IBM

• Flexible hours and work from home.
• Good team, with access to lots of experts.
• Lots of tools available, although some are a little clunky.
• Get to work on new technology, always learning something new.
• Enjoyed most of my time working here, but things are changing...

• Dwindling US workforce
• Hesitancy of management to challenge poor direction
• US employee is led to feel like a liability rather than an asset
• Poor rating system. Stellar performances can still receive average ratings based on nebulous criteria. Analogy: A 98% can be an "A" or a "C" depending on who is sitting next to you.
• Morale is in the tank.
• The dogged focus on the 2015 Roadmap of $20 EPS is proving the downfall of this company.

The perception of priority from the onlooker is:

1. Stock price
2. Customers
3. (and last) Employees

Unfortunately, number one is being achieved by getting rid of number three. While there is lip service to number two, you need number three to satisfy number two. Read financial articles on IBM EPS goals and customer failures. Financial gurus are seeing right through it, and churn in the workforce is affecting customer satisfaction. Please set aside financial engineering and get back to product engineering.

IBM does not get it that the US employee brings something special to the table. The feeling is that the US employee is a liability, not an asset. Yes, it may cost a little more than other places, but you get a lot of bang for the buck. The company may come to realize this only after it is too late.

Amazon, Google, etc., are poaching some of the top talent away because they value trained US professionals. IBM here has not hired any full-time trained professionals in years in our area.

Give the US employee a reason to believe that he/she is a part of the solution, not the problem.