Welcome to IBM Employee News and Links

News and Opinion Concerning Health Savings Accounts, Medical Costs and Health Care Reform

• Families USA: Premiums vs. Paychecks. A Growing Burden for Workers. Excerpts: Throughout the first eight years of the new millennium, health care costs have skyrocketed, while working families’ wages have stood still. Other factors have also threatened families’ economic well-being, including rising gasoline prices and the downturn in the housing market, but the confluence of stagnant wages and rising health care costs has become a significant strain on family budgets. Numerous national studies have documented this damage.

  As important as these studies are, they do not reflect the varying burdens experienced by families in different states. Just as labor markets, health systems, and economic circumstances vary from one state to another, the impact caused by rising health care costs and stagnant earnings differs considerably among the 50 states.

  In 2006, Families USA undertook the first state-by-state analysis of growing health care premiums versus stagnant earnings in the new millennium. Since then, state economies have weakened, while health insurance premiums have continued their upward trend. Health care costs are now an even greater burden on American families. These reports, which are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, the Department of Labor, and the Department of Health and Human Services, examine what these trends mean for working families.

• Helena Independent Record, courtesy of Physicians for a National Health Program: Single-payer insurance puts more money into health care. By Robert W. Putsch. Excerpts: Great work by Mike Dennison writing on health care reform: “Baucus health plan preserves much of the status quo” and “Why is single payer health reform not viable?” And thanks to the IR for publishing these two articles. But is Dennison right? Is there enough money in the system to provide health care for all? There’s been a long-standing dispute over how much a single-payer system can contribute to lowering health care costs.

  In August 2003, Drs. Woolhandler, Campbell and Himmelstein published a study of health-care administrative costs in the U.S. and Canada. They stated that administrative expenditures in the U.S. stood at 31 percent of overall health-care costs. A year later they wrote “only single-payer national health insurance could… allow universal coverage without any increase in total health spending.”

  Montanans spent $4.9 billion on health care in 2003. If these authors are right, then Montanans paid over $1,600 in administrative costs for every man, woman and child in the state, including the uninsured. That means that only 69 cents of every dollar spent went to health care needs. Remember, administrative costs are passed on to patients, bill by bill, paycheck deduction by paycheck deduction, and even at the pharmacy!

• Philadelphia Inquirer: Fairness of insurance caps is questioned. By Michael Vitez. Excerpts: In May 2007, Karlin Brockington was really looking forward to vacation from her job as assistant manager of Sam Goody at the Deptford Mall. "I needed a rest," said Brockington, now 44. "This was the first time I felt like I was getting older, that I needed to slow down, that I needed to get out of retail because these kids were driving me crazy." Her problem wasn't kids or retail.

  On May 19, "I was on the floor, doing my work, and I couldn't move," she recalled. "I was like having an out-of-body experience." An employee walked past, and "I couldn't even talk to him. I wanted to tell him, 'Would you please help me?' " She dragged herself home to Lawnside and into bed.

  The next morning, her friend and manager, Cheryl Monaco, "told me to go to the hospital because in the 15 years she's known me, I've never been sick. She said go or she was going to call my mother."

  Brockington went to Cooper University Hospital - for 48 days. Acute myeloid leukemia. Brockington had been paying $19 a week from her paycheck for health insurance. For 16 months, insurance covered chemotherapy, a bone marrow transplant, five months in hospitals. But on Aug. 28, 2008, a letter came from her plan administrator. Brockington had reached her "lifetime maximum coverage of $2 million." In five days, she would be uninsured. "I started freaking out," Brockington recalled. "We started working on my options, what I could do, and there wasn't a whole lot."

• Health Beat: On Health Care Reform Stimulating the Economy: The Massachusetts Example. By Maggie Mahar. Excerpts: Recently, a somewhat starry-eyed op-ed in the New York Times suggested that a $100 billion annual investment in universal healthcare is just the medicine that our economy needs. The goal, declared Jonathan Gruber, a professor of economics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: “covering every American.” It is an appealing proposition. But let me suggest that we cannot blindly invest billions in an already bloated healthcare system. We need to think through where we want the reform dollars to go. Which sectors of a $2.3 trillion health care economy should we stimulate to insure that patients receive the safest, most effective care at a price that they can afford?

  For example, should we try to create more jobs for those making diagnostic scanning equipment?

