Company: IBM
Date: 2011-03-07
Overall rating: 2/5
Employment status: current

Unwilling to invest in people and tools
Pros: Ability to telecommute and flexibility in job hours is excellent.  There are a great many excellent technical leaders willing to mentor.  Clearly defined career paths for employees who are motivated by climbing the ladder.
Cons: Company is unwilling to back fill attrition.  They are also unwilling to invest in the hardware, tools, education and networking which will enable people to do their jobs well.  Very few expenditures are approved unless directly related to current quarter revenue.

Consequently, everyone is working harder than ever.  Due to annual layoffs, most organizations have retained only the highest quality workers.... but due to their inflexible "grading on a curve" review system, management is still required to give a certain percentage of workers below average performance reviews.  The bar is being raised every year and it's to the point where people have to work on their vacations or purchase their own equipment to even compete with their peers.  It's demoralizing to management as well as individual contributors.  

The habit of acquiring companies and then not investing in the technology also reduces morale for those people supporting the products.

IBM's focus on the bottom line is short sighted, and will likely cause a spiraling problem as the job market improves and quality technical resources leave.