Low compensation - this includes both salary and bonus.
Salary increases are limited to top performers. Cost of living increases do not exist.
Promotions are extremely rare. Management usually blocks lateral transfers out of the group
Benefits are comparable to other large companies, but are steadily decreased every year.
Employee healthcare expenses (monthly contributions, deductibles, etc) increase rapidly every year.
Actual access to work / life programs is at management discretion - many times requests are declined
Quarterly layoffs - IBM has a stated strategy to move jobs to Brazil, China and India
If you are laid off, you are often expected to train your replacement.
Billing targets for consultants are very high and don't allow for time off for vacation, holidays, education or other non-billable professional activities. Not meeting your target in any given quarter makes you a lay-off candidate.
Management has no problem laying off in one quarter and hiring in the next to make quarterly numbers.
Education is at management's discretion. Most face-to-face classes are canceled due to lack of enrollment.
Interaction with other IBMers, including your boss, is almost always via phone, email or instant messaging.
Workload can be crushing.
Travel policies make the consulting lifestyle much harder than it has to be.
Saving IBM money is much more important than saving a consultant stress or travel time.
Performance measurements cause divisions to compete against each other for clients. Upper level management says it wants this to stop - but every year reinforces this behavior with the the performance system.
