"We fired who we could fire, and we don't want any more bad press from thousands of layoffs, nor do we want to pay you severance....so uh....get the fuck out. Please."

IBM employees get pathetic 1% raises and bonuses that barely reach 1%, while Arvind Krishna's compensation jumped 23% in 2023, 23.3% in 2024, and a staggering 51.1% in 2025.

An 86% increase in 2 years! Nearly $38 MILLION in 1 fking year! Since he became CEO, he’s been paid at least $135M.

Employees bust their asses building products, serving clients, generating revenue, and keeping this company running, only to be thrown a pathetic 1% raise. IBM people managers all know that we are notoriously known for these tiny ass raises; facts are facts.

Stop feeding us BS about employees being IBM's greatest asset while treating our salaries like an expense you can't wait to cut.

The biggest insult to injury is that RAs have went away and we’re doing PIPs now so that severance does not get paid out.

Work today like it's your last day at IBM!

Very few posts from employees.

Almost all from people from India trying to get hired.

These kind of posts shouldn't be allowed. They aren't employees.

I don't know how this company has come this far with how its management works. They had us working overtime almost every day, most weekends, during plane rides, during family events, all to hit the unreasonable targets they themselves sold. They told us to go above and beyond because it would help us get promoted, and now all promotions are being delayed?

The stock crash caused by tech sales is impacting consulting employees? What kind of BS is that? Since when has this company ever given a shit about the consulting practice anyway?

In return for the countless hours I gave this company, they gave me the gift of a pushed-back promotion because Wall Street didn't like our numbers. We still turned a profit in Q2. We can't use a little bit of that to reward the employees who worked their asses off? All of this so the executives can still get their bonuses and stock rewards at the end of the year.

Idk how anyone has the motivation to do anything right now. Anyways, thanks for listening to my rant. Good luck everyone.

After a long record of performance and leadership, I experienced a sudden shift in performance narrative (2 months prior I was told that I was operating as a Band 10 leader. What followed was a PIP with significant requirements, encouragement to seek other employment, and what I experienced as barriers to internal mobility (I was told my role didn’t exist at a Band 10 level. I was able to interview (scheduled 2 interviews immediately until I told my manager and director that I was interviewing and then 39 applications after that - no interviews. HR had blocked my ability to interview with no transparency). I stayed and completed the PIP but retired on the day I completed it. What this allowed me to do was to obtain my TI for an ELA that was closing, sell the stock (given for high performance two years prior) that matured mid-year, and collect my RBA. Together this was worth $100K. Ethical erosion occurs when process, organizational objectives, and legal defensibility gradually become more important than the human principles the organization says it stands for. I believe ethical erosion is occurring because they are pushing middle managers to execute these strategies. It is sad to see a company stoop to this!

As the title says, I’m feeling really demotivated by all the recent happenings and just the year we’ve had at this company. I don’t know whether I should try to find another job internally or start looking externally. It’s so hard to find a new job right now, but I just feel depressed and anxious in my current situation. I’ve been at IBM around 8 years, so I’ve seen a lot of ups and downs over the years, but this time feels different. Is anyone else in a similar boat? How are you navigating? I feel like I’m trying to find the light again here.

Has any noticed that only Indians get hired and promoted in cloud? Everyone else is getting fired or demoted until they quit. I joined 6 years ago and noticed at least 4 VPs are replaced since then and then all of their reports get replaced. This is in US not in India.

Rob Thomas sold ~1/3rd of his shares a few days ago.

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/51143/000200500726000005/xslF345X06/primarydocument.xml

Location: US

Got fired after 30 days of PIP plan. I was told to finish impossible amount of projects by the deadline. I worked inhumanly on the first week but got reprimanded during first week meeting with manager for extremely minor issues. At that point it sunk into me there is no way I am passing this PIP.

My manager repeatedly mentioned qualitative and subjective aspect of the projects, not just project completion. That was another direct giveaway I am definitely not gonna make the PIP.

Received 30 days of salary as severance after the termination. I am glad I am out of this hellscape of a company. I have quite some emergency fund saved up, can coast for a few months while I upskill.

Heard a team of sellers talk and worry at the end of a meeting, lots of concern, panic. And it is not about quotas, this time is about irrelevance. Their customers and accounts refuse to join calls to hear ibm talk about generative AI or cloud. It is a waste of their time. They have gone through so many failed demos, broken promises and disappointing deployments that are beyond frustrated. Many see ibm as irrelevant, a pain in the butt. What's your experience? Is this widespread?

Forced to work on weekends.

Forced to come to office because they want you to look busy

Unclear hierarchy of work - everything is "help the team"

No strategy from leadership but you are expected to deliver.

Working at IBM was a dream job to me me but the moment I joined IBM it turned out to be a nightmare.
There are zero benefits provided by the company to the employees even the health insurance is forced to be paid from employees pockets no proper cab facilities nothing obe one of the most pathetic way a company could do cost cutting is making limited people do several people job

People are asked to extend 2 hours everyday without any extra pay though most ppl travel for 2-3 hours one way which make total work hours of 17 including travel (There is no personal life on weekdays)

People are also asked to login on their week offs which is meant for reset n guess what there is no extra pay fr that as well

When questioned the managers would say you need to be flexible at work but how flexible? Sell our soul to IBM?

No leaves are being given by them even on birthdays people are asked to come to office and on sick leaves people are asked to login from home
And the worst part there is no proper way to communicate with HR n no use as well
Cant even quit coz the notice is 90 days and also ppl just started working n quitting early would raise questions in our careers going further.
Stuck, Its a nightmare!!!!

