Via Insty comes this belated news:
IBM faces age bias complaints in arbitration and court proceedings by former employees across the country. A former IBM vice president of human resources said in a court deposition in one of the cases that the company faced talent recruitment problems and determined one way to show millennials that IBM was not “an old fuddy duddy organization” was to make itself appear “as [a] cool, trendy organization.”
In one email chain, an International Business Machines Corp. official described a plan to “accelerate change by inviting the ‘dinobabies’ (new species) to leave” and turn them into an “Extinct species,” according to the filing. Company officials also complained about IBM’s “dated maternal workforce” that “must change,” and discussed frustration that IBM had a much lower share of millennials in its workforce than a competitor, but said its share would increase following layoffs, according to the filing.
Of course, IBM denies all this, oh no we’d never do a thing like that:
An IBM spokesperson said in a statement that the company never engaged in systematic age discrimination and it terminated employees because of changing business conditions, not because of their age. In 2020, the median age of IBM’s U.S. workforce was 48, the same as it was in 2010, according to the statement.
The spokesperson also said the language cited in the emails “is not consistent with the respect IBM has for its employees and as the facts clearly show, it does not reflect company practices or policies.”
Lying cocksuckers.
It’s an open secret that old farts get shafted in today’s workplace: “Become a Wal-Mart greeter” used to be the dismissive term leveled at us. Only now (at the Wal-Marts around my house anyway), the cheery old duffers who waved you in and checked your Sam’s Club purchases on the way out have all — all — been replaced by younger Indians and “efnicks”.
Fuck all of you corporate assholes, and enjoy the taste on your tongues as you lick the rank feet of Millennial wokedom.
I hope you all die painfully.
I can attest. I worked for IGS (Intragrated Global Systems – onsite IT guys) after my former company believed International Bowel Movement’s song and dance all the money they could save going with them.
It never panned out – it cost twice as much, and we did half of what we used to do “per the contract”. But, the beancounters got their scalps, and their write-offs\tax breaks, and we got the shaft.
We were ‘guaranteed’ 2 years of employment when we signed, then it would be ‘reviewed’. At the 12 month mark, it began as ‘disciplinary’ issues, then ‘work performance’ and other buzzwords. Out of the 60 odd techs that went over, we began to notice the older of us seemed to go first. Seemed odd, until it was my turn – I was 45.
When I left there was 17 out of the 60-odd still remaining. And, they were women and young males.
This has been going on at I’ve Been Moved for a long, long time. It happened to my father and all of his cohorts when they were “offered” early retirement in the 80s. Experience and accumulated knowledge means nothing once you are in your 50s in today’s corporate world.
Wait, You mean Big Blue is still in Business???? I though they died off years ago. I sold all my shares 20 years ago.
Anyway, a lot of this BS was started by Jack Welch at GE ( when it was a shining Star ). Welch told all his managers replace 15% of their staffs every year, and if they were the “More expensive” personnel that was even better…….. then he cashed out before it all came apart.
…… Straight White Males are well on their way to becoming an endangered species. Only when we do we still won’t be getting any privileges back.
Nothing new, my dad went thru the same thing 40 years ago. People with 20-40 years company time are expensive, maxed out on career advancement and benefits and typically are rather cynical about their job and company.
Hire the newbie who thinks they will change the world, work for less money and maybe malleable to all the corporate bull shit.
It was a kick in the teeth to my dad who was a company man his whole working life. My brother and I learned a valuable lesson from his experience.
I work for a big rainbowcorp competitor to IBM.
We’re about to do our yearly ‘career planning’ thing. The whole program is geared to millennial women, especially the vibrant ones if I am to believe the snazzy graphics.
Funny thing, though, institutional knowledge is a thing. Oh, they crow about ED&I but appear to have done fuck-all for it. Unless you count our e-team becoming more gynocentric.
My boss was floored that I brought in a project exactly when I said I would. For the next two phases, she asked when I thought I’d be done. I said “I dunno, end of February?”
Blown away. I don’t see why. I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I spend half my time farting around and still get done in a few weeks what millennial women would take months.
I’m a SWM, hanging in there & pushing 70. Retirement is bullshit & the only true retirement is when you’re in the dirt bed , the urn, if that’s the case or if you become a cadaver. I’m in a niche position & it’s going to be hard to replace me, given the conditions of the job. Besides that, I really enjoy going to work every morning. As far as Social Security & my other plans, they can wait. I’ve been paying into SS since ’69 so why hurry to collect. It’s only going to get taxed anyway. The only concerns now, staying healthy, physically fit & waiting for the STHF.
corporate walmart is the same way. Had two relatives get let go once they hit a certain age. A relative was waiting outside for one or both of them while visiting the area. At quitting time, the exodus of people left the building and my relative noticed there weren’t many older people in the crowd. I saw a large pharamceutical company do the same thing
JQ
It happened at HP too. At least 3 people I know were dropped about 2 years shy of 20 years. I attributed that to plain greed. But during my tenure there, the IT departments started to get led by diversity metrics rather than competency, so when the diversity gravy train went offshore, all these types went to other local companies where they failed spectacularly. HP and the wanna woke silicon valley shit heels and their acolytes can eat a dick as far as I am concerned. But you don’t really help anyone letting people who can’t swim think they are Olympic class swimmers.
Horrifying thing is, if some of the anecdotal stories I hear are true, it’s happening in the .mil too. That’s going to have unfortunate consequences.
Yep, nothing new. In 1992, My dad, after years of service in a large corporation that handled everything from tinned meats, to soap to interstate busses, started moving him under different supervisors, each one generating a less than stellar performance report. He’s also one of the folks that often couldn’t take vacation when he wanted because he was too valuable for a project and not replaceable.
6 months prior to being eligible to retire they terminated him (and a large bunch of other folks with similar seniority).
So to this day I don’t buy products from the producers of dogs kids love to bite.
I was fortunate enough to retire from a “gummint job” under the old civil service retirement system. So I get a decent amount of money just to sit home and drink beer with a yearly cost of living raise. I also have a tax free VA disability and some social security – not as much as I earned but the (spit) congress critters decided that hard working double dippers like me “made too much money”. Should the government go under I’ve got lots of ammunition and about six months of food – and enough ammo to get more.
As I learned about all of this age thing I came to the conclusion that unless you were like an army issue rifle – “It won’t work and you can’t fire it” – you really have to look out for yourself. People have to build up a good retirement plan and not depend on the goodness of a company who will throw you under the bus in a New York minute. I think that I’m in reasonably shape and should things go to shite I’ll have fun shooting the people who richly deserve it.
I’ve seen it happen to plenty of my peers, but I’m on the north side of 70 and still working at the company to which I was outsourced from the first job I had after the Marine Corps. That may be coming to an end since our contract isn’t being renewed, but I was luckier than any of the people I worked with. I have to thank ITAR regulations, which means only a citizen can do my job. Forty five years and never a day unemployed. I guess dinosaurs are hard to kill.