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Highlights—May 28, 2011

• WRAL-TV (Raleigh, NC): IBM lays off workers in RTP, other locations. By Rick Smith. Excerpts: Some employees at IBM in Research Triangle Park and beyond will not be around to celebrate the company's 100th anniversary this summer. They are being laid off as part of what IBM calls internally a "resource action." In IBM speak, affected workers are being "RA'd" – laid off. An IBM spokesman confirmed Wednesday that some layoff notifications were made.

  "IBM re-balances its skills and resources throughout the year to ensure that we meet the evolving needs of our clients," said Doug Shelton, IBM's director of corporate media relations. "IBM does not comment publicly on details of its staffing plans or headcount." ...

  One affected employee described the moves in RTP as a "bunch of layoffs." Lee Conrad, a retired IBM employee who is the national coordinator for the Alliance, said cuts were made Tuesday in the STG and GTS divisions. ...

  Employees reported cuts in Poughkeepsie, N.Y., Rochester, Minn., and California. One IBM worker based in Charlotte also said he was cut. "RA'd in Charlotte, N.C., in Global Technology Services," the worker said. "Informed by telephone and told that final day is June 23 ... Manager said 'Don't bother to look for another job, there aren't any.'" "Looks as if there were about 70 layoffs in this division and mostly skewed towards age 45+," the employee added.

  Selected reader comments follow:

  • "Resource-Action"......sounds like the Pointy-Haired Boss in "Dilbert" came up with the name. I hope none of the overpaid executives lost THEIR jobs......;(
  • IBM always is very secretive about this. They gradually do this so that they don't hit the WARN criteria which is where they have to post an official notice with the numbers of the layoff. Shame on IBM for treating their employes like that. That's why I own no IBM stock either.
  • Have so many friends that work at IBM, and they live on the edge knowing this could happen at anytime.
  • RA'ed? Really?! Didn't IBM just announce big earnings in Q1? Have to check on my IBM peeps in RTP. Yet IBM hires workers from India, Brazil, Singapore, Malaysia all the time and have done so for many years because they pay them little in comparison while US executives continue reaping millions in salary/benefits increases from failed short-term strategies. So much for the myth of responsible corporate citizenship from this "fine" US company. One of many "glowing" examples recently. Isn't IBM one of those "global giants" that helped support Nazi Germany? Yes, I went there.
  • I'm as pro-business as any American, but you need to understand that in Corporate America, execs do what is good for them in the timeframe they expect to remain with the company. When corporate governance is weak, they only pay lip service to the shareholders, and have no interest at all in what's good for America. IBM in particular only maintains its HQ in the US to make sure it gets lucrative government contracts; otherwise it would be an offshore company like Accenture...
  • IBM handles layoffs like no other company I've ever heard of...
  • The "jobs added/jobs lost" numbers in NC don't tell the whole story : we lose high-tech jobs and add positions at McDonalds. This so-called "recovery" is simply moving people from salaried, skills-based jobs to minimum-wage service jobs.
  • seahawker, you don't seem to understand that corporate America is different from small/medium sized businesses. There is fundamental hypocrisy there. A perfect example: Bill Gates at the White House a few years ago bemoaning the lack of kids going into computer science. His agenda of course, to get the government to approve more H1B visas, so he could avoid hiring any of the same computer science grads that he claims to want (contract Indians are cheaper and you can fire them easily). Another example: IBM's Palmisano standing next to Obama announcing the creation of 1,100 jobs in Iowa, on the very same day that IBM made 5,000 job cuts in NC, VT, NY... I could go on. Yes, many Americans are lazy and feel entitled, but that does not justify the very selfish outlook of America's top execs, and the way they are decimating our economy for short-term gains.
  • IBM is ALWAYS laying off. Most UNRELIABLE employer.
  • Same old garbage from IBM !! Every quarter they have to meet their their quota of people to be fired. There is a VP whose sole responsibility is to ensure that happens, and she reports directly to that overpaid, overfat boss of hers Sam i can fire i am .
  • And the cycle continues...I had thought about applying to IBM a few years ago but remembered that every couple of years I hear of a big layoff. As tired of thoughtlessness said, WAY to unreliable. I have no trust or faith in IBM as an employer.
  • I'm close to throwing in the towel on this country. It's almost beyond repair. Once we let the soulless legal entity known as the corporation take over, we started downhill. Starting to look into visas to other countries as we speak.
  • My thoughts and prayers are with the affected IBM workers and their families.
  • Looks as if there were about 70 layoffs in this division and mostly skewed towards age 45+," the employee added Another of the Big Blue churn and burn tactics.
  • IBM has been lobbying hard to get their hands on the billions of dollars our generous government provided in stimulus money to create jobs. Nice to know now where it's going. Another fact...IBM has more employees in India than any other country in the world. India Business Model.
  • I worked for IBM for about 6 years before being laid off in another RA about 4 years ago. About 6 months later, I got another job, the best job I've ever had. They treat me well and I feel like a contributing member of a team instead of a cog in a machine. So laid-off IBMers, take heart. There is life after IBM.
  • It stuns me how and why people keep continuing to work there knowing that they could be on the chopping block at any given moment. They have been doing this "restructuring" for years. No way to take care of yourself or a family always living on the edge.
  • They are not going to stop until every American is gone but the Senior Management team and a few staffies so those high rankers don't have to try and communicate with other nationalities. Most successfully # of quarters of earnings in row makes no difference to the policy to remove "expensive" Americans and leave them with no one who can do the work.
  • IBM cutting skilled workers from their legacy support services by sending the jobs to India and Brazil is not working out as a cost savings. They may be saving labor cost which satisfies management reports and incentives, but the fines for non-performance and delays have been very heavy. The customers are starting to figure out that the cloud is really a fog.
  • The result of the ruling classes taking Bonuses, Quarterly Results, and Golden Parachutes. Nothing new here. This won't change until there is a citizens revolution, french style.
  • I'd like everyone to refer back to my comment approximately 6 months ago (when IBM was gleefully "hiring") that mentioned how IBM in this area is notorious for hiring and then FIRING at the drop of a hat. I love living here but the business environment in the Triangle is just goofy.
  • most people that have worked for IBM would never go back to work for them again because it is not the great company it once was and never will be again
  • IBM is famous for hiring temp contractors who stay for years and years -- and when they cut those workers loose, no one ever knows because they aren't part of the "real" workforce. So IBM, Lenovo, and many other revered big-name companies that we lift up as America's best simply play musical chairs with the local workforce, with one eye on the best time to cash in their chips and move on to the next government incentive package. To those of you who think the "free" marketplace is a wonderful thing, I'd like to point out that there really isn't anything "free" about handing out tax breaks to a bunch of corporate merry-go-rounders like these big boys. Let's give incentives to the small businesses first, what'd'ya say?
  • I always thought it was half humorous and half insulting when I got a "PO" (purchase order) for my position, like I'm a truck or a desk or a computer. I also think it's half insulting and half humorous that what used to be the "personnel" department is now "human resources". You are no longer a person, you're a resource!
  • I don't really know how IBM gets away with it. When I was laid off two years ago from IBM, the vast majority of the people in my group had more than 20 years of service with the company. They don't reshuffle skills. They lay off those at the top of the pay scale and then rehire the same skills for half the price or less - or hire them in India or China. In my out placement seminar when I was laid off, everyone in the group had more than 20 years with IBM. Not a single person in our group had less. IBM refilled my job right away with someone making much less. So much for their claim that my skills were not needed.
  • "This isn't news. IBM has 250,000 employees and is therefore laying off constantly; regardless of the economy.: - App7689 Really? Where have you been? IBM's US work force is now down to about 105,000 people. They now have about 2 times that number working overseas. Last year, the employees barely got any incentive pay because they didn't meet their goals. But the chairman had a record year and got a record bonus? So how does that work? How does the chairman have a record year when none of the employees meet their goals?
  • Considering IBM has an entire department dedicated to teaching other companies "Strategic Outsourcing" no one should be surprised. Sam will buy himself a new boat and bigger house while the people who actually do the work will get the boot.
  • You have no idea. During last few yrs, IBM laid off 1000s of US workers, many over 45-50; sometimes IBM hires them back as temp contractors for a lower hourly wage & few benefits – no insurance, etc. When I worked @ IBM-RTP in early 2000s, a co. who employed IBM admin personnel got a bus. They told all the admin employees to get their personal effects & get on the bus. They fired all the people on the bus, not allowing them to return to their desks. These workers had done nothing wrong. Yet IBM hires Indian workers, whose language & work we must correct. Admin support really no longer exists at IBM. Mid/high level mgs try to reserve conf rooms & send mtg invites with unexpected results. I expect to be laid off at any moment. I work my tail off, 10+ hrs/day and weekends. I like this job. I need this job in this economy. I always seek out other opportunities, but the pickings are slim, as we all know. Good luck to all IBMers, contractors, rank & file and mid mgmt; execs need not worry.
  • "Yet IBM hires Indian workers, whose language & work we must correct." I have experienced this statement. IBM keeps sending me an invoice they want to have paid. I keep calling them for more information. There isn't a PO number on the invoice, or a name to help me place who ordered the item they want paid. For the past two months I've been shuffled to 10 different people, and I haven't gotten any answers other than they have to request the information. They don't get back with me, so therefore the invoice sits on my desk, unpaid. I make notes of dates and times when I call to cover myself. The language barrier completely frustrates me and each person I speak with asks me the same questions. VERY FRUSTRATING!
  • What about the year I was laid off - there 40,000 - in 2005 - no kidding - and then IBM hired at least 30,000 in India - you think I'm making this stuff up? I've been independent ever since and doing much better thank you. My satisfaction is going up against young know it alls and beating them and the "off shored" at winning follow on work after they screw up the initial job. Keep it up kiddies - more work for me !
  • I was RA'd in 2002. Best thing that happened to me while I worked there :)
  • First off my condolences to all those that lost their jobs. The Lord be with you in finding another one. Second off is this really surprising to anyone? A large corporation lays off workers while the top tier executives get bonuses? This is nothing new. I think I put more thought into cutting my grocery budget then these people do in laying off workers. I worked for IBM for about 2 years and left to find a job where they treat employees like actual human beings instead of robot slaves that don't need to eat, drink or use the bathroom.
  • "If you owned the company - would you give all your profits to employees. " johnnyplusthree hmmm...yeah, no company would EVER do this and be successful...ever heard of SAS? CEO makes decisions based on what he thinks will be best for his company and it seems to work for him...when you have to make investors happy it will always come down to profit management...not necessarily what is best for your company or country...
  • For some of us an RA = death sentence. > 27 yrs with the company and > 50!!!
  • So sad, once a great company to work for has become a symbol of what is wrong in corporations. The workers used to be an asset at IBM, now they are an expense. They were people, now they are headcount.
  • Take heart my fellow ex-IBM'ers. I was "RA'ed" from IBM over two years ago. I am over 50 and African-American. I thought life was over. I now have a better job and position and now understand that the IT world is full of ex-IBM'ers. IBM was good to me, it is where I was given the skills to truly make money. Thank you IBM, I was the little bird that had to learn to fly. GO BIG BLUE, Blue 4Ever...
  • mep asked: "How can the US compete globally with those less taxed, less regulated, and with a lower standard of living?" Apparently, by managing your workforce better. Just ask any IBM executive. The logic behind outsourcing is that you can take the same cheap, substandard labor force that offshore companies use, and somehow make the same quality product. It isn't the architects and the innovators that make the company anymore - it's the management, apparently.
  • IBM has been practicing age discrimination in their layoffs (not to mention pension conversion) for many years. This has been facilitated directly by complicity of our politicians and court system. Obviously, IBM has for years been buying off politicians and much of the news media (Forbes article on Palmisano, for example). Is IBM different from other big business in the US these days? Probably not. The root cause is ethics lapses, and the situation continues to get worse as other companies join in the fun.
• Alliance@IBM: US job cuts continue as company gears up for 100th anniversary. Full excerpt: As IBM prepares a massive public relations campaign around the founding of IBM 100 years ago, more job cuts are being reported. It seems to most US employees that the "churn and burn" in IBM just never stops, and it doesn't. For those employees targeted for the recent resource action and for the over 15,000 who lost their jobs the past few years, a celebration of IBM's founding will ring a little hollow.