  Probably not. As Health Beat recently reported, we’re already experiencing what some call an “epidemic of diagnostic imaging.” In too many cases, patients don’t benefit. Across the board, 20 to 50 percent of high-tech diagnostic imaging fails to provide information that improves patient diagnosis and treatment. In some cases, false positives lead to unneeded biopsies and surgeries that harm patients. Recent research suggests that an explosion of MRI scans for breast cancer is leading to unnecessary mastectomies. In other words, women lose a breast for no good reason.

  So while GE might like more business making diagnostic imaging equipment, all of the medical research suggests that we already have more MRI units than we need, and that they are being overused. (Keep in mind, the goal of health care is not to create jobs: it is to improve the nation’s health.)

• New Haven Independent, courtesy of Physicians for a National Health Program: Who's A Health Care "Moderate"? By Paul Bass. Excerpts: By Wofford’s account, “extreme left”ists are pushing government-paid health coverage for all. “Conservatives” consider any government involvement in health care “bad.” Meanwhile “most Americans” — and her insurance company — are the sensible “moderates” working toward a solution to cover at least some of the nation’s 45.7 million uninsured people, with some government help.

  Wofford’s presentation began with a mystery quote. Who, she asked the Chamber members in the crowd, said the following?

  “Millions of our citizens do not now have a full measure of opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health. Millions do not now have protection or security against the economic effects of sickness. The time has arrived for action to help them attain that opportunity and that protection.”

  Wofford revealed the answer at the end of her talk: President Harry S. Truman. ...

  “We’ve had over five decades to see how the commercial insurance market works as the key means of providing health care access,” Klein said. “The bottom line is that in all that time health care has gotten neither more affordable nor more accessible. Numerous policy fixes have been applied to goad the private health insurance system toward universality or to rein in costs. As we can see, these goals are no more within reach than they were 20 or 30 years ago.” ...

  Harry Truman did in fact propose a “government-run” single-payer plan, Klein said. People often confuse such “government-run” proposals with nationalized medical systems, she said. “Truman believed in expanding social security to include a universal health plan. He wanted to amend the Social Security Act to include national health insurance. Government would replace private insurance companies,” Klein said.

  “You have to be careful about 'government run.’ People think that means hospitals are government hospitals, and doctors are government doctors. [Rather] it was about the insurance mechanism. It was about the financing.”

• Physicians for a National Health Program: Special Message to the Congress Recommending a Comprehensive Health Program. By Harry S. Truman, November 19, 1945. Excerpts: To the Congress of the United States: In my message to the Congress of September 6, 1945, there were enumerated in a proposed Economic Bill of Rights certain rights which ought to be assured to every American citizen. One of them was: “The right to adequate medical care and the opportunity to achieve and enjoy good health.” Another was the “right to adequate protection from the economic fears of ... sickness ...”

  In the past, the benefits of modern medical science have not been enjoyed by our citizens with any degree of equality. Nor are they today. Nor will they be in the future—unless government is bold enough to do something about it. People with low or moderate incomes do not get the same medical attention as those with high incomes. The poor have more sickness, but they get less medical care. People who live in rural areas do not get the same amount or quality of medical attention as those who live in our cities.

  Our new Economic Bill of Rights should mean health security for all, regardless of residence, station, or race—everywhere in the United States. We should resolve now that the health of this Nation is a national concern; that financial barriers in the way of attaining health shall be removed; that the health of all its citizens deserves the help of all the Nation. ...

  Appreciation of modern achievements in medicine and public health has created widespread demand that they be fully applied and universally available. By meeting that demand we shall strengthen the Nation to meet future economic and social problems; and we shall make a most important contribution toward freedom from want in our land.

• Government Executive: Report: Medicare is a stronger insurance model than FEHBP. By Alyssa Rosenberg. Excerpts: Medicare's relatively low overhead makes it a better model for a publicly run health insurance option for people without employer-provided coverage than the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program, a health care expert said on Wednesday. "The Medicare program, as it's currently constituted, needs reform," said Jacob Hacker, co-director of the University of California-Berkeley School of Law's Center on Health, Economic and Family Security. "But I argue that a new public plan could embody many reforms and in doing so, could set a high standard for private plans."

