Re: The irony is if they were firing based on age discrimination.
"Personally (on the management side) I'd rather tie wages directly to PRODUCTIVITY, whenever that's possible. If that is the case, just be honest with people who's wage-to-productivity ratio isn't so hot... (and THAT becomes the criteria for layoffs)."
In any business the size of IBM this is nearly an impossible task that results in a compensation plan that is purely based on some committee's scheme of measuring productivity. Over 36 years I witnessed many attempts to measure productivity all of which failed by the second year after implementation because the "measure-ees" were far better at math that the plan builders and "measure-ers" by finding ways to double count positives. It finally occurred to corporate executives that worker payroll costs were diminishing profits.
In 2004 after years of somewhat lucrative "separation packages" for employees near to or illegible for retirement, the finance people took over the "services division." They immediately took action to correct the problem that IBM's hourly rates were no longer competitive. That resulted in most of the top two tiers of consultants and specialists being adjusted one level down with appropriate reductions in pay if so indicated. This was NOT an option to voluntarily work for less money but an authoritarian fiat the result of which was the loss of nearly all of the most experienced and skilled employees by year end.
As a stock holder and an ex-employee that had no trouble finding another company that would pay me nearly the same as IBM this was "goodness." To IBM customers, IBM was no longer the company that hired the best, expected them to remain the best and compensated them as the best but had become a company that was the "industry average."
It had become too expensive to have highly skilled experienced employees in a business that had become very competitive. For many years they were able to hide the age discrimination behind downsizing. They seem to have run out of excuses.
As the industry changed survival required that "Big Blue" change as well. It's sad but that's capitalism.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
