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Hands up if you want to volunteer for layoffs, IBM tells staff (www.theregister.com)

submitted 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago) by misk@sopuli.xyz to c/technology@lemmy.world

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[-] GissaMittJobb@lemmy.ml 207 points 9 months ago

Among the ways you can do layoffs, this is one of the better ones for sure. People who are kind of checked out already anyway can get a nice paycheck on their way out and start looking for something new, while people who still have something important to get out of the job get the option to stay.

Consent matters!

[-] tabris@lemmy.world 63 points 9 months ago

I'm 4 weeks away from my voluntary redundancy. I was planning on leaving the job this year anyway, as I wanted to move, so to get a nice paycheck with it was a definite bonus.

Of the people that chose voluntary redundancy, it was mostly those without ties to the area, those that could move, young enough to re-skill, or old enough to retire. The ones that were forced into redundancy have families, mortgages, history in the area, enough baggage to cause inertia. Part of my reasoning to take the voluntary redundancy was to help save at least one person from that.

So absolutely, consent matters. It just sucks that this is happening at all.

The company's stated reasons for redundancy was to move skills to other locations in the country. This is after a year's long effort to co-locate in order to facilitate collaboration. What it really seems to be is that our location has very high staff retention, and therefore high salaries, and the company thinks it can hire younger and cheaper elsewhere. The skill and knowledge lost with this move is staggering, everyone can see that, but profit is the most important factor the company cares about, so it'll inflict its own wounds to get profit up. Capitalism is weird.

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[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 9 points 9 months ago

My work did this a few years ago and one guy who was planning on retiring took it. He got a full extra year of pay and 2 or 3 years of medical insurance out of the deal.

[-] Woht24@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

Absolutely, I'd happily take a redundancy payout from my current job.

[-] InEnduringGrowStrong@sh.itjust.works 111 points 9 months ago

I mean if there are severance packages, I wouldn't say no.

[-] Bob_Robertson_IX@lemmy.world 44 points 9 months ago

I was laid-off in 2022 and got a pretty nice severance, and my new job pays 40% more. I wish I had known how relatively quickly I was going to find another job because I would have enjoyed my time off a lot more. I personally don't know anyone who has been laid-off and ended up worse off.

[-] june@lemmy.world 13 points 9 months ago

Hope that’s true for me! I’m 2 months in and no strong leads. Trying to work my network though.

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[-] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 10 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I was laid off from a big company in 2023, after being with them for 5 years. They told us in March, had it hang over our heads for 2 months, while they did rounds of layoffs. My coworker and myself got laid off finally at the very end. So did the guy I got hired, and had been with the company for like 3 years.

When I tell people I got laid off, they give me sympathy, but I tell them it's not that bad because due to a contract they had to give me 3 months notice in order to lay me off. My boss said I didn't have to work those 3 months, so it was a paid vacation. I also got like 12 grand in severance, and possibly 25 grand in benefits in an investment account. I can still get unemployment, which I'm on, and will run out soon. I've moved cities and haven't worked a day since the end of May 2023... I did live with my parents for 4 months though, I'm 38.

[-] mkukiwamagere@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

my friend was laid off last june by ibm and still hasn’t found a job

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[-] CrayonRosary@lemmy.world 109 points 9 months ago

This is called a VRIF, Voluntary Reduction in Force, and usually comes with a sizable severance. Lots of people close to retirement at my last job took the offer because it was worth it.

[-] pete_the_cat@lemmy.world 11 points 9 months ago

That's what I was looking for in the article but nothing is mentioned.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 81 points 9 months ago

Severance package? Unemployment? References?

Yeah, I'd take it.

[-] viking@infosec.pub 28 points 9 months ago

Unemployment and references should be the norm, nothing to request.

[-] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 9 points 9 months ago

Well unemployment is. Severance isn’t.

[-] Plopp@lemmy.world 6 points 9 months ago

That's probably why the person you replied to specifically left that one out when mentioning just the other two out of the three.

[-] Denkoyugo@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago

Was given the option about 6 years ago at IBM. Jumped at the opportunity, unfortunately wasn't approved. "no, we still have a lot of work for you"

Ended up leaving 3 months later, ah well

[-] abfarid@startrek.website 25 points 9 months ago

Didn't know Henry Cavill works at IBM.

