Oh c'mon, I worked for Motorola--I knew you worked for IBM since about a month after I started reading this site. Too many things jived with scuttlebutt I'd heard when I was a semiconductor slave. Not to mention the stuff I hear from my techie husband's co-workers now.

Mheh. Isn't is funny how the companies that spearhead technology and communication are oftentimes staffed with managers who can barely operate a flashlight without help and are too incapable of conveying even the most basic of requests without a major breakdown in communication...? It's like the more advanced the company + the loftier the position = the lower the IQ of the person working that position. Addendum: H.R. demons--who are just cunning enough to know how to break the maximum amount of spirits with the least amount of attrition.

--TwoDragons

Of course...only IBM could make up "skills rebalancing" to refer to layoffs. A kinder gentler unemployment

I talk to the people at the repair depot in atlanta all the time. My company is an all IBM pc/laptop company. The suspense was killing me. Glad you came clean.

Just more proof that Dilbert is a documentary.

Shit. I knew I shouldve shorted Big Blue stock, and now that folks know that's where youre gone from, its sure to plummet. Get my broker on the line!!

Heh. I had thought something else. Oh, well.

I have IBM stock. Quite a bit, in fact.

I'm a shareholder as well, and in fact was just looking at the share prices earlier. It's been a roller coaster ride over the years, and now that you're outed I've probably lost my chance to get out on a high note.

Having spent 30 years at TCYDNN, I was pretty certain you were talking about Big Blue. The difference is, I worked there from 1957 to 1987, when it was truly a great company. From 1957 to 1970, IBM was a company of great spirit. Hard working, dedicated managers and employees. We were the best, and no one outperformed us in providing the best products and best customer service in the world.

IMHO it started coming undone after AG Ramsey Clark filed the great anti-trust action on the last day of the Johnson Administration in 1969. He tossed a turd into the punch bowl and left others to clean it up. Because IBM had lost a previous anti-trust suit in 1956, and the court ordered the breakup of the punch card business, they were determined to play defense this time around. If there was a possibility that they were going to lose again, it would probably mean a breakup similar to what happened to AT&T, they wanted to try and make the breakup logical to the court. So by 1974 they had basically split the development, manufacturing, sales, and service organizations into two new operations that could operate independently. In practical terms that meant a small systems division and a large systems division. These two divisions could have been spun off as separate operations. Just like the Baby Bells.

This played havoc in the customer's office because you now had two different IBM organizations trying to compete for the same customer business. While there might be some advantage to this, competing against yourself as well as the established competition caused much pain. The customer was not well served and much rancor and dissatisfaction surged through the company.

Management, driven by the court, became extremely cautious and protective. At the same time, the business was becoming more competitive. I won't try and describe the entire situation, there are books written on it, but IBM was thrown off stride by a looney Attorney General who is now a member of Saddam Hussein's defense team. The suit was finally dismissed in 1980, by the Reagan administration after 11 years of unbelievable BS.

So Denny, it's a shame you couldn't have worked there during the great years. I've been gone for 18 years now, but following my service in the USMC, IBM was a fantastic career opportunity for me, and I'm proud of the years I spent there. However, by 1987, I was burned out and as frustrated as you are today. Enjoy your retirement.

Denny, long-time reader here. Yup, I knew it. The Skills Rebalancing gave it away. I just couldn't help myself to Google when you dropped that turdlett on the blog. Enjoy your retirement.

Ed's post above really pisses me off. All these fucking freaks out there attacking corporate America. Its a wonder that IBM is still even around. On a brighter note, I hear IBM's G5 chip for Apple is an excellent product. Motorola was the original contractor for that chip and couldn't meet the specifications, so IBM had to bail everybody out. At least that's what I heard.

I knew it with my background in Big Iron at CA your description of TCIDNN could only be IBM

One of the guys that worked at our plant had worked for IBM before he came on board. He passed away a few years ago, but get this, his date of death was 9/9/99. Now how strange was that?

Damn, I was guessing you worked for the FBI. Heaven knows they have enough problems.

Southeast, computers... i figured it would be IBM.

I guessed.
My dad worked for them from 1955 to 1976 - even named in their coffee table book as inventing those funny-looking numbers on the bottom of your checks.
Guess I concur with Ed, though never realized the reason. My dad loved the place until the last few years; we all blamed it on getting old and bored (and maybe sick), but maybe it was IBM getting old & bored (& sick).

I had an Uncle working for IBM down in Florida. They "retired" him after 41 years, I think it was skills rebalancing. I've only been reading your blog for about two months, and was narrowing it down. IBM was high on the list. I used to work at Parker Hannifin and had plenty of dealings with IBM during the late 80's. They did a lot to fail to impress me. Best wishes on your retirement.
To Toren: I think someone should start selling adhesive stickers that are impossible to remove saying "Dilbert, drawn on location" for "happy" employees to put on the front door to "clue in" management.

It could have been worst then IBM Denny could have said AOL.