  Medicare sets a good example for such a plan because it controls costs better than any of its competitors, has produced quality improvements in service through cooperation with organizations such as the Veterans Health Administration and would set strong benchmarks for private health insurance providers, Hacker said in a briefing paper. He released the report in coordination with the Institute for America's Future, the think tank associated with the liberal advocacy group Campaign for America's Future; and Rep. Pete Stark, D-Calif., who chairs the House Ways and Means Health subcommittee.

News and Opinion Concerning the U.S. Financial Crisis

"But dependency on government has never been bad for the rich. The pretense of the laissez-faire people is that only the poor are dependent on government, while the rich take care of themselves. This argument manages to ignore all of modern history, which shows a consistent record of laissez-faire for the poor, but enormous government intervention for the rich." From Economic Justice: The American Class System, from the book Declarations of Independence by Howard Zinn.

• Pirate Ethics, by Jim Hightower. Excerpts: The difference between pirate captains of old and modern-day corporate bosses is that pirates had ethics. They fairly shared their loot, for example, with the entire crew. Contrast that with the rip-off of employees by the bosses and bankers involved in the recent tribulations of the Tribune Company. This media conglomerate, which owns some of America’s top newspapers and television stations, was bought a year ago by a Chicago real estate baron named Sam Zell.

  This fellow didn’t have anywhere near enough money to pay the $8.2 billion purchase price, but, hey, that’s no problem for a striver. Zell simply got the company’s CEO to let him use the employee’s pension fund as collateral for bank loans to buy the Tribune. Even though their money was put at risk, the employees had no say in the deal, nor in how the company was run. It was run badly. Less than a year after Zell's takeover, the Tribune has had to declare bankruptcy, and employees are likely to lose jobs, severance payments, and pensions.

  Those who pulled off this heist, however, have been much more fortunate. The former CEO was given more than $40 million when Zell took charge. Citigroup and Merrill Lynch were paid about $36 million each for being “advisors” on the deal. Another Wall Street bank, Morgan Stanley, got $7.5 million just for writing a “fairness opinion,” stating that Zell’s use of the pension fund was Kosher.

  And Zell? He had put up less than four percent of the purchase price to get control of the company, and while he might lose some of that, he cut the deal in a way that makes him a secured creditor. This means that if the Tribune’s assets have to be distributed to creditors as a result of the bankruptcy, Zell will be first in line to get his – standing in front of the employees whose company and pensions he wrecked.

  No pirate would do that to his crew.

• New York Times: The Reckoning: White House Philosophy Stoked Mortgage Bonfire. By Jo Becker, Sheryl Gay Stolberg and Stephen Labaton. Excerpts: “We can put light where there’s darkness, and hope where there’s despondency in this country. And part of it is working together as a nation to encourage folks to own their own home.” — President Bush, Oct. 15, 2002.

  The global financial system was teetering on the edge of collapse when President Bush and his economics team huddled in the Roosevelt Room of the White House for a briefing that, in the words of one participant, “scared the hell out of everybody.” It was Sept. 18. Lehman Brothers had just gone belly-up, overwhelmed by toxic mortgages. Bank of America had swallowed Merrill Lynch in a hastily arranged sale. Two days earlier, Mr. Bush had agreed to pump $85 billion into the failing insurance giant American International Group.

  The president listened as Ben S. Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, laid out the latest terrifying news: The credit markets, gripped by panic, had frozen overnight, and banks were refusing to lend money. Then his Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., told him that to stave off disaster, he would have to sign off on the biggest government bailout in history.

  Mr. Bush, according to several people in the room, paused for a single, stunned moment to take it all in. “How,” he wondered aloud, “did we get here?” ...

  But the story of how we got here is partly one of Mr. Bush’s own making, according to a review of his tenure that included interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials. From his earliest days in office, Mr. Bush paired his belief that Americans do best when they own their own home with his conviction that markets do best when let alone. ...

  As early as 2006, top advisers to Mr. Bush dismissed warnings from people inside and outside the White House that housing prices were inflated and that a foreclosure crisis was looming. And when the economy deteriorated, Mr. Bush and his team misdiagnosed the reasons and scope of the downturn; as recently as February, for example, Mr. Bush was still calling it a “rough patch.” ...

  As for Mr. Bush’s banking regulators, they once brandished a chain saw over a 9,000-page pile of regulations as they promised to ease burdens on the industry. When states tried to use consumer protection laws to crack down on predatory lending, the comptroller of the currency blocked the effort, asserting that states had no authority over national banks. The administration won that fight at the Supreme Court. But Roy Cooper, North Carolina’s attorney general, said, “They took 50 sheriffs off the beat at a time when lending was becoming the Wild West.” ...

