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• BusinessWeek: The Best Medical Care In The U.S. How Veterans Affairs transformed itself -- and what it means for the rest of us. Excerpts: Every day some 1,400 patients pass through the Buffalo VA's unprepossessing entrance, into what many might assume is a hellish health-care world, understaffed, underfunded, and uncaring. They couldn't be more wrong. According to the nation's hospital-accreditation panel, the VA outpaces every other hospital in the Buffalo region. "The care here is excellent," says Roemer. "I couldn't be happier, and my friends in the POW group I belong to all feel the same."
  LOWER COSTS, HIGHER QUALITY. Roemer seems to have stepped through the looking glass into an alternative universe, one where a nationwide health system that is run and financed by the federal government provides the best medical care in America. But it's true -- if you want to be sure of top-notch care, join the military. The 154 hospitals and 875 clinics run by the Veterans Affairs Dept. have been ranked best-in-class by a number of independent groups on a broad range of measures, from chronic care to heart disease treatment to percentage of members who receive flu shots. It offers all the same services, and sometimes more, than private sector providers.
  According to a Rand Corp. study, the VA system provides two-thirds of the care recommended by such standards bodies as the Agency for Healthcare Research & Quality. Far from perfect, granted -- but the nation's private-sector hospitals provide only 50%. And while studies show that 3% to 8% of the nation's prescriptions are filled erroneously, the VA's prescription accuracy rate is greater than 99.997%, a level most hospitals only dream about. That's largely because the VA has by far the most advanced computerized medical-records system in the U.S. And for the past six years the VA has outranked private-sector hospitals on patient satisfaction in an annual consumer survey conducted by the National Quality Research Center at the University of Michigan. This keeps happening despite the fact that the VA spends an average of $5,000 per patient, vs. the national average of $6,300. [...]
  MIGHTY FORCE FOR CHANGE The VA's radical overhaul has caught the attention of health-care policy wonks, who have in turn sung the system's praises in prestigious medical journals. Last year the Canadian journal HealthcarePapers devoted an entire issue to the lessons other systems can take from the VA's transformation.
  The biggest lesson? A nationwide health-care network that gets its funding from a single payer can institute mighty changes. Proponents of national health-care reform extrapolate even further. "The VA proves that you can get better results with an integrated, organized, national health-care system," says Dr. Lucian Leape, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and a leading expert on hospital safety. "We will not achieve even close to the level of quality and safety we need [in the U.S.] as long as we have individual practitioners and hospitals doing individual things."
  The VA is, in many ways, the exact opposite of America's fragmented private-sector system, where doctors work for hospitals as independent contractors, and third-party insurers pay the bills as they see fit. By far the largest health-care network in the U.S., the VA serves 5.4 million patients -- double the number it treated 10 years ago. Most veterans are eligible for free or low-cost care, paid for out of the federal budget. The 2006 allocation comes to $35 billion.
• U.S. Department of Labor: In Brief. Can the Retiree Health Benefits Provided By Your Employer Be Cut? Excerpt: Providing for health care is an important part of retirement. Some employees are fortunate: they belong to employer-provided health care plans that carry over to retirement. However, an important question arises for employees and retirees: How secure are my health care benefits after retirement? Under what circumstances can the company reduce or terminate my health benefits?
  Employees and retirees should know that private-sector employers are not required to promise retiree health benefits. Furthermore, when employers do offer retiree health benefits, nothing in federal law prevents them from cutting or eliminating those benefits--unless they have made a specific promise to maintain the benefits.
• The National Law Journal: Are Companies Bound by Promises of Lifetime Benefits? Federal courts divided over cuts for retirees. By Pamela A. MacLean. Excerpts: Since 1991, the number of retirees offered health benefits by the nation's largest companies plummeted from 80 percent in 1991 to 56 percent by 2003, and some union retirees promised lifetime medical benefits have learned that lifetime only means "until revoked."
  Across the country in contract disputes and bankruptcy filings, federal courts have been pulled into the wrangling over how promises of lifetime benefits can be broken, or whether they existed at all. And the courts have not been uniform in their answers. Some predict that the U.S. Supreme Court will eventually have to step in to smooth out the wrinkles. [...]
