IBM

Interesting projects, freedom to explore, nice colleagues, well-meaning management, flexible work schedule.

Fixation around short-term earnings has resulted in an anorexia, where the company is starving its employees and customers in favor of gorging its shareholders. The impact has been a finance-driven company that is losing its core strength in engineering and innovation, as current talent leaves and new talent stays away. Although there are many talented and potentially dedicated employees (including managers) remaining, there's a pervasive sense that the company has pivoted away from nurturing talent and caring for its employees. As a result, morale is generally very low, as employees feel stupid giving their all to a company that has elected not to reciprocate. Although this dynamic is widely recognized within the company, by not directly communicating about and addressing these issues, senior management seems to have abandoned the ship.

Communicate openly and directly about morale issues. Redirect the company from focusing first on EPS to focusing first on customers and employee talent and well-being. Growth and earnings should be a side-effect of customer satisfaction, technical innovation, and employee engagement. Strive to compete with the best of breed – Google, Facebook, etc. – on employee compensation, benefits, work environment, ownership, etc.