Company: IBM
Date: 2008-11-23
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current

Look elsewhere if you want an employer who will value and respect you.
Pros: IBM offers a very flexible work schedule for many non-exempt employees.  The workplace environment is surprisingly laid back.  Many corporate procurement discounts are available for employee personal use.
Cons: Prepare to be smothered by seven to ten levels of management, depending on which IBM division you are in. At IBM you will be treated like an object, not a person.  There are no "people" or "employees" at IBM (at least in the US). At IBM you are a "resource" with a six digit serial number.  You will have no incentive to improve your skills or do the best work you can.  Regardless of your accomplishments or contributions to IBM, you will always be looking over your shoulder and waiting for the axe to fall.  IBM senior management gives a glowing report to Wall Street every quarter and then does a 180 spin internally to say how tough times are and we must keep cutting costs, we have no money for education, raises, profit sharing, etc. Medical benefits decrease every year.  Prepare to go multiple years with zero raises and you may just get a 15% salary cut.  Good luck with attempting to order supplies needed to do your job such as a notepad or pens.  Four levels of management approval are required to buy a pen.  IBM upper management is completely detached from how the actual business operates and works.  Upper management management blindly issues directives to cut a certain percentage of headcount in rolling "resource actions" (terminations) and other expense with zero insight into how this actually impacts the work being done.  Upper management is essentially in a sealed bubble, isolated from reality and focussed solely on two items: This quarter's earnings & the stock price.  There is absolute blindness beyond the current quarter.  No consideration is given to the future business impact of continuing to destroy employee morale and continuing loss of skills in IBM due to constant job reductions in the US in favor of cheaper "resources" in foreign countries ("Global Resources or GRs" in IBM speak).  The remaining IBM US employees who are still employed (for now) are working more hours than ever before to not only do their primary job but to deal with problems created by GRs.