  Current industry conditions are a far cry from the attitude prevalent in 1971, when then-President Richard Nixon said, "even one worker whose retirement security is destroyed by the termination of a plan is one too many." [...]
  In 1974 Congress created the Employee Retirement Income Security Act to establish fiduciary standards to protect retiree pensions and other benefits. Although pensions were vested under the law and difficult to alter, health benefits were not and could be changed more readily. The 7th Circuit has one of the toughest standards for retirees attempting to block loss of benefits. The court has said that a company had to have misled plan participants about the terms in order to have breached its fiduciary obligation.
• Physicians for a National Health Program: A Telephone Worker Responds to Andy Stern on Single Payer Health Care. By John Horgan. Excerpts: It was obvious that President Stern is as troubled about the out of control costs of health insurance as any American. It was also obvious President Stern has no constructive solution. He spoke of the health care crisis in America without offering a single constructive idea as to how this crisis can be addressed. Instead he blames politicians and business for their lack of leadership on this issue. He also belittles the concept of a single-payer system while complaining that American business can’t compete with countries that have single-payer systems.
  First to address the question of why business leaders are not out in the street demanding health insurance reform after the tax breaks, the cost shifting, and the gutting of the health-care plans, the business of American business is simply business. The American workers are out on the streets, but American business is out of the country. In President Sterns’ labor pool you can’t janitor, doctor, or nurse etc…from out of the country. He represents a service based membership that works inside the U.S. in jobs that don’t compete in the global market. The car industry, as well as many other industries, competes globally. What is the major difference between a G.M. worker in Canada and one in the U.S.? The benefit cost of health insurance.
  Now to answer the question why is health insurance so expensive? Let’s start with the big ticket item of administrative costs… 39% of every dollar in this private employer-based model of health insurance goes to administrative costs. This model leaves 45 million uninsured, millions more underinsured and is also a cost driver of the insurance premium.

• AFL-CIO: 1,500 Workers Take Fight for Union Rights to NLRB’s Front Door. that resonated from civil rights marches in the 1960s, nine union and religious leaders, backed by some 1,500 chanting workers, locked arms and blocked streets at the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) headquarters in downtown Washington, D.C., for nearly half an hour today at the height of the lunch hour. Chanting, “We’re Union, Get Used to It!” and “Labor Board, You Ain’t Right, You Ain’t Gonna Take Our Rights,” workers from a gamut of unions protested the Bush-appointed NLRB’s failure to do its job and protect workers’ rights. In recent months, the labor board has systematically taken away workers’ rights and is poised to bar millions more workers from belonging to a union.
• From the Job Cuts Status & Comments page
  • Comment 7/13/06: AP Story: "Intel to slash 1,000 management jobs". IBM used to like to benchmark itself (or collude, I'm not sure which) with other technology companies and tell us that our benefits are getting cut because it will bring them down to the level of benefits in other companies. I wonder how enthusiastic IBM managers will be about benchmarking against other technology companies when the issue is managerial jobs. I'm guessing they'll have a double standard and conclude that benchmarking only applies to non-managers. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/13/06: I was told July 11th that my services at IBM were no longer needed. I have the choice of taking a limited something-or-other package, or if I refuse the package, it won't be offered again and it was implied I would be terminated within six months.
    I'm over 50 and have 23 years of service with IBM. Last year I got my first 3 rating from a "new" manager with no previous management experience. My new manager has been "riding my butt" since he started this year. I'm really sad. I thought if I worked hard at IBM I'd have a career and a retirement. My previous manager, the one who gave me the 3 rating, also forced out an older lady in my department with the same tactics. Too much work and micro-management of deliveries. I've interviewed for a couple jobs but as soon as they hear I have a 3 rating the room turns cold. Best wishes for IBM employees still working at IBM. When you get "the talk" try not to take it personal. I think IBM just wants to eliminate the older, higher paid workers. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/14/06: I was laid off after 22 years and hired back on several months later as a long term supplemental (LTS). I'm also collecting an annual pension, although it's about 1/3 what I would have gotten if I could have made it to 30 yrs. My boss(es) keep telling me they're pushing to get me hired (one even promised I would be rehired in writing, but he later he went to Lenovo, so that note is worthless)...but there never seems to be any success. Something always seems to come up, it stalls, "timing's not right," etc. Does anyone out there know of a LTS who was collecting a pension who actually made it back in? Or is there a big red "S" on our personnel jacket and the unwritten policy is to "keep 'em out?" -Anonymous-
• From the General Visitor's Comment page:
  • Comment 7/12/06: I was part of the Qualxserv transition. I had 22years in IBM and was actively looking within IBM for another position since Dec 05. I was rated a 2 for almost my entire career. However, my manager rated me a 3 this time and said that if I didn't improve I could possibly be fired. This rating change took place shortly after I told my boss that I could not work a 3 month project working 3rd shift due to my family obligations. They ended up finding someone else to do their 3rd shift project but I had to backfill in the other persons schedule.