  In the 2004 election cycle, mortgage bankers and brokers poured nearly $847,000 into Mr. Bush’s re-election campaign, more than triple their contributions in 2000, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics. The administration did not finalize the new rules until last month. Among the Republican Party’s top 10 donors in 2004 was Roland Arnall. He founded Ameriquest, then the nation’s largest lender in the subprime market, which focuses on less creditworthy borrowers. In July 2005, the company agreed to set aside $325 million to settle allegations in 30 states that it had preyed on borrowers with hidden fees and ballooning payments. It was an early signal that deceptive lending practices, which would later set off a wave of foreclosures, were widespread.

New on the Alliance@IBM Site

• Job Cuts Status & Comments page
  • Comment 12/16/08: Here is what a SWG 3rd line mgr told me about the upcoming cuts: 15.000 headcounts in total / focus on US / announcement tomorrow (Wednesday 12/17) ...... happy christmas :( -jeff_p-
  • Comment 12/17/08: I was laid off from IBM in 2006 after 26 years. There was no full retirement package and healthcare was COBRA after 12 months. In case you don't know it, COBRA is incredibly expensive and was the only healthcare option open to me. As I read the comments here, everyone who has lost of their jobs or will lose their jobs to outsourcing need to be contacting President-elect Obama and your Congressman. The outsourcing that has happened is now biting us in the back because we have not stood up to the so-called globalization. Unless you stand up and do something, IBM will continue to lay people off with no benefits.

    Look what's happened to your 401(k)s. With no pension now, how does it feel to know that you'll have to live off your 401(k) as your retirement plan? Most IBMers are highly educated, professional people who should not be losing their jobs. Think Palmisano is losing any sleep on your behalf? Last I heard he was still getting his millions in salary and bonuses while the worker-bees are struggling. Where do you think our kids are going to work, after going to college and assuming loans to pay for their education, if every American corporation thinks it's o.k. to treat the American worker?

    Since when has it become acceptable that American workers assume the brunt of IBMs layoffs and downsizing? Where are the executives who make these decisions? Are they being laid off as well? Those who are afraid to say something thinking it won't happen to you, wake up! I didn't think it would happen to me and it did. IBM management says they will help you find a job but most organizations freeze their headcount when a resource action is underway and chances are slim to none that you'll find something. This game has been played for years on IBMers thinking someone is looking out for you and there are opportunities. It's a joke.

    Unless you stand up and say/do something, this will continue. The comfort level you think you have working for IBM has long gone. They told us in management school to fear the Alliance; but that seems to be the only group that is working on behalf of employees. I'm sure the automakers UAW union is getting the same response from their members. Someone needs to work on behalf of IBM employees and ensure that even those who've been resource action'd are getting the best deal. -BeenThere-

  • Comment 12/17/08: I have to agree with -BeenThere-, in the posting below. IBM's been cutting its' US head count for YEARS now. So, pretty much, if you simply WORK there, then your pretty great relative to your peers out there in industry. That said, if you are reading this, whether you're an Alliance member or not.... if you are a “2” or below and have been so for 2 or more PBC periods.... even if you've juuuussst got yourself your first raise after a couple years of “stag-alary” (read: no raises for several years...) ...go to Monster.com, go to Dice.com, or get on linkedin.com, or get with a head hunter.... ...however you choose to do it.... get out of IBM.... before they push your out. You'll be glad you did.

    Once layoffs start and the market gets flooded with tons of pushed out IBMers, sadly, it’ll get a lot harder to stand out to other employers (but things will still work out…). When I chose to leave IBM, I told my manager basically, I’d rather go while the going is good, and on my own terms. He was upset that I would choose to leave the team when everything “looked” great at the time…. I’d bet my words are ringing around in the back of head now… sadly enough. All in all, I wish everyone well this Christmas, and no matter what. If you do get RA’d just remember there will be a brighter tomorrow! -Happily Out of the IBM mess... but still Curious-