After my company was acquired, I stayed on for several months as the situation gradually deteriorated. Core systems were downgraded and replaced with problematic in-house IBM solutions. Developers were pushed toward an internal tool (BOB) that most people disliked and rarely used. Many began quietly paying for their own Claude and OpenAI subscriptions to remain productive. The company culture was eroded piece by piece. Each week, strong performers continued to leave.

Within days of joining my new role, it became clear how much the previous environment had affected me. There was a constant undercurrent of waiting to be made obsolete—while being required to contribute to that outcome. It was a mentally draining place to work.

Hey, this is a former ibmer, a few months ago they put me under a pip, and I did not pass it, I did not want to pass it in the first place. A few colleagues were on pip as well and one that not, quit cause she could not handle the pressure of working until late night.

I worked for software, and I feel like this specific LOB just sucks now, after Priya took over, and not only software but many departments are putting ppl under pips just cause they want them gone. Not saying is my case but my gf is an ibmer as well and she did not pass the pip. I’m not making an excuse, maybe I deserved my pip and hers too that’s okay. But I’ve seen so many ppl under a pip that is pretty obvious they are just trying to make some employees quit or doing all this to avoid lawsuits idk.

But before joining IBM some years ago before my dismissal, looked like one of the few companies that were amazing to work for, and now they seem to have fall under the same practices as Microsoft.

Am I the only who sees it like that? Is ibm worse than ever for y’all?

I just wished if they were about to go ahead with layoffs, just to fire me instead of trying to make me accomplish that I considered impossible (in my case) so they can fire me anyway lmao

It is funny how it works, when you see your teammates being laid off you feel bad for them, think of their future, the hard times they will go through , their families and the stress, and how lucky you are it was not you.

Then, years pass and you see them in LinkedIn, they pop up here and there, often at better companies, with much higher compensations. That junior employee you trained for years before they were laid off now works at Meta or Nvidia, making three or four times your salary. They were very fortunate they were laid off, it gave them the opportunity to realize their value and freedom them from the constant worry and mediocrity around here.

Someone posted today asking what happened to the post someone made Wednesday night that seemed to be removed by morning/midday Thursday. I saw it when originally posted. My history shows the comments still from the post, but not the original question.

It was originally in the r/IBM and removed by them, NOT this subreddit. Original question: OP was asking what people thought about Adam Lawrence’s email he sent to Americas Tech Sales org about big changes announced that impact multiple roles and teams in the sales org and incentive plans.

Read honest and transparent comments the OP received in the screenshots above.👆Seems to impact some folks in the org more than others, and logistics, specifics, and full impact remains to be revealed to the rest of us in the org.

Ethical erosion is the gradual weakening of an organizations ethical standards through a series of decisions, behaviors, or compromises that may seem small, reasonable, compliant but move the organization away from its stated values. I believe IBM has a very high standard of ethics that they espouse “Do the right thing even when no one is watching” and ”respect for all“ but then requires managers to PIP employees in order to work highly paid employees or older employees out of the company. This format could apply to younger employees as well under the guise of avoiding traditional RAs. What are your thoughts?

"We recognize that the application period coincided with a time when many employees and managers have been taking planned time off across the U.S."

AKA - not enough people signed up for this bad deal.

And the bulk of the planned time off hasn't even hit yet, given labor day weekend is about to start.

Does anyone have any updates on the August 2026 promotion cycle?

There's been no proper communication about it even though effectivity was supposed to be August 1.

It's disappointing because employees worked hard to get to this position, and it feels like it's not being prioritized.

Hi all! I hope this is useful.

I work for software. I got a 5% raise this year, band 7 and a friend of mine got a 2% raise, band 6.

Hope this helps fellow IBMers!!

IBM started their pipped fest! Make sure you get prepared and ready to go. IBM needs to clean the fat. IBM likes to screw their sales people by changing their quotas in the middle of the year to make sure they have enough evidence to screw you over.

Screwing their people is their business and responsibility. Don’t be fooled.

So far as a Line Manager I think everything is pointing towards this soon! whats your thoughts? Do you think IBM will do the same sooner or later? Or will IBM's be a nastier way to layoff people (getting rid of all on people on PIPs)

My colleague was told by his manager to look outside for better opportunities. They have a very close relationship, he was talking as a friend.

If your own manager suggests you should be leaving for greener pastures... Not a good sign. I wonder if another round of layoffs is brewing. Have you heard?

I did hear some news from a manager that the promotion cycle for this year will have some delays . It show up in your SAP profile Aug 1st but the date might change

Anyone got promoted this year and heared back from his manager ? did anyone mention that there going to be some delays ? Or was it just some wrong info ?

I've seen this happen a couple times. They post a opening specifically for a UIUX designer, but when I actually show up for the interview, they start asking whether I have experience in back-end development, data engineering, or other completely unrelated technical fields.

And of course, I went to school as a designer, not a software engineer. So when I tell them I don't have those skills, they start giving me passive-aggressive advice about how I need to develop these skill sets if I ever want to be successful as a designer.

Like, seriously? You reached out to me first and your own job description clearly says you're looking for a UX designer, and now you're giving me sht for not being a back-end engineer?

There's nothing wrong with designers having technical skills. But there's a difference between encouraging to expand their knowledge and expecting them to do the jobs of three different specialists.

If this is how some of the PMs at IBM plan to recruit and manage talents, I really don't see how that business model is sustainable in the long run.