    They (the job could have been backfilled by the normal back up for that area but they decided to pick on me)!!I called HR and put in a complaint. It was on the books. Then, come rating time, I'm all of a sudden rated a 3 without any notification. I was told that I wasn't a contributor to my team and so on and so forth.
    I Opened Doored my boss and was able to have the rating changed back to a 2. I tried to pursue the other opened position within IBM because of fear that the manager involved would retaliate against me. I was told that there was a hiring freeze as of 2-15-06. I was then told that I was a part of the group going to Qualxserv a month before it was to take place. Also, they said that if I didn't take the job, that I would be considered as quitting and no severance pay would be given.
    I was at Qualxserv for 12 days before I had another offer from another company. By they way, making more then IBM would ever pay. I can't believe that I dedicated myself to IBM for 22years and they treat you like that!!! BIG BAD BLUE stinks!! -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/14/06: I talked to a friend yesterday who finished facilitating the outsourcing of his job to Brazil. He was commenting on the treatment of the Brazilian employees who traveled to the US to train. His comment was to the effect that the Brazilians were working 70 hours a week on the project but when they tried to claim it IBM wouldn't permit it. I guess they didn't want the number of hours the Brazilians were spending to reflect badly on the outsourcing effort. I was involved in a previous outsourcing effort where a manager (brave of him) tried to get American wages for the Brazilians when they were here and was promptly smacked down for his efforts. The lesson here is "you can't trust a company that lies". The funny part (depends on how you look at it) is that IBM is tranferring sensitive data and jobs to countries that are notorious for theft of data and political instablity. The chickens will come home to roost eventually. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/14/06: Intel is laying off 1000 managers to improve efficiency. IBM should do the same...except IBM should lay off 5000 managers. When is IBM going to wake up and realize that it's BLOATED with middle managers who are doing nothing but creating meaningless work? This is particularly true in IGS AMS where process and bureacracy has taken on a life of its own and has become more significant than the product or application being developed. IGS AMS is full of non-producing management types. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/14/06: Does anyone keep track of the IBM stock price? If not, you should. $73.57 today and on its way down to $50. I am just wondering when the Shareholders will ask for Palmisano's head. Way to go Palmisano!! -IBMer-
• From the Pension Comments page
  • Comments 07/08/06: Regarding all of the comments about benefits management being farmed out, they are true. As a former employee whose job went to China, I can tell you that every time I contact them via telephone I receive incorrect information. Of course I don't find out until much later that this is the case. My advice, ask for everything in writing or insist on speaking with a manager or supervisor. Simply accepting the response from whomever you reach on the telephone is risky! -Anonymous-
  • Comments 07/10/06: To get the true impact of the IBM pension cuts you need to take the net loss modeled in the new tool on realistic numbers (the performance pay numbers in the model are too high, but the others are OK), multiply that by the annuity multiplier (10.n) and then divide by the number of years until the retirement age you selected. This gives you the amount of money you must put into your 401K and then convert to an annuity at retirement to come out even. For most of the cases I've seen the number is about $5,000 per year which means that IBM is saving about $5K per year per senior employee and the senior employees just got a $5K per year salary reduction. Add to that the shifting of the burden of risk and you could make a good case that IBM has reduced the salaries of its senior employees by close to $10,000 per year. -Anonymous-
• From the IBM employees on employee raises page:
