I sure am glad that I retired from IBM. They announced another round of layoffs last week. It was always so depressing when that happened. All of a sudden, someone I had known for years would get the axe. I hated it.
This time, I heard that they are concentrating on eliminating jobs in Europr. About time. The people in Europe responsible for host support for IBM Education in Europe employed 16 people. We supported the same amount of classes with six people, of which two were contractors. They replaced me with a contractor so now it's three full time people and three contractors. We also got part time work from a co-op.
For the last ten years there have been an excess of personnel in Europe. IBM moved support for many programs to Europe and laid off people here in the United States. It's easier to lay off people here than it is is Europe.
I wonder how they're gonna get away with layoffs? The four countries hit are France, Germany, Italy, and Sweden and from what I hear it is hard to lay people off in those countries. Maybe they'll just shut down sites, which will eliminate jobs.
I'm glad Europe is finally gonna feel the pain. I also hope all my friends survive. Time to e-mail 'em all and see.
Posted by denny at May 10, 2005 10:04 PMMy first thought upon hearing about the European layoffs was that I hoped the snotty Eurobitch secretary (German?) in the IBM ads ("we dumped the big computers on the New York office") was the first one to get the axe.
Fiction, yeah I know, I know.
Good enough. I recall all the pissing and moaning when there was talk of closing base(s) in Germany and the devastation that would bring to local economies. I guess Europe isn't the economic powerhouse some people would have us believe.
Besides, the German army can likely make good use of the land, ever since they decided to quit playing at CFB Shilo.....
Posted by: Duncan on May 11, 2005 08:13 PM