Tag: IBM

End of an IBM era

For the first time since 1912, IBM (International Business Machines) does not have a physical footprint in Endicott, New York.

Broome County is the birthplace of IBM, which formed in Endicott as the Computer-Tabulating-Recording Company in 1911. It changed its name to International Business Machines in 1924.

For many decades, under the leadership of legendary CEOs Thomas J. Watson, Sr. and Jr., Endicott maintained a special place within the international corporation, employing thousands of people with several blocks of buildings downtown. They were a huge presence in the community, donating to charitable organizations, organizing volunteer activities, and providing recreation and education for their employees and their families. There were generations of people who worked for the company, which had an ethos of respect and care for their employees and the greater community. Even during the Great Depression of the 1930s, IBM did not lay off workers. The loyalty IBM showed to its workers was returned and there were many families who had multiple members across generations who were IBM employees. Even when IBM headquarters moved elsewhere, Endicott was honored as the birthplace of the company. There was even a company museum on site.

When my spouse B joined IBM in 1989, many of the IBM traditions were still in place but that was about to change. IBM had for decades chosen CEOs from within the company but in 1993 hired Louis Gerstner who massively changed the corporate culture, with layoffs and the attitude that employees were expenses to be cut rather than the expertise that allowed IBM to have products to sell. In 2002, IBM sold the Endicott campus, renting back some space from the new owners, which eventually was whittled down to one, nondescript building.

In March 2020, due to the COVID pandemic, IBM closed access to the building and many months of working from home began. This relaxed somewhat over time and this January, employees began working three days/week in the office and the other two from home. B and his team all came in on the same three days to facilitate collaboration. They also enjoyed lunches together, often taking walks afterward, as they had pre-pandemic.

This spring, though, IBM announced their decision not to renew the lease on the building and not to seek another physical site, ending 112 years in Endicott. The employees remaining, many of whom have over thirty years of experience, will go back to working from home until they retire.

Yesterday, August 31, 2023, was the last day.

B and his team were there working, left their now-empty offices, and turned in their keys.

It’s sad for us and for the community to lose what had been such an integral part of life here, although it has been a long, slow, painful bleed. Some of the old IBM buildings have been renovated and are in use but a number of them are now condemned and awaiting demolition. The good news is that Endicott is being re-cast as a renewable technology/battery hub. There are plans for a gigafactory to make batteries for EVs and such as part of the Triple Cities Innovation Corridor, for which Endicott is the advanced manufacturing hub.

The irony is, of course, that IBM was doing advanced manufacturing on the site for decades and now won’t be onsite for this new era.

One of the buildings that I hope will remain as a monument is the North Street Clocktower building, which is emblazoned on the cake at the beginning of this post. It contains the motto THINK carved into the stone.

A good reminder anytime.

the last building for IBM Endicott

Hidden Figures

Yesterday, B, E, T, and I went to see the film Hidden Figures. We all loved it.

Hidden Figures is based on the story of a group of African-American women who were “computers” in the early days of the US  space program. That is computers, as in those who carry out mathematical computations.

As sometimes happens, there are some connections between aspects of the film and our area and family. B, early in his career, worked for Link Flight Simulation, which made simulators for NASA. He then went to work for IBM, which, like Link, was founded in our area. IBM plays a role in the film, with a 1961 computer filling a large room. IBM used to have a museum in Endicott which had components from that era, as well as equipment, such as time clocks from IBM’s early years.

The film shows the rampant sexism and racism that the women faced in segregated Virginia. It was sobering for B and me, being reminded that this was happening in our lifetime, although we were only toddlers at the time and living in rural New England, which was neither segregated nor diverse at the time.

It was also sobering for all of us to realize that, as far as our country has come on matters of race and sex, there is still quite a distance to go to reach real equality and equity.