  • Comment 7/09/06: We sell multi-million dollar premium products and services and back them up with sub-minimum wage employees. How many of our customers find that acceptable long run? Does Sam go to a high dollar restaurant and accept a minimum wage chef? Or buy a new car and approve of the-lowest-wage-mechanics-available to keep it in tune? Does he go to low cost doctors here in the US on H-1B visas? -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/11/06: The problem with the 80% work done by 20% of the people "rule" is that most managers are too stupid to recognize what constitutes a TRUE "top performer". For example, the programmer whose code runs flawlessly 24/7 never shows up on anyone's radar. However, the one whose code keeps breaking and always has to be called in off-shift to fix it is perceived as a "hero" because he makes a point of telling everyone how "hard" he works. The old sayings still apply and are probably the basis for many underserved raises and promotions" 1) If you can't dazzle them with brillance, baffle them with BS. 2) Screw up, move up. Sounds like our executive management, right? -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/11/06: No pay increase in 2006. Reduced variable pay. Reason given -- did not contribute as much as my peers. The reason for the reduced contribution -- spent 10 months in 2005 recovering from an on the job accident in an IBM office. My boss tells me my settlement from the injury will make up for the lack of a raise. Isn't that lovely? -Crippled for life-
  • Comment 7/12/06: In Australia I just got 2% for an excellent PBC rating, but that was my first 'raise' in 4 years. This year I experienced less erosion in my packages than previous years. IBM is just not keeping up with inflation. Time to start looking elsewhere! -Anonymous-
  • Comment 7/13/06: Well, I haven't had a raise since I took the 1993 retirement package. I was sickened by all the BS that was passed around about the great job Gerstner was doing/did. Now Sammy got a 29% raise - I am about to puke. It's too bad that one group of people get all the rewards that so many of the real workers have been forced to earn. I was once proud to be an IBMer but I am now ashamed to acknowledge it. One day I hope all these fat-asses have to wonder where the mortgage payment is going to come from since there isn't any money in the larder. Most chances I get, IBM gets a bad rap from me. -B A-
  • Comment 7/13/06: After reading all the post. I thought 5% was bad. Guess I am lucky enough to get a 5% raise. Its about time to start my own business. -Worker Bee-

• "Couple of reasons" by "CandorSense". Full excerpt: I stay because: 1. There are "people" here I have a great deal of respect for and to whom I have loyalty. 2. I believe IBM can get its act together, I still have hope for that. 3. I am think most firms will be pretty much the same, the grass is not always greener elsewhere. 4. I enjoy most aspects of my work and I am in group with some very sharp people who are more than co-workers, they are friends and family.
  Now, understand that I think IBM has serious issues, not the least of which is a lack of intelligent strategy. I also think we have grown morbidly fat in the middle and a shake-out is unavoidabe. I will also offer that every year that goes by as things get worse and not better, I lose a little more hope and contemplate leaving. When those I look-up to and have loyalty to begin to leave, there will be little to keep me here.
  Lastly, remember that criticism and dissent is not akin to disloyalty (the common rank of Bush Junior) but often a genuine effort to advocate change. It's healthy for any ogranization to hear both the good, and the bad.
• "Where to start?" by "wonderaboutibm". Full excerpt: We involved posters on this board are really incurable optimists, who are being continually dismayed by the plodding, unimaginative, self-serving (and some would even say kleptomaniacal) management of this corporation. This place has a rich history, fabulous assets, and many great people -- but we see it all being frittered away, slowly but surely, and almost underneath the radar. IBM has truly lost its way.
  A few years ago, I rebuffed all job feelers from outside IBM, but no longer. In Reagan's words, we could be the shining house on the hill, but instead we are turning into the shack at the bottom of the gully.
  This is not a detail post -- but look at many, many other entries on this board and you will be overwhelmed by the detail. I stay at IBM because I basically like my work and I have not yet found a suitable alternative, but I know there is great stuff out there and the grass is greener on the other side.
• "Why I stay" by "Frank_Reality". Full excerpt: I enjoy my job, my coworkers and my customers. I do my job well. At my age, the odds of getting a better job are slim and none due to rampant age discrimination in the industry. I would have to move where the jobs are available. Living in a major metro is not appealing. Any such job would likely require much travel. I like my current situation.
