IBM

The people that I worked with are great, talented, and committed individuals.

There are more than one leader there I would be willing to take a pay cut to work for again.

The projects were challenging, and because of those leaders, I was able to constantly grow.

The best one even pushed me hard out of my comfort zone to grow faster.

There is a wide disconnect between the partners and their direct reports who run the day-to-day efforts of getting results for the clients, and the middle and upper management. It has gotten worse over time.

Being a high-performing individual is no protection against being laid off as part of a broad action based solely on band or job title. If your larger group missed earnings, good luck.

The wholesale elimination of a large number of skilled people who are productive, billable, and positive to the bottom line is very surprising. While I understand the shift to Watson and other advanced analytics, IBM really missed an opportunity to be true to its heritage and to treat willing employees right.

Spinning off or selling the function would have taken more time and effort, but could have made at least some of the layoffs over the past two years neutral to the bottom line instead of a loss. It would have shown to current and former employees that IBM leadership still believes that it is the employees that drive value at IBM, not human cogs.