While at IBM
I worked at IBM (US) Federal one month short of five years before being dumped, a few years back. One more month would have given me marginally more severance. Those five years, as a Sr System Architect, was among my most rewarding. However, middle management had both no idea what I did nor understood that we were not in the days of the s390. Some middle management got promoted or moved laterally, while others became more direct people managers.That is when things went downhill, especially due to the latter. It was bad enough the functional stack was way too thick, but it was thick with people who knew how to cover their backs at the expense of the company. If the ranks of middle management were functionally thinned across the board, I suspect the bureaucratic drag could have been mitigated. Too bad, between requiring huge profit margins and acting on the whims of people who had little idea what was going on apparently dooms IBM for a huge reduction in force every generation.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
