
IBM Bans Remote Work Company Wide – Move or Leave - pinewurst
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/02/09/ibm_workfromhome_cull_companywide/
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ikeyany
> In a video message to her troops, seen by The Register, chief marketing
> officer Michelle Peluso said "there is something about a team being more
> powerful, more impactful, more creative, and frankly hopefully having more
> fun, when they are shoulder to shoulder."

Sounds like a lie. If it's clearly a win for everyone, then remote employees
wouldn't be working remotely to begin with...

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aaron695
How so?

Who said "it's clearly a win for everyone"?

Obviously people might want to work remotely at the expense of the company and
fellow work mates.

If bad practices allow this, then the company and in house people are
effected.

Remove them and current employees and the company would be better off?

I don't get the logic?

~~~
ikeyany
Words like "more powerful" and "more impactful" don't describe anything. My
logic is why allow remote work to begin with if they already know the benefits
and drawbacks, and then why ban it? What changed? That is what the flowery
wording is avoiding.

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crb002
IBM's most prolific female patent filer works from home.
[http://lisaseacat.com](http://lisaseacat.com)

Facepalm.

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vonklaus
Working in the office is something I have always wanted as a frequent remote
employee. I think it is great for communication and for the culture.

This specifically is _very_ heavy handed. IBM apparently had a culture that
supports this, so it is probably more akin to a layoff than a policy change.
It says 30 days to conform-- not nearly enough time to make such a decision
nor have this properly aligned culturally.

This may be good for morale among those disallowed remote work, feeling the
company now provides "fairness" across all departments. I still think this
looks like a layoff/ageism as they are comitted to hiring 25k more employees
and married folks with children likely to be less mobile.

I like on site teams. I think remote work has a place, especially for those
who have absorbed a companies culture, but this doesnt seem like the way to do
it.

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bruceburge
IBM has about 700+ people in two different development centers in Louisiana,
with a goal of 1200 total. There has been no word here about the employees
having to relocate to one of the locations listed in the article, nor has
there been any mass layoffs.

It was published around may of 2016, that IBM was planning to layoff roughly
14000 people, I'm willing to bet, this is more a part of that strategy than it
is about people working together.

~~~
acomjean
A friend who's company was bought by IBM is being laid off shortly. He
supposedly will be getting an offer to relocate to Baton Rouge.

In Massachusetts they moved a lot of work to way outside the city to the 495
beltway (littleton). Employees loved that.

(I used to be an IBMer at Yorktown Heights)

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laughfactory
This sounds like: we have to reduce headcount but we don't want to be seen
having a "layoff." We choose, therefore, a headcount reduction strategy which
we can brand as something other than a layoff. We'll make it about "coming
together" which sounds much better than, hey, the wheels are coming off the
bus. This is just a layoff by another name.

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alistproducer2
How can telling your employees "move or leave" be good for morale?

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justinclift
It can't be. Look past their PR speak. :)

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makecheck
Then IBM is not worth working for. It is time for workers to demand more
sensible conditions from employers.

~~~
flukus
If only we had some sort of collective leverage.

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GoToRO
There are many, usually older companies, where managers have stopped doing
their jobs long time ago. In these kind of companies, workers find out about
what they need to do and who has the right know-how from their peers. As such,
they can not work remotely. Of course top management, instead of fixing it's
own problem, they are just forcing everyone to be in the "office" (more like
holding enclosure). Of course, this is also a sure way to get rid of your top
talent.

~~~
PunchTornado
"top talent" rarely works remote.

our top engineers are always at various offices helping on the most complex
solutions.

~~~
laughfactory
I don't know that this is the case. A lot of top talent works remote, because
they prefer to be valued by output rather than face time or butt in seat time.
The too talent which does not work remote, does so often by choice, because
they prefer to be "in the mix."

But it probably also depends on how asynchronous their organizations are, too.
GitHub is super asynchronous, as is Pluralsight. These are companies who, as
part of their corporate DNA, have adopted means of working together which
don't require being together in an office. Pluralsight, for example, has
offices, teams, and individual contributors all over the US. We work together
using Slack, BlueJeans, and GitHub. It works incredibly well.

~~~
PunchTornado
I'm so annoyed when the best guy is not in the office to help me when I need.
Slack is not the same as both of us sitting together at the computer.

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shakna
IBM frequently hires graduates from my university.

I was offered a place, but there was a caveat. I have MS, and stairs are my
personal demon.

As the building was heritage listed, they couldn't alter it. So no lifts or
elevators.

They offered me a remote contract.

I didn't take it at the time, but others I know had similar deals.

This will probably affect them. They might be made redundant, to bypass the
problems of firing them.

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johnward
The way this will work out if mind boggling too. Many employees would be told
to go into an office only to then collaborate remotely with their peers in
other cities. As a remote IBMer I'm hoping this rumor is false. I was forced
remote a few years ago because my local office ran out of room and now I enjoy
it.

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equalunique
This hasn't hit me nor anyone on my team yet (I'm an IBMer)

~~~
rolodato
Do you know if the affected people that can't or won't move will be getting
severance pay?

Where I live, such a change in working conditions would be enough for an
employee to consider himself fired, which would make him eligible for
severance pay.

~~~
equalunique
I didn't see your comment before I posted mine. No, I don't know how things
are in those divisions. They're separate from mine and others.

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elcct
IBM stuck in the 90s. What a retarded idea.

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GFK_of_xmaspast
> retarded

Hey. Hey.

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dukeluke
And so the centralization of our tech industry continues...

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pinewurst
I don't think it's centralization - it's just another excuse to terminate
people, especially older, settled employees.

Current IBM could power a large city if they could harness the energy of the
Watsons spinning in their graves.

~~~
dukeluke
Termination may be the goal, but centralization is the result.

