Workers at Big Blue are in for a turbulent month whether a major ‘resource action” – IBM-speak for layoffs – is underway or not. At the same time, IBM is hiring 15,000. 

Like a pendulum, world media over the weekend jumped on a report that IBM was cutting some 26 percent – or more than 100,000 jobs. Then IBM issued a sharply worded denial on Monday. The media responded, widely reporting that news.

But the fact remains: IBM acknowledged that a lot of jobs will be lost in a restructuring.

WRAL TechWire coverage of IBM restructuring:

  • IBM denies report of 100,000 layoffs
  • Even union is wary of 100,000 layoff report
  • IBM launches major restructuring
  • Inside the reorganization: The new business units

“This rumor is ridiculous, and off by a factor of more than 10,” wrote Doug Shelton, director of corporate communications, in an email to WRAL TechWire when asked about the report in Forbes about a 26 percent work force cut – or more than 100,000 of IBM’s some 420,000 employees.

“If anyone had checked information readily available from our public earnings statements, or had simply asked us, they would know this. A blogger writing under an assumed name did neither and passed off irresponsible speculation as fact, not for the first time..

“IBM has already announced the company would take a $600 million charge for restructuring. The company also has about 15,000 job openings around the world for new skills in growth areas such as cloud, analytics, security, and social and mobile technologies.”

By setting aside $600 million, IBM is committed a lot of cash to the restructuring, which is already underway. WRAL TechWire has already reported in detail about the “reorg,” and an in-depth analysis from Technology Business Research which WTW published has the most detailed analysis of the changes that are underway.

So whether 100,000 or a lot less, the number is big.

As Lee Conrad, national coordinator for Alliance@IBM noted: “If it is 10,000 job cuts everyone will breathe a sigh of relief, BUT it is STILL 10,000 losing jobs.”

Yet IBM also has some 15,000 job openings. That big number – IBM could end up with a bigger work force after the reorg is in place – reflects Chair and CEO Ginny Rometty’s drive to reboot the entire company.

Blogger defends his post

Robert Cringely, the blogger who sparked the layoff stories, defended his reporting.

“IBM doesn’t like me. After my column last week predicting massive cuts at the giant computer company, IBM now says I’m wrong, and that there will be nowhere near 110,000 IBM employees laid off. But like my young sons who never hit each other but instead push, slap, graze, or brush, I think IBM is dissembling, fixating on the term 110,000 layoffs, which by the way I never used. Whatever the word, what counts is how many fewer people will be paid by IBM on March 1 compared to today,” he wrote.

Cringely then picked up on a theme that IBMers are expressing online: Job cuts will be made not through a standard “resource action” but through performance reviews.

The key terms are PIP and PBC.

PIP stands for “performance improvement plan”

PBC is the IBM term for personal performance reviews.

Based on a 3-point scale, a “3” is the worst and therefore could be a justification for an employee being let go. 

Caught in the middle of IBM’s transformation into a cloud-, analytics-, software-focused company are current workers. 

North Carolina’s IBM operations have already been transformed in many ways over the past several years as Big Blue sold off hardware operations, the most recent being the x86 server business. Yet at the same time IBM added a state-of-the-art data center in the Triangle, and some of its latest software as well as a lot of patents are being produced by N.C. IBMers.

And it’s clear even more changes are coming. Brace yourselves.