A while ago you had mentioned a list of obscure IBM products (VM & Token Ring, maybe?) that you still worked on. I was laughing at the stupidity of any company today still being held hostage by these expensive, ancient and proprietary products. What company could have been so stupid as to fall for IBM's sales pitch, over and over like that??? I racked my brains, to no avail. Well, the answer was staring at me in the face all along. ROTFLMAO, is all I can say.

Another good one gone! The IBM I've worked with over the last 20+ years is going steadily down hill. My SE's and CE's used to actually be able to help with stuff. Now, calling IBM is like pissing in a dark suit.

A good friend works for IBM. Several years ago, they gave him a retirement package to go away, and that package included 9 months pay plus retirement. He took it. Only a year later, they hired him back. So, he got a free 9 month vacation. However, he's back and miserable. Consider yourself lucky. He originally went to Ga Tech, moved to Lexinton, KY for the typewriter division, then a couple of moves later ended up back in Atlanta--so your experiences may have been similar. I used to think IBM was great, but Ed was right about the Justice Department (what an oxymoron) ruining it.

Denita - We can thank Motorola for 6 Sigma. I had to go through that bullshit at IBM.

Ed - I was still there for some of the glory days. I spent 1977 to 1985 in the FE Division which eventually merged with OP service and GPD service to form NSD. That's when service started going downhill. I had some problems in OP with management and when my old OP management got closer I left St. Louis and moved to Atlanta and joined NSD Education. I had three good years there until they started going downhill. I read in Watson's book how he was really pissed that the Johnson Administration stabbed him in the back with the lawsuit. Watson was a Dimocrat.

Mr Jim - They are finally putting in Ethernet where I worked. BTW with the popularity of Linux, VM is a viable OS since you can run an incredibly large number of Linux virtual servers under VM. I had recommended doing that with our Linux servers, but management seldom listened to me. As it was, they run lots of z/OS guests that they use for training purposes. I also used VM to test my new systems. Bring them up under VM for test and debug.

IBM internal usually has the oldest equipment. It's that shoemaker's children thing.

The white shirt gave you away.

I saw IBM on the left front of your shirt also even if I didn't you have that CE look

Denny - Yeah, I used to work with VM and the concept was pretty cool, but for some reason it just never took off.

But Token Ring??? My old boss took one look at it and said "I can get Ethernet from any of a hundred companies, all striving to outdo each other by making it faster, cheaper and more reliable. Why should I buy something supported by only ONE vendor in the whole world? And God forbid if IBM ever drops it, then we're really up the creek."

Yeah, I had it guessed, too, especially when you were talking about certain hardware products (I was a field engineer for about 22 years at TI, Wang and Pyramid Technology). My next door neighbor retired from Itty Bitty Machines about the same time you did, I'll have to ask him if he knows you.

I had it figured out quite a while back when you were talking at length about DASD and IPL's and so forth.

Only IBM'ers talk like that. :)

1500 Riveredge Pky NW, Atlanta, 30328
675 W Peachtree St NW, Atlanta, 30309

Dang! While I was 98% sure it was "Itty Bitty Machines", I had an inkling that it just might be CNN ........; but then I thought: "Denny? CNN as TCIDNN?" And I said aloud:

NAAAAAAAAAaaaaaaaaaa!

Quite a few of my students have been with Blue for a number of years; they echo the comments posted above.

KEEP BUSY in retirement!

Dan S.

Denny, I started out in 1957 as a CE in Trenton NJ, working on the punched card line. 407, 557, 026, 082/83, 514 et al. Then to Princeton and the 7090/94 as FE Specialist which was absolutely the best job I ever had in my life. I probably still have a pocket protector somewhere. I was dragged away to become a Field Manager from 1966 to 1971 when I jumped over to sales.(the reason I came to Atlanta). I had a great career, but my fondest memories were the FE Specialist job, even though I had a very interesting and rewarding sales career from 1971 to 1985 and a windup with APG based out of Tokyo 1985/87.

Wasn't smart enough to become a System's Programmer. I got lost after Machine Language and Octal. Never could did figure out how to read a Hex dump! Hats off!

All the best,

Ed - I loved being a CE in the FE division. Yep! I carried a pocket protecter and in it was a pen, pencil, pocket screwdriver, and flashlight. I spent 8 years at McAuto (It division of McDonnell-Douglas), five of them on third shift. The main reason I left was I saw the OP field managers taking over NSD and I didn't want to ever have to work for those incompetent assholes again. The main reason I went into education was to get some presentation skills and eventually try to become an SE. It's just as well that I never became an SE because a whole shitload of them got Resource Actioned or Skill Rebalanced out of the company.
The best thing about being a sysprog where I was is that I didn't have to know how to flog dumps and learn assembler. I just installed the base systems and stuff like DB2 and turned it over to the instructors to customize. It was an incredibly easy and fun job. The only problem was I had to work for an idiot my last six years.