  • Comment 12/17/08: I was terminated by IBM in August 2008, apparently for expressing my concerns online, in the Poughkeepsie Journal about IBM reducing pay (eliminating shift differential) to their lowest paid employees or as they put it "becoming more competitive". I was not alone in this freedom of expression / speech. They never provided me with anything in writing as to why I was terminated. Since then, most recently, December 2008, I was hired to work as a contractor at the same site. I worked there for one day and then was notified by that contractor that IBM had blocked my access and I could not work there. Are there laws against this? Can IBM do anything to anybody???? I would appreciate your help with this matter. I believe it is a freedom of speech and human rights issue. I have filed a claim. -Anonymous-

    Alliance Reply: I have some experience with this issue, so let me share it with you. When you are employed by IBM or any contractor using the "At Will Employment" policy; you are at the mercy of their will. If the company wants to fire you for no reason or if they wish to fire you for a reason they won't discuss with you, it is their right. If you publicly disparage, denounce, or otherwise defame the company, its products or services, or its management policies; they can fire you for just cause and they will call it 'misconduct'. As long as you are employed by a company; what you say publicly can be construed as 'disparagement'. Freedom of Speech is NOT an entitlement when you are employed by a company you're speaking out against.

    The contractor is probably an "at will" employer also; and agreed in writing to several of IBM's "at will" policies as well. Frankly, the US Bill Of Rights loses jurisdiction as soon as you step upon private property and begin speaking or acting publicly, against that company. It's unbelievably sad, but it's true. Good luck with your claim. I hope you win. I just wanted to point out that it's not an easy road. Rick White, Organizer & Web Maintenance, CWA Local 1701, Alliance@IBM, www.allianceibm.org.

  • Comment 12/18/08: I was laid off in November and I am convinced that it was because of my age and length of service. IBM does not want people over 50 working for them. Even younger co-workers made comments to me asking me what am I waiting for after 32 years....I am only 54 years old. Managers within IBM are confirming the huge movement of jobs to the global delivery centers in Brazil, Argentina and India. The news is not good for those in the US. Thanks a lot, Sammy! -Anonymous-
  • Comment 12/18/08: Were you recently reclassified in 2008 from exempt to non-exempt and live in the State of California? Were you recently RA'd and also live in California? If your answer is yes, I would like to hear your story. Please contact me at: caemployees@gmail.com -Jonathan Doely-
  • Comment 12/18/08: If you know of job cuts at IBM please contact Christine Young at: Times Herald-Record 845-346-3140 or cyoung@th-record.com -Christine-
  • Comment 12/20/08: Anyone involved with CDI, Comsys, Artech or other contracting companies - prepare for some huge gouging before or in March... more percentage cuts, contract cuts and percentage evals on contracts are coming up. Right now the upper tier mgt is in a bunker mentality is the joke. TT is next on the chopping block list for January after the other cuts are done in GTS and finishing in IGS for the turnover. GDC is going to take more than 30% of work from TT by mid 2nd quarter of 09 and then the options package comes in. Options package is 30-60 days to find new position, which will be great if you can move to GDC or do a 1/4th of the pay. Neither New York or NC will be getting any new buildings or positions in 09 or first two quarters of 10 as IBM wanted for tax breaks that were already told to both locations. Sorry for the bad news, but was the latest. -IBM UC'd-
• General Visitor's Comment page
  • Comment 12/14/08: I was out fishing and ran into a contractor I used to work with at big blow. We got to talking about the company and we both got canned about 2 years ago. He started laughing and said go look at the alliance site. I was not amazed to see nothing has changed. Big blow is still laying off. What I was amazed about is how when I started working for a good company, how the stress level went to nothing, and I no longer worry about losing my job. I am also compensated if I have to work OT and don't have to carry a pager or work holidays anymore, and can sleep through the night like normal people too. It reminds me of how bad IBM sucks. Without a Union, this company is a horrible place to try and make a living. It's so much better everywhere else I can't even begin to explain it. -Happy_Now-
  • Comment 12/17/08: One thing I would like to see change when we come out of this economic crisis is for CEO salaries and compensation to come down to a reasonable level. Sam Palmisano making $10 million per year on top of millions of dollars of stock options and bonuses is just excessive greed and not right. If Sam were anything of a man or human being, he would see it. Guys like Madoff running a ponzi scheme wiping out peoples saving make me sick. It's greedy people like Madoff and Palmisano that are ruining this country. This is where a Union could help. We need a check and balance system. -Anonymous-
  • Comment 12/20/08: Recent insider transactions for Sam Palmisano:
    Aug 28, 2008:
    250,000 shares Option Exercise at $78.13 per share. Value: $19,532,500
    55,900 shares Sale at $124.97 - $125.1 per share. Value: $6,989,000
    79,597 shares Sale at $124.77 - $124.96 per share. Value: $9,939,000
    114,503 shares Sale at $124.50 - $124.76 per share. Value: $14,271,000
    Aug 21, 2008:
    100,000 shares Option Exercise at $88.96 per share. Value: $8,896,000
    98,876 shares Sale at $121.76 - $122.5 per share. Value: $12,076,000
  • Comment 12/20/08: Jerold: My God! Does anyone know how much Sam has accumulated in 2008 so far? This is obscene!!! -Anonymous-
  • Comment 12/21/08: Has anyone else notice at USA IBM sites that the public postings for jobs IBM wants to fill with H1B visa applicants has all but disappeared? Is IBM complying with USA law still by posting these jobs in the conspicuous areas outside the cafeterias, snack areas, break areas? I also feel IBM is not even close to paying "prevailing wage" for these jobs by hiring through low cost areas and deploying these folks in higher cost metro areas like NE USA. This is illegal if they do. Maybe that is why they are not posting anymore? -IBMsux-
• Pension Comments page
• Raise and Salary Comments
  • Comment 12/18/08: Salary = 125,000; Band Level = 9; Job Title = Program manager; Years Service = 27; Hours/Week = 50; Div Name = CHQ; Location = Midwest; Message = 8 more years and countin' -Anonymous-
• PBC Comments
  • Comment 12/17/08: To -DoNotBrag- , when I first came on to IBM, I was a hard worker, idealistic, and creative in my work. I too saw some problems but thought that I could be part of the solution - suggesting improvements, implementing ones that I could on my own, and working a lot of hours. I thought that by doing this I would help IBM and also be rewarded as a standout employee. I soon learned that that is not true. You can't win at IBM unless you are a brown-noser to your managers (esp. several levels above you). When I saw that working lots of OT got me nothing, not even a raise, I cut my time back to 40 hours.

