IBM has, as you might have seen in the news or rumour mills, done another “resource action” — what folks colloquially call a “layoff”, though it doesn’t fit the usual meaning of the term (they won’t be rehiring the people when business gets better). I’ve learned that today is the last day of work for at least two of my former and valued colleagues from Research Division.
David Singer is a Distinguished Engineer at the Almaden Research Center in San Jose, CA. He’s in the IBM Academy of Technology, has been around since, it seems, before the Norman invasion, and has always been someone we could turn to for technical or business advice.
Nick Trio is a Senior Technical Staff Member, as I was when I left. He’s been on the Internet Society’s Advisory Council for some time, and has done work on IBM’s internal network and the Internet for many years. As with David, I’ve known him since I transferred to the Research Division, and have relied on him many times.
Once again, IBM is discarding its brightest, most experienced, most devoted technical experts in their effort to reduce U.S. staff and shift to Brazil, Russia, India, and China (“the BRIC”). It’s so sad, and it just seems the wrong decision.
5 comments:
Sad indeed. There are beans you can count, and beans you can't. The fact that uncountable beans are often more valuable is of no consequence, at least until it's too late.
Trivia: For many years, Nick was the one whose name showed up in the whois listing for the ibm.com domain.
Nowadays the listing contains only generic names and email addresses.
Thanks, Barry, for your kind words!
One small correction is necessary for accuracy:
%s/is/was/g
or if you prefer,
CHANGE /is/was/* *
-- David Singer
Indeed... at the time I wrote the post, “is” was correct. Now, it’s “was”.
An IBM source wrote me this:
« You wrote that IBM “won’t be rehiring the people when business gets better.” This is misleading because IBM’s business is going great. The only reason they’re laying people off is so that they can make even more profits by moving jobs abroad. »
Yes, true. I thought about that when I wrote that line, and considered mentioning IBM’s good business reports. I decided not to, but here it is now.
That makes this particular business decision, to dismiss some of the best people, all the more dubious.
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