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/IBM employee rant begin To me, the fact that IBM has for years encouraged remote work, been affirmatively OK with people moving hundreds, even thousands of mi

/IBM employee rant begin To me, the fact that IBM has for years encouraged remote work, been affirmatively OK with people moving hundreds, even thousands of miles from their nearest co-location center to then yanking this policy and forcing employees to decide whether to move in a short amount of time makes this, in my mind, a thinly-veiled downsizing effort. Imagine; for years, your department in is NY state, but you've been told it's totally cool to move to Colorado and work from home. In fact, IBM exclaims how it's good for the company because it saves space and money! You build your family's life there, then all the sudden - you have a month to decide to relocate to NY state (sell your house, change your kids' school, etc) or quit with a measly package. They won't even allow you to go to the nearby IBM office in Colorado because your group is based in NY state. I know employment is at-will, and what IBM is doing is perfectly legal. It doesn't mean it doesn't stink.

justin66 10y ago
> then all the sudden - you have a month to decide to relocate to NY state Is that actually happening to you? pm90 below indicated that IBM wasn't doing this.
- bigmattystyles 10y ago
  Not me personally, definitely to others I work with - there's been hints of no enforcement until later this year but nothing official. Edit: And as PM90 said, it does seem to be only some departments. PM90 said the article creates FUD, but I think you could argue IBM is doing that to its employees with this.
jps359 10y ago
Yep... I know people who were affected in the same way you described -- encouraged to work remotely, so they bought houses in other states years ago, and then told 3 months in advance that they would need to return to the office. Of the people I know, one chose retirement, a few chose to leave, one chose to relocate, one was allowed to stay remote.

justin66 10y ago

> then all the sudden - you have a month to decide to relocate to NY state Is that actually happening to you? pm90 below indicated that IBM wasn't doing this.

bigmattystyles 10y ago
Not me personally, definitely to others I work with - there's been hints of no enforcement until later this year but nothing official. Edit: And as PM90 said, it does seem to be only some departments. PM90 said the article creates FUD, but I think you could argue IBM is doing that to its employees with this.

jps359 10y ago

Yep... I know people who were affected in the same way you described -- encouraged to work remotely, so they bought houses in other states years ago, and then told 3 months in advance that they would need to return to the office. Of the people I know, one chose retirement, a few chose to leave, one chose to relocate, one was allowed to stay remote.