IT deserves better than IBM or Microsoft

I thought I was done beating on IBM for its atrocious behavior. You probably remember the company suggesting that laid off workers pull up stakes and move to India and that others who want to keep their jobs accept forced moves across the country.

IBM isn’t the only company acting badly, of course. It’s happening across the economy and across the country.

[ As the recession deepens, IT faces fears and losses. But there are hopeful glimmers as well. ]

More “beat up the employees” behavior at IBM

I’ll get to Microsoft in a bit, but first consider this cautionary tale about what’s happening to those of us who manage to stay employed.

The e-mail actually came from the IBM employee’s husband. I won’t jeopardize her remaining job security by publishing a name, but here’s what he had to say. (The caps for emphasis are his.)

• An employee must maintain a minimum of 44 BILLABLE hours a week.
• Previously provided training, sick time, vacation, holidays, breaks, etc. ARE NOT billable, therefore must be accomplished on your own time.
• Oh yeah, if you are the bottom with 50+ billable hours, you are still a 3 performer and ripe for the guillotine.

He further notes, “She works 60-plus hours a week, 12 to 14 hours a day, taking the daylight hours of Sunday off. Often she works overnight for the unappreciative SOBs. If she didn’t work from home I would be convinced she was having an affair.”

More of IBM’s family values

When someone loses his job, it’s often a whole family that suffers. Consider this awful story from G.R., who wrote me a few days ago:

I was laid off from East Fishkill IBM after 28 years of excellent service! Two kids, 18 and 13. One going to college. I was an equipment maintenance tech. We get our medical benefits from my wife, who is a teaching assistant. She may be losing her job because of N.Y. State budgets problems … which it looks like will happen even though Obama’s package went through. At that point, I cannot pick up IBM transition benefits because I didn’t already have them.

Health care, reform, anyone?

Then there’s L.S., who wonders if “IBM” stands for “I Barely Matter.” She writes: “We have been given nothing in writing regarding the relocation, not even the name of a Realtor. We are being asked to give a year commitment to Boulder [Colo.], but IBM will give us no commitment that we have a job for 1 month or 3 months or 6 months or anything. There is even question on salary being lowered because there are job postings for the Boulder positions at a much lower [salary] band level than the current folks being asked to move.”

Just how cheap is Microsoft?

And then there’s Microsoft trying to take money back from people it had just fired. Sure, the company ultimately did the right thing and relented — but only after a wave of terrible publicity. You don’t get too much credit for not committing a crime because the police happened to show up. (Yes, I understand that Microsoft was legally entitled to get its money back. So what?)

In case you missed it, here’s what happened: On Feb. 18, Microsoft’s HR department sent a letter to some recently laid-off employees, announcing that “an inadvertent administrative error occurred that resulted in an overpayment in severance pay by Microsoft. We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to you.”

Remember, this was the first major layoff in the history of Microsoft, so those getting the axe must have been even more shell-shocked than those of us who have seen this movie before.

Here’s what one furious ex-Microsoftie had to say in an e-mail reprinted on TechCrunch: “Right away I was angry because when I got my severance check, I immediately created a budget to stretch this out as long as possible. I know we’re in a recession now, and I don’t know how long I’ll be unemployed. And now here comes this letter totally destroying the budget, and on top of that, there’s no detailed information on how the error occurred, no details breaking down the severance pay.”

Experience counts — or should

I’ve gotten dozens of e-mails (not to mention hundreds of comments on our Web site) like the handful I’ve quoted. It’s striking and probably not surprising that many older workers are being pushed out. The human cost of this is obvious, but the broader social cost is sometimes overlooked.

Consider two recent incidents that have nothing to do with IT, but that everything to do with the value of experience.

[ Age discrimination in IT is an old story. ]

We all applaud the actions of 58-year-old Chesley Sullenberger, the pilot who successfully ditched a U.S. Airways flight in the Hudson River. He pointed out in testimony to a Congressional committee this week that the draconian cutbacks in the airline industry are forcing out the most experienced pilots. Without the veterans, he said, “We will see negative consequences to the flying public.”

“Negative consequences” is right. With all due respect to the relatively young pilots who died in the tragedy in Buffalo earlier this month, it seems quite possible that a more experienced flight crew might have averted the crash. Again, there’s no criticism here — no one really knows what happened or could have been done at this point. But it’s important to realize that experience and judgment count — and that’s not necessarily reflected on the spreadsheet when the bottom line is at stake.

I welcome your comments, tips, and suggestions. Reach me at bill.snyder@sbcglobal.net.