  I make enough money (although nowhere what Dose of Reality makes), but more would be helpful but not critical. I'm not quite financially able to retire yet. Soon, though. I think that people coming into IBM ought to hear what it's really like - stuff they'd never hear from the IBM HR spin-masters. Every complaint here lets off a great deal of frustration - it is better to release it here than to let it blow up at work.
• "About IBM Sales" by "wonderaboutibm". Full excerpt:
  1. They promise the sun, the moon, and the stars.
  2. There is no penalty for promising the sun, the moon, and the stars, since post-sale, the salesmen are usually long gone and cannot even be located (a notorious problem in SO, for example.) Or they are somehow otherwise protected.
  3. Therefore, our salesmen are incented to sing and dance the unprofessional "sun, moon, and stars" vaudville routine.
  4. Delivery organizations are left holding the bag, and as Cringley has written, these delivery organizations thus underdeliver to squeeze out a mythical "profit."
  This all feeds in to the downward spiral we have been discussing on this toxic board. By the way, toxicity often is a function of the environment.
• "I've been staying out of this one" by "Dose of reality". Excerpts: As far as salesmen go, you can't live with them and you can't live without them. They are not inherently bad, just like tech-heads are not inherently bad. Like any other component of a business enterprise, they have to be used properly and incented to do the things that move the corporation in the right direction.
  I would have to put salesforce management in the top 5 issues that we have here. They are given free reign to close deals and walk away with a bundle of money with no respnsiblity for delivery, no recourse, and woefully insufficient checks and balances from the "operations" side of the business on feasibility.
  It's just another part of the fiefdom set up to enrich the anointed few, fully supported by SP and company, since top line growth is such an important metric. But, like they do with cost compression, they analyze it and optimize it in short term isolation with little regard for the broader long term implications. It is all about living to fight another day – not for the company, but for it’s stooge insiders.
• "Hit the nail on the head" by "mogrits". Full excerpt: Before I left IBM, I was a Client Exec. for many years. Your point is exactly one of the reasons I left as I was spending the majority of my time either protecting the customer FROM IBM or trying to fix IBM screwups. The sad thing is that IBM did have the capability to really get it right 98% of the time but there was no incentive anymore to do this. Nor are there the personnel in-house any longer to make it happen. Too many of us simply got tired of making excuses for IBM and yes, I had to leave after I felt that I could no longer wear the IBM logo proudly. I never thought the company would fall so far, so fast. I can't list the number of my good customers who told me they just couldn't jusify business with us any longer due to the quality of our overall solutions and delivery thereof.
• "Meager at best" by "Dose of reality". Full excerpt: Average raise less than 3% - many average performers get nothing. Bonus is about the same. Forget about the 12 - 15% targets they mentioned during the recruiting process - no one ever gets them, because they are contingent on divisional profitability, and the targets are set at unreachable levels.
  I hope you know what you are getting yourself into here. This is not your father's IBM. Spend some time reading this forum if you want to get an appreciation for the culture, environment and career opportunities here.
• "It is not too late!" by "no_longer_blue_or_bitter". Full excerpt: RUN AWAY! Take that offer letter and spread it out on a table in front of you. Sprinkle on top of it all of your hopes, aspirations, career goals, ambitions and expected challenges. Then, take a good look at it. You now have two choices:
  1. You can lift up the offer letter and watch all your dreams fall to the floor as you accept being an IBM employee. Good luck, and as Dose said, you'll be back in less than a year to this board as a wiser, disgruntled IBM'er; or,
  2. Roll that offer letter with everything inside into a long tube. Light a match and inhale everything back into your body. Watch that offer letter burn. Feel the overwhelming pleasure of freedom and accomplishment. Regain your attitude and competence. Run away from IBM and enjoy your career.
  You are standing at the crossroads. Make the right choice!
• "Appreciating technical competence" by "phooey69". Full excerpt: To be fair, there are parts of IBM where technical competence is definitely a priority. Even in much-maligned IGS, there are various departments where technical skill is highly valued. Unfortunately, over the past few years, the recognition and appreciation of technical skill has drifted. It's one of those things that is very difficult to stop once it has started, because it's dependent on culture.
  In SO where I come from, technical skill is indeed looked upon as a commodity. Over the years, there has been tremendous focus on process and management-related issues. There is seemingly an infinite amount of funding for process studies, project management initiatives, courses studying PM issues, etc.