    Yes, I was doing the work of 2 desks & had deadlines to meet but that didn't matter. I told my manager that it was his job to have enough people to do the work - I was going home after 40 hours & that was it. It worked. My manager farmed out some of the excess work & I got my workload down to where it could be done in 40 hours. When I switched to a different position, I told my manager up front that I will work hard for 40 hours & then go home. He responded with a "sure you will" sarcastic kind of attitude. But again, I was able to do my work in 40 hours without too much issue.

    Now that some of my work has been sent overseas, I'm not seeking out additional work as I'm planning on leaving IBM anyway. I couldn't care less if IBM succeeds or not. The problems here are so ingrained that things aren't going to change. People are either so frightened or apathetic that they aren't going to unionize. Management is so out of touch that they aren't going to affect any real change either. Like I said, I'm just padding my resume now before I move on to a job that I actually enjoy doing and get rewarded for my effort. -Tulsa employee-

  • Comment 12/17/08: Tulsa employee..."right on" and ditto. I am in RTP, NC and have been a serious slacker for several years. They steal from me, I steal from them. Period. -Suno Samp-
  • Comment 12/20/08: -Suno Samp- Bravo! Yes, I agree with you. Why should we work our butt off and get a "3"? Anyone who thinks hard work always gets good PBC's has to have a radical total lobotomy. Palmisano and McDonald and the rest of them crooks are the real slackers. All they do is exercise and collect their stock options with INSIDER information to guide them (it isn't coincidence that Sammy boy took options of over $75M up to this August before the credit and stock market crash. They hardly work but just go 'round like politicos. If Sam doesn't get insider info. then how can I get his crystal ball or oiuja board under my holiday tree!? -anonymous-
• International Comments

Vault Message Board Posts

Vault's IBM Business Consulting Services message board is a popular hangout for IBM BCS employees, including many employees acquired from PwC. A sample post follows:

• "Gone 4 years and loving it" by "blue4blue". Full excerpt: First time on the board in a year,...PwC Alum that could not handle the culture change as an IBM "Band 9 or higher". Went to Industry and love it. Good culture,..now making 100% more pay and have a family life. Other comments are correct,..don't buy into the "guilt trip" of leaving. It is a dysfunctional culture and organization. Glad to see ABC reference,...very sage man.