Company: IBM
Date: 2011-09-17
Overall rating: 3/5
Employment status: current

Varies from site to site and department to department
Pros: . Good work/life balance
. Reasonable workload
. Good people to work with in my immediate area
. First-line management is supportive
. Flexible hours
. The ability to work from home
. You don't have to dye your hair to keep your job
Cons: Upper management makes screwy decisions in how it handles working conditions.  Several examples:
. No coffee or tea is provided.  Period.
. Many jobs are offshored, including in-house support to less-than-competent folks in Bangalore.
. Remote groups try to dictate what tools (hardware and software) folks must use to get their work done -- whether or not it makes sense. Some of these tools lower productivity.
. Direction regarding product design, marketing, and documentation styles is scattered and ambiguous. There are so-called "official" sites, and there are just as many sites that co
. Office space varies from private offices to microscopic (6ft x 6ft) cubicles, depending upon your site (Almaden vs First St).

I'm stuck in one of the microscopic cubicles in the First Street office, and it's really hard to get any work done in a workspace that is simultaneously cramped (no room for a guest chair or a whiteboard) and way too open (everyone walking by can see into your work area). Supposedly this is "IBM's new standard."  If you work from home, you can't interact with anyone, but if you work on site, no one is there to interact with because THEY'RE working from home.