The long and fruitful careers of the main characters in the film are encouraging to all the younger women who follow, despite the obstacles that they still face. Thank you to everyone involved in making the film for bringing this important story to all of us.
*****
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This week in NYS IBM news

On Monday, Governor Cuomo lauded IBM for keeping 3,100 jobs in the Hudson Valley and adding 500 in Buffalo. On Thursday, IBM carried out yet another round of lay-offs in the US, including Poughkeepsie and Endicott NY. No speeches from the Governor on that.

Endicott, the birthplace of IBM, is just across the Susquehanna from me. In a perverse twist on decimation, IBM now employs less than 10% of the people it once did in Endicott. Decimation would be knocking out every tenth person; instead, IBM has knocked out nine, (usually) keeping the tenth.

It’s happened over time. Sometimes, IBM sold a division to another company. The workers get transferred to the other company, but their employment there doesn’t tend to last very long because the new company wants the contracts, not the experienced workers whom they deem too expensive. Other times, IBM off-shored the jobs. It adds insult to injury to have your last weeks of work spent trying to train a new grad in India to do the job for which you spent years developing your skills. In recent years, it seems to be that corporate America’s answer to everything is to cut costs to drive up the earnings per share, regardless of what this does to your ability to deliver quality products on time. There are only so many cuts you can make before you run into difficulties with not having enough skilled people to complete the job, even though the remaining workers do lots of (unpaid) overtime.

In Endicott, the situation is exacerbated by the fact that IBM has not done much hiring here in the past 20+ years. Most of the cuts now involve workers with over thirty years of experience, who wind up being bridged into retirement. What goes with them are critical skills and knowledge base which haven’t been able to be transferred to younger workers because there aren’t many around.

IBM’s mantra for decades was THINK. The corporate leaders seem to have forgotten that. IBM made its name because it was loyal to its workers and they were loyal to IBM. IBM invested in their training and well-being and the employees innovated, obtained record number of patents, and made great products. IBM on a corporate level is making itself into just another company chasing some number for the next quarter and not thinking about the long-term future for themselves, their employees, the communities, and their customers. Will they remember their heritage before it is too late?

IBM

My relief over the last minute legislation from Congress last night is being tempered by two things. First is fear that the Republicans still have not learned their lesson that their job is to cooperate in governing, not obstruct it. I’m trying to develop hope that the budget conference committee will finally arrive at a more just and equitable budget by December, so that sequestration ends and other badly needed legislation can be debated and enacted, but I keep thinking about the Supercommittee that was supposed to have solved this because sequestration was too horrible a threat and didn’t.

The second is that, on a day when I expected the stock market would be trending up in relief at last night’s deal, IBM is tanking, down twelve points at the moment, after earnings fell short of expectations. IBM is very important in my area, which is its original birthplace. Virtually everyone who lives here has a connection to IBM, personally or through family, friends, and/or neighbors. For decades, employees here were loyal to the company and the company was loyal to them. That all changed when Gerstner became CEO. Instead of being valued assets to the company, employees became expenses, to be gotten rid of to cut costs or replaced by lower-wage workers overseas. In our area, workers retained their traditional loyalty to IBM longer than in other parts of the country, despite sale of divisions, offshoring, “resource actions” AKA terminations, buy-outs, the dissolution of the pension program, cuts in benefits, continual monkeying around with the salary plan, sale of IBM properties, and other indignities. Now, the last vestiges of that loyalty have crumbled, even here in IBM’s birthplace. Wall Street didn’t help, cheering every time more lay-offs were announced or more stock bought back. Instead of the traditional long view that IBM took, everything became about the next quarter and projecting a year ahead became long-range planning.

Today, the pigeons came home to roost.

Analysts are finally realizing how much of IBM’s gains have been from “financial engineering” rather than from the traditional strength of the company, its superior products, backed by the exceptional training, intelligence, and dedication of its committed workforce. The question is has IBM gone so far away from its traditional core values that it will not be able to regain its footing and continue as a driving technology force in the coming years. IBM workers here will continue to work hard for their customers, despite being overburdened with work as more and more workers are laid off with no reduction in the amount of work that needs to be accomplished. Will upper management finally notice?