Company: IBM
Date: 2012-09-05
Overall rating: 4/5
Employment status: former
Experience level: Senior

It's not your Father's IBM
Pros: Back in the 90's IBM was a fantastic company. The benefits were great and though I worked with some managers with the 'old boy' mentality there were plenty with fresh views on management styles that were less autocratic. IBM's New Blue manager program promoted a more participative style of leadership.
Cons: By 2010 I could no longer stand the environment at IBM. I volunteered for a package because of the negative and toxic environment. There was a constant focus on improving numbers not improving processes and means for making numbers. This drove unhealthy behaviors because when numbers were bad you could count on layoffs. There became a pervasive fear that permeated the  environment and as a result most people slowed down, extended work out to make it go further and take longer in order to boost utilization numbers. There was no interest in improving anything only to protect your job.
My projection for the business outlook is down, which may not be the case in actual numbers, but they play numbers games, what you see is not reality.