Company: IBM
Date: 2016-04-25
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current
Experience level: Senior

Technical editor
Pros: The people are the best thing about IBM. There are so many bright, ambitious people. The peoples arise when managers stifle the employee creativity. There are many opportunities, to move around within the company but the way to apply for internal postings automatically sends an email to your boss. Once they know you are looking things can go south. The technologies they are exploring are interesting but it is limited to certain teams.
Cons: The amount of red tape that is in the way of doing anything new or outside of the box is crazy. The senior management is old but they want to pretend they are new and cutting edge. The leadership leaves lots to be desired. 

The amount of paper pushing stifles creativity. We get hundreds of emails daily. It is overwhelming. Plus there is very little follow-through. They want teams to keep presenting new and exciting ideas but very little comes to fruition. It can be a very frustrating work environment. 

The ranking system has been a problem for many years. Employees are ranked against each other, which fosters competition, which kills collaboration. 

The rounds and rounds of layoffs is demoralizing.  Layoffs happen all the time and team dynamics are decimated. If they want true evaluation of people then they should create a 360 review process where everyone is judged on their behavior by all those they work with. The cream will rise to the top this way.