lost touch with your humanity and you are cowardly hiding behind your layers of PR and huge layers of bureaucracy.

During the Great Depression TJ chose to have himself and IBM be a leader. Now, at a time of similar need, you are showing your true nature and vision and it is sadly, sadly lacking. You think Africa is the growth market for IBM? You ignore the big, big changes that are already starting regarding the end of cheap energy and the need for carbon caps and smart grids?!

IBM is getting none of the recent stimulus money from the US government?!

Sadly, the answer is that IBM is nothing anymore, IBM is just another poorly run company with no vision and no leader trying to optimize an outdated and failed business model. It is like IBM is being run by Republicans who think the answers to the future lie in the past, and that is very sad. It is very sad to see such a great company fall so very far.