Glassdoor Blog » IBM

March Review of the Month

Glassdoor Team — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 15:55:18 +0000

Following the heels of yesterday’s news announcement that IBM would not be acquiring Sun Microsystems, the winner of our March Review of the Month and a $500 cash reward just happens to be a recent IBM Advisory Hardware Engineer in Research Triangle Park, NC. The winner of the Review of the Month summarizes IBM with these few words: “Great people, great benefits, performance review process needs a change.”

The winning review offers useful insights as to what keeps IBM employees satisfied and what areas in the work environment need some improvement. In addition this review gives anyone looking for a job at IBM some real valuable pointers as to how to manage their career and what to be prepared for in terms of negotiations. This employee notes in their advice to senior management a constructive tip on how to improve the review process – something a job candidate could question in an interview:

“Go back to a review system where employees work with their managers to define their goals, and are rated based on how well they met those goals – not in comparison with what their peers are doing.”

In addition, the winning company review cautions colleagues and future job candidates on the ‘relative contribution’ element of performance reviews:

“The ‘relative contribution’ element of the employee review creates competition among coworkers, and if business conditions limit the opportunities available on a project, senior engineers can further limit these opportunities by taking on tasks that lower bands could assume – they need to in order to improve their own “relative contribution”.

Another thing that helps to make this a great review, beyond the warning signs, is the clear list of perks, including:

“Talented employees – coworkers are supportive and willing to provide guidance when asked.”
“The IBM Club provides opportunities to network as well as provide work/life balance.”
“The ability to use flex time/telecommute is a real plus.”
“No fixed number of sick days – no, you can’t have a cold for a month, but when you’re sick, stay home (statistics say fewer sick days are actually taken with this policy).”

Not to mention that this employee gives compensation & benefits a satisfied (4.5) rating.

Curious about what others think about the company and the industry? Check out the more than 750+ IBM company reviews to find out why employees give the company a neutral (3.2) company rating and give IBM CEO Samuel J. Palmisano a 41% approval rating. Here are just a few sample highlights of what other IBM employees say:

March Review of the Month is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Layoffs Hit Thousands at IBM and Agilent: Why is High Tech Getting Hit so Hard?

Glassdoor Team — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 16:51:25 +0000

Within the past 24 hours the tech world has taken another hit in terms of job layoffs. Between two well known companies, IBM and Agilent, there will be more than 7,700 employees laid off. According to BNET, layoffs in January and February [in high tech were] almost quadruple those in the full first quarter of 2008 and far in excess of the portion of the economy that the sector represents.

On Wednesday, IBM announced that they would be cutting an additional 5,000 jobs. This represents about 4% of IBM’s U.S. workforce, which totaled 115,000 at the end of 2008. IBM has about 400,000 employees worldwide.

And today Agilent announced that they would be cutting 2,700 hundred jobs which accounts for 14% of their workforce.

Glassdoor Report: Agilent & IBM Ratings
Company	Company Rating	CEO Name	CEO Rating
Agilent	3.5	Bill Sullivan	54%
IBM	3.2	Samuel J. Palmisano	42%

BNET reporter Eric Sherman has drawn three conclusions as to why the high tech industry has been more significantly hit than other industries:

High tech companies are over-reacting.
The industry is being hit particularly hard by the slowdown.
Tech companies had over-hired and are using the recession as an excuse to purge.

Is this reporter right? Below are a few comments from employees at Agilent and IBM that talk about the state of the economy and layoffs – why do you think the high tech industry is feeling the burn more than others?

“When times are good, we have keggers; when times are bad, management bends over backwards to keep from having to make layoffs.” – Agilent Research Scientist (Santa Clara, CA)

“They’d [Senior Management] rather whine about their jobs than simply pack up and go. The senior management subconsciously acknowledges this and seems to exploit this by down-sizing the employee benefit package (salary and health plan) all in the names of “reacting to this turbulent economy” knowing the employees would have no other place to go anyway.” – Agilent Engineer (Santa Rosa, CA)

In advice to senior management an IBM Senior Program Manager (Somers, NY) writes:”If America goes totally in the toilet, then you’ll end up having to move the IBM HQ (and your families) overseas — so please, get with the program and stop propping up the stock price on the shoulders of thousands of laid off American (IBM) workers.”

“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.” – IBM Advisory Software Engineer (Rochester, MN)

“The CEO describes layoffs as ‘business as usual’.” – IBM Staff Software Engineer

Layoffs Hit Thousands at IBM and Agilent: Why is High Tech Getting Hit so Hard? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Sun Finds a Buyer: Is Anyone Surprised?

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 18:49:06 +0000

WSJ reported IBM is considering a $6.5 billion cash bid for Sun, a nearly 100 percent premium to its Tuesday close. Sun had reportedly been shopping itself to larger rivals for some time.

Reviews show that a potential buyout was not exactly a well-kept secret…

A marketing manager at Sun recently reported on Glassdoor.com that “Sun is now becoming a fading light and is slowly eroding. It is being overshawdowed by IBM, HP and others.” In addition a Sun Product Manager describes the company as “A Shadow of its former self”

Also it’s interesting to note that Sun’s CEO Jonathan Swartz is among the 50 lowest rated CEOs (with at least 25 reviews) based on employee feedback.

Glassdoor Report: IBM & Sun
	Company Rating	CEO Name	CEO Rating
IBM	3.2	Samuel J. Palmisano	42%
Sun	3.1	Jonathan I. Schwartz	25%

Over the past few months, we have reported on various buyout and CEO transitions. Kara Swisher, who called this deal between Sun and IBM a few weeks ago, says more big tech deals could be on the way, including a possible pairing between Google and Twitter. Big things are yet to come down the pike, and Glassdoor’s finger will be on the pulse of what the employees have to say.

Sun Finds a Buyer: Is Anyone Surprised? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog