IBM

Work from home

It wants more than 20 words, but currently, beyond having a paycheck and hunkering down, hoping the nightmare will end, there is very little else.

Long hours with no overtime pay. Shifts can last 20-70 hours at a time. 15-minute couch naps are considered okay.

Bonuses are a rarity.

Staff morale resembles that of a WW1 soldier in the trenches after a bombing. With such high turnover, everyone is wondering who is next.

No training. Although asked at the start of each year, training is a rarity. Think 40 hours are expected to be done on your own time.

Serious worker shortage often leads to canceled holidays.

Christmas bonus? Party? Gifts? Non-existent. For the past 5 years, building owners have thrown a Christmas luncheon for all building occupants. IBM is invited, and this appears to be IBM's idea of Christmas.

Last New Year's Day, employees called in for unexpected work. When complaints launched, the manager proclaimed this will provide good motivation not to drink on New Year's Eve.

Complaints to management on work conditions are often buried and never answered.

Work-life balance is non-existent, as you're often called in even when on holidays.

Benefits changed this past year and were added as a taxable benefit, then deducted as an expense.

Employee awards become taxable income. That $20 mouse pad as an award for good work will turn into $150 taxable income.

Most staff are waiting for an exit package, just biding time waiting for the offer to come.

The company needs to stop focusing on stock growth and focus on company growth.

Current direction is to grow stock value, through cannibalization.

Company needs to look to interrelations between departments to understand the relations in value.

The selling of the hardware divisions has led to the destruction of the lucrative Services Market. It has also lost the company's public brand value. Ask anyone under 30 who IBM is, and they either don't know or ask if the company still exists.

This is a major issue, as these people move up through companies to decision-makers.

A prime example: selling of US-based plants which made hardware components for IBM assembly. After the sale, component costs rose, driving down profit on assembled items. This resulted in the sale of the second division, which then resulted in the services attached to maintenance losing traction. This also results in software and software support services losing traction. And, after sales, competitors now have access to patent portfolios which allowed the company to have a market edge.

Stop concentrating on breaking down smaller and smaller cost centers.

Stop thinking about revenue generation, and concentrate on revenue retention.

Stop projects where one department rushes the work to look good, knowing the other department that takes over has a mess to clean up, but the cost of the mess shifts to the other department.