  However, maintenance and improvement of technical expertise is difficult at best. Management doesn't fund it, either explicitly (via formal training), or implicitly (on-site labs and stuff). In fact, in the part of SO I'm in, management wants to get rid of on-site labs completely...they want nothing to do with any hardware or software outside of laptop PCs and standard office applications.
  The end result? There are a lot of people who can talk the talk, but cannot walk the walk, so to speak. "Software Engineers" who have never written a line of code in their lives, but can certainly critique code designs on conference calls. "IT Architects" who have never implemented an application, a server, or a network, but who can definitely tell you how to manage the requirements for such things. How does one recognize technical skill or competence in such an environment?
• "ditto on this side" by "long2begone". Full excerpt: The only funding for education that appears available is for internal classes. Even short-term I am confused by what this buys other than getting all of the consultants to sound uncertain in an identical manner. I haven't been in a real classroom learning deep technology since my first year with the company (and the customer payed for it then).
  Deep skills are misdefined as narrow skills and shunned for staffing purposes. Shallow skills are misdefined as broad and then staffed full lifecycle on projects where they have the potential to handicap a project long-term.
  IT Architects who were never involved in implementations are a great example of this issue. They're long gone if the project goes critical and, if it doesn't go critical, nobody questions why we couldn't make the NFRs with the spec'ed hardware/software. I think that the adage "what you can't do, teach" is twisted for IBM where it is instead "what you can't implement, architect".
• "post of the day" by "Old_Paradigm". Full excerpt: "The only funding for education that appears available is for internal classes. Even short-term I am confused by what this buys other than getting all of the consultants to sound uncertain in an identical manner." Scrumptous.
• "Advice" by "Dose of reality". Full excerpt: Counter offers can be handled one of two ways, depending on your particular situation and our need. In general we will take a hard line, since it is more important to the recruiting organization that we minimize cost than get better resources. You are seen as a commodity - if we have a need for 10 people that fit your profile, and get more than 10 acceptances that meet the basic requirements, we won't negotiate with anyone. We don't differentiate salary based on perceived value - we calibrate an offer up front based on your current base (or our asigned value at entry level), and that's the end of the story.
  If, on the other hand we need 10 people and have fewer viable candidates, we may increase the offer a bit. It all depends on the acute project needs that we have. We only higher for imminent project needs, and not to “stock the shelves”. Obviously, the problem is that you will never know which category you are in – surplus or deficit.
  Don’t expect a response any time soon in either case. Recruiters here are not rewarded based on timeliness, and they are notoriously lazy and inefficient. Getting an exception processed has a lot of red tape.
  Unless you are desperate for a job, my recommendation is to decide on what your minimum required salary is (in light of all the cultural and HR issues here), and give them an ultimatum. Unfortunately, if you are worried about sounding desperate, you probably are, and will certainly come across that way. Frankly, you have very little to lose. However, don’t stop your job search.

• USA Today: CEOs shell out nearly 6 figures to secure the perfect nanny. By Del Jones. Excerpts: A single employee's resignation disrupted the life of Boston Beer Chairman Jim Koch. It wasn't the CEO. It wasn't the chief financial officer. Rather, it was the nanny of his daughters, ages 8 and 10. Tom First understands. He's the founder of Nantucket Nectars, a company he sold in 2001 that is now a $100 million division of British food giant Cadbury Schweppes. Jessica Glenn, 25, is nanny to his children, 2 and 6. [...]
  Millions of families face upheaval caused by child care issues. Rich, poor and the middle-class dream of Mary Poppins or Mrs. Doubtfire. Few find the dream nanny, but just about everyone experiences a child care nightmare at one time or another. CEOs are no exception. They are not insulated from a nanny gone sour, and their combination of anxiety and wealth is driving annual salaries of the best-paid nannies toward $100,000. [...]
  Salaries of top nannies aren't the only thing being driven by the CEO search. Those at the high end also get benefits such as health insurance, meals at fine restaurants, country club passes, cars with free gasoline, education stipends, cellphones, working trips aboard corporate jets to places like Hawaii and personal trips compliments of the CEO's frequent-flier miles. All that, plus room and board in a mansion, can make leaving the profession a lifestyle decision.