[-] dexxen@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

🎵Throw some severance coin to your Witcher🎵

[-] tsonfeir@lemm.ee 22 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Can we all agree that photo was created by ChatGPT and not an artist. Maybe they ought to put their money where their mouth is.

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[-] Psiczar@aussie.zone 21 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

The picture is bullshit, most people taking voluntary severance would be giving each other high-five’s and pumping the air.

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[-] FartsWithAnAccent@lemmy.world 20 points 9 months ago

Wow, IBM is still around?

[-] shalafi@lemmy.world 29 points 9 months ago

Our tech leans heavily on AS400s, if you can believe that. And we have 98% market share in our space. They're complex, but they work, and don't fail.

[-] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

I worked with that and COBOL lol. I'll never be without a job I guess.

DB2 isn't terrible tbh but of course I want to use something like postgres if I had the choice.

[-] db2@lemmy.world 17 points 9 months ago

Yeah but they don't do anything anymore. They create nothing, they innovate nothing, they build nothing. They're a "service company" now. It's not at all a shock that they're failing to anyone but them themselves. IBM should never have green lit that brainless brain drain shift of focus.

[-] saltesc@lemmy.world 40 points 9 months ago

That's entirely untrue. IBM does mega projects and research for things the average consumer wouldn't know or care about. Their customer base is industries, not people.

[-] Albbi@lemmy.ca 39 points 9 months ago

An IBM Power9 supercomputer built in 2018 is #7 on the top500.org supercomputer list. That's not nothing.

Dunno if they're going anywhere now though or if that was their last hurrah.

[-] _NetNomad@kbin.run 37 points 9 months ago

they don't advertize it because they don't think its sexy or whatever but their mainframe business is still going strong if only because they're the last player left in the market

[-] lectricleopard@lemmy.world 31 points 9 months ago

Having worked for a couple chip design shops, and now at ibm... ibm is the one of a few companies pushing the envelope in chip design. You just don't need what they make, so you've never heard of it.

[-] habitualTartare@lemmy.world 28 points 9 months ago

Last I read IBM was one of the big companies pursuing R&D in quantum computers and such plus they have some software stuff like crimestat and the weather channel under their umbrella.

[-] iluminae@lemmy.world 23 points 9 months ago

As a IBM developer - ouch man, that hurts. I guess I'll just go back my job doing... nothing (actually sounds like a sweet job)

[-] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 9 points 9 months ago

You’ve experienced the Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory in practice. For all you know that statement could have been made by someone who’s never needed an IBM product/solution, or is 16, living in mummy and daddy’s basement. For those of us with 20+ years in software, we know what you do and contribute. While I may not always agree with the philosophies of IBM’s solutions, you fill a super important need in many areas where not that many people have the capability to play. I’ve hired from and lost people to IBM and have nothing but positive things to say; there’s very much a customer-focused execution culture.

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[-] avidamoeba@lemmy.ca 7 points 9 months ago

Fucking ignorant innuendo enjoyers, the lot of em. Badmouth IBM for enshitifying CentOS but "making nothing" .. yeah, no.

[-] Kumabear@lemmy.world 12 points 9 months ago

They also do quite a bit of engineering r&d stuff.

They just sell the licenses for their solutions and research now rather than directly making products from it.

[-] sunbeam60@lemmy.one 10 points 9 months ago

Fedora —> Red Hat —> IBM.

They are actually quite an innovation company and while their culture can be quite moribund in some of their offices, others are extremely buzzy places with lots of proud employees. It’s complicated, thus.

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[-] zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev 10 points 9 months ago

They do things like ruin CentOS and buy up and screw up smaller data center companies.

[-] AtmaJnana@lemmy.world 7 points 9 months ago

You just have no idea what they do, clearly. That doesn't mean they don't do anything.

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[-] nyakojiru@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 9 months ago

IBM already silently reduced more tan 5000 positions globally two years ago, creating a separate independent company called Kyndryl. Ernst and Young did the same before that, three years ago outsourcing half of the IT department. Silently.

[-] mesamunefire@lemmy.world 8 points 9 months ago

If someone volunteered to be laid off wouldn't that invalidate their unemployment?

[-] meco03211@lemmy.world 26 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

Generally it is proffered with a severance package that invalidates the unemployment. The package is likely better than what you'd get with unemployment and saves the company money by not increasing their unemployment insurance.

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[-] solidgrue@lemmy.world 5 points 9 months ago

AIBM Corp is a few years early in this timeline

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this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2024

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