IBM reviews

Where I work, there are lots of Indian IT workers... that's ok, they are a nice bunch in general, but they are a strange breed. They are technically intelligent as a whole, and work very hard. But, they don't work smart, as if that has no value to them; partially a byproduct of the hard work ethic, I think; they'd rather work through a problem than eliminate the cause of the problem. That way, they can work through it again, and again, and again. Management loves that approach, which means that you can forget about working in an environment where efficiency is valued, and you'd better be prepared to work your @$$ off over roadblocks, and in roundabout, inefficient ways. There is a culture of sending memos to the entire department or team if one or two people are doing something wrong - "If you are not turning in your timesheet daily, then the Company suffers because of ABC. If you are not one of these individuals, thanks for your great effort!". I wish they'd just deal with the problem children, and leave me out of it. Also, IBM buildings are frequently Class A in the public areas, and left to slum behind the scenes. In Fairfax, they eliminated coffee, paper plates, plasticware, etc. Cheap like George Costanza's parents. Professional development is pretty much limited to computer based training, and "look it up on the internet". The 401K plan gives lots of investment choices, and but there is no money market to park your cash in. The internal job site shows same jobs as external website... so you don't really have an edge. And the organization of workers can have the unintended effect of pigeonholing you...you pick a "career" or expertise at IBM, and work and train in that field. It is reminiscent of a factory's organization.

There are many. (1) Wages at IBM are approximately 75% to 80% that of similar positions in other companies. I found it amazing that in fiscal year 2007-2008, a year of exceptional profits, IBM found the money to double its dividend, but not any money to give rases to employees from the job family: US based IT technicians and project managers. It is interesting to note that EXECUTIVE pay and performance bonuses increased by a high percentage in 2008. (2) Professional growth is limited by frequent funding freezes that preclude the attendance of training seminars and graduate level education. (3) Some departments have a minimum overtime requirement of 20% or higher. (4) The system used by the company to rate its employee's job performance is broken. Time away from work is counted against you, even if you have a valid reason for being away. For example, if you take a 4 month leave of absence to care for a sick relative, when you return to work, your work contributions for 8 months of work are compared to a coworker's contributions who has been working the entire year. It is virtually impossible to get a good job performance evaluation at that point. (5) Work/Life balance is given lip service because it becomes almost impossible to take a vacation when you have a high overtime requirement and vacation or sick leave (Time away) counts against you. (6) Morale at IBM is very low and many people are leaving voluntarily to find jobs in companies that treat their employees better.