IBM Software mandates in-office work for employees living within 50 miles | "Software Executive Focals" will be laying down the law
IBM Software mandates in-office work for employees living within 50 miles | "Software Executive Focals" will be laying down the law
The Register reports that IBM Software's Kareem Yusuf, senior VP for product management, and Dinesh Nirmal, senior VP for products, gave employees the bad news in an...
IBM Software mandates in-office work for employees living within 50 miles | "Software Executive Focals" will be laying down the law::undefined
Yet another company doing RTO layoffs to avoid paying severance
Financials coming up too. Got to make it look like they're 'taking action' on poor performance.
I hate how inhumane money makes us.
It's odd too. A lot of places have offices in various cities too. So you can live in one city, and your team works in a different city or state. So their micromanaging isn't possible since you'll be at a completely different office. It just doesn't make sense. So we enter the "quiet layoff" stages.
Next headline will read, "Have companies started their own version of quiet quitting by forcing employees back to the office in an effort to get them to quit or he fired."
Yeah my company’s office is 20 miles from where I live. I rarely go into the office, usually just for company events. Because the entire team I manage is based in India… so I would just be going into the office to have virtual meetings there instead of where I live. Thankfully they are on a fully remote policy, if they decided to change that I’d probably seek another job
Now now, some of the executives probably sincerely miss harassing their employees.
100%
Is there any case law on whether RTO constitutes constructive dismissal for unemployment purposes?
Nah. The managers prefer in-office and companies are addicted to "corporate culture" which they can't control if you're working from home.
It has nothing to do with firing people (unless you want the most competent people to quit) nor does it have anything to do with real estate (no company will try to help fix a collective action problem voluntarily unless the attempt gives good PR or profits)
You don’t triple your software output by going to the office. You can improve it by getting developers uninterrupted time with a healthy line of workable items ahead of them.
This is probably going to have the opposite effect they desire.
I'm at a near FAANG sized software company and the CEO literally tells us he knows we will take a hit to productivity. Even goes as far to say "we're profitable, this isn't about profitability, it's about working together".
This is after laying off almost 10% of the company earlier this year.
They just want to be able to pin the mega offices they own onto "expenses for employees" and make the chart look better. Line goes up and all.
Quality of life is worse, productivity is worse, it’s more expensive. It’s a nice way to increase costs.
So many positive reasons.
What Im realizing is that they still win even if the product gets worse. They don't care about the product. They care about the short term gains that come from fucking around with their bottom line expenses and then presenting that to shareholders as value gain.
Modern day capitalism rewards nothing of value.
I'm a senior backend coder, and there's nothing I love more than knowing what I need to do, knowing how to do it and a day with no meetings. Everything else is garbage that needs to be minimized if you want me to work at my maximum capacity, so I have to assume anyone who adds garbage wants something other than for me to be maximally efficient.
I've left two jobs in the last three years over RTO and the org I work for now has a PO box for mail and no physical office.
“Boomer company pushes boomer policies, more at 10.”
more at 9
The boomers are in bed by 10
Time to move farther away from the office.
Say... 51 miles?
What a stupid policy.
Incredibly
Now I wonder if it is like road miles or... direct line in a map.
If we want to maintain the flexibility of working both remotely and in the office, we must be better stewards of getting into the office
I don't want to maintain the flexibility of working both remotely and in the office, I just want to work remotely
It is vital to our culture and our shared goals – tripling development output, building winning products, and winning new clients – that we spend more meaningful time together, in-person
Same idiotic nonsense repeated by all corpos. Just because you said it, doesn't make it true. Also, what "culture" are you talking about? You are a corporation making software etc.
Right now, 1 in 4 of you are working in the office three days a week. By October, we want to see that number closer to 3 in 4. We appreciate your attention and support
These are people, not numbers. What "support" are you appreciating exactly? Is the office return a voluntary action that will help support the company or is this a business order? Cut the bullshit and name things properly.
Wow, yet another industry-trailing company showing why they are no longer relevant in big tech. They just sell overpriced garbage tech to other old, falling behind companies.
ProTip: Move.
Pro tip: move jobs
Yet another reason not to work for IBM (as if another one was necessary).
I have to assume somebody's done a cost analysis on rto and determined that keeping their boots on our necks is more profitable in the long run than employees being happier and more productive.
This just layoffs with a different name.
And no severance payout
IBM is the poster child for never considering the long term effects of its actions. At one point or another in history, IBM was the #1 company making software, databases, managed compute, personal computers, servers, Unix, laptop computers, servers.
I have to assume somebody's done a cost analysis
I don't get why you assume there's a cost analysis that could be accurate over the reported productivity increases of working remotely.
It's likely the obvious, a change that isn't good but it's done anyway because people in a company often do not do what's good for the company, they chase what's good for them personally.
Yeah they're going to drive down costs by having employees quit due to RTO 🤣
Has any one company lost more marketshare than IBM?
Xerox, maybe. They invented the future, then said "eh it'll never catch on" and gave up on it.
Gotta justify all those facilities expenses!
IBM's so old they make money from leasing their properties.
My company has a mandatory 3 days in office policy already. However, they haven’t given any details about how it’s calculated.
If I have a vacation Monday & Tuesday do those count toward my days or not? If not what if I’m out Monday - Wednesday? We have unlimited PTO so there is no formal record keeping of my days off. How does my boss (or whoever is counting my days) factor in considering my PTO? If I did 5 days one week does that mean I could do 1 day the next week? What about traveling for work?
50 miles! What a shit commute.
Keep in mind, this is apparently the same company who, back in the day, invited EVERYONE from a site into an all-hands meeting in their biggest room, then cut the power. They'd all been terminated without warning, and security guards with flashlights led each victim to their desks to pack up their personal gear and GTFO.