IBM

• Flexible hours
• Work from home
• Moderately good brand name (i.e., looks good on resume)

Horrible workload. 60+ hours is the normal work week expected. Anything less and you are classified as an 'underperformer'.

Salaries are very significantly under market rates.

Penny-pinching to the point of ridiculousness.

Virtually no pay raises or promotions for 95% of employees. The remaining 5% get promotions where pay increases by 2-3% for changing a complete band level (e.g., moving from 'Staff Software Engineer' to 'Advisory Software Engineer').

Annual bonuses are typically in the 3-4% range for almost all employees.

All perks (Thanks! awards, Breakfast-For-One $2.50 coupons, Christmas dinners, Year-Beginning meetings, etc.) have been cut.

Basically, since the former management instituted their 'financial roadmaps' for virtually doubling EPS, IBM has focused on one single thing: cut costs by any means necessary to achieve financial targets.

Droves and droves of smart people are leaving this company. The only ones left are those not so good that they cannot find good employment elsewhere.

Morale is at an absolute rock bottom.

• Follow Steve Jobs' advice on creating great products; the revenues and profits will then follow.
• Abandon this crazy obsession with increasing EPS by cutting costs by any means necessary. Focus instead on creating great products and increasing revenue.
• Treat employees like the founders (Watson Sr and Watson Jr) treated them. Stop treating employees like disposable, replaceable widgets.
• Pay salaries and compensation comparable to other companies. Paying under-market rates will never attract the best talent. You get what you pay for.