IBM

IBM has a pretty good benefits program: 401k, good health insurance, and some nice on-the-job perks like access to online books, etc. It's not at the Google level with free food and transportation, but it's better than a lot of other companies and government jobs.

We haven't made our numbers--which are set unreasonably high--in 15 years, giving management an excuse every year to shortchange our bonuses and raises. Morale in STG is the lowest in the company, for good reason. We're constantly being told that we need to work harder to meet our numbers and be rewarded, but most of us are already working 50-70 hour weeks for pay far below market rates. The real problem is the short-sightedness of management, a common IBM problem. As an example, look at how poorly IBM's PC business did compared to Dell in the computer boom era. And yet IBM invented the PC! Now IBM mainframes and microelectronics are going down the same path. So sad.

As a child growing up in the early days of the computer age, an IBM job was my dream.

I used to be amazed at the constant breakthroughs and whiz-bang tech coming out of the great minds of IBM. So a career at IBM was a given for me.

But now, I feel the Systems and Technology group is but a mere shell of that former great company, and I'm certainly not inspired by what I see.

Executives occasionally come give us pep talks, to tell us how rosy the future is at IBM. But the sad thing is that those glitzy presentations feature slide after slide of all the promising opportunities in software and services. None of it is in hardware.

When pressed, the execs admit that IBM's future is not in hardware. But we're apparently still important enough to be dragged along, albeit without awards, recognition, or competitive pay.

Managers know the cause behind the morale issues but refuse to address it. Instead, they tell us all will be better if we improve meeting effectiveness.

For all the talk about honesty being a key "Foundational Competency", the executives have yet to deliver an honest speech about the future of STG or the salary situation.