IBM

If you are prepared to play the political game, IBM can be a great place to work. There is certainly opportunity if you are prepared to hunt it out.

Don't expect advancement purely on merit; you need to fight for it. So, a brilliant employee who doesn't push or play politics will likely stay stuck in one role.

Middle management is generally very good. Something seems to go wrong at strategic/executive levels. The division I am in had two rounds of "resource actions" within two months – that cannot speak to good management.

There is a tendency for new acquisitions to be treated as "blue-eyed boys," but in forcing them into IBM culture, they tend to lose all the qualities that made them worth acquiring until they become the "red-headed stepchild."

More meaningful communication to employees, particularly about changes that impact them, such as "resource actions".

Only one manager in all my time called all-hands meetings to explain what was going on. All the other times, we found out when mail bounced from people who had left.