  As the celebration gears up, the media and the country are seeing IBM presented through the eyes of the corporate executives, not the rank and file IBMer. A recent article in Fortune magazine painted a very rosy picture of Sam Palmisano as head of IBM. The article lauded Sam for his leading IBM into the 21st century.

  Comments from IBM employees that were posted to the article were not very flattering and took Palmisano to task for IBM's poor treatment of employees, the decline in working conditions, the decline in salaries and pensions, and the constant job cuts that have devastated the US workforce as work is off-shored. And it wasn't just US IBM employees who were taking Sam to task. Many comments came from IBMer's around the world.

  Typical comments posted to the article:

  "As a UK IBM employee, and soon to be ex-employee (I'm getting out now), my main reason for leaving is lack of respect and lack of reward; no pay rise since 2007; a stunning performance by IBM. My team and personally was very poorly rewarded. I have key skills in a growing technical area and would have personally brought in £250K revenue in just normal work let alone additional new business. Did anyone at the high-levels bother about this. Nope. Not one bit. The modern IBM does not care about employees; just costs and profit."

  "As a retired 30-year IBM veteran, I have worked with some wonderful people during my career and can honestly say that IBM has some awesomely talented people in their technical ranks and that they have arguably the best workforce in the world right here in the U.S.A. On the other hand, IBM Management 'led' by Sam Palmisellout is totally clandestine and self-serving and are completely out of touch with the general IBM Employee Population. Employee morale at IBM is at 'rock-bottom' since they are generally overworked, underpaid, are totally disrespected by Management, are no longer provided with any sense of job security, and have seen many of their talented fellow IBM employees fired and their jobs moved to offshore locations (Brazil, India, China, etc.) simply for cheaper labor and definitely not for technical advantage. Their Raises and Promotions are rare and realistic career paths are non-existent for non-executive personnel. Many IBM'ers I know totally despise those pompous and greedy ARMONK-EY Executives and would hardly call them 'leaders' since they don't have a clue how to grow revenue and rely on perpetual cost cutting (offshoring, layoffs, salary rebanding, benefit reductions, etc.) as the primary means of profitability. The Technical folks are the major reason why IBM is a successful Corporation and they deserve the utmost respect from those IBM Corporate Executives."

  So how did Fortune magazine react to the 200 plus critical comments? Did the editors commission a story on what IBM workers are going through working at the new IBM? No. They simply deleted all the comments. To many this was simply a whitewash. Can't upset the celebration with a little truth.

  IBM employees around the world are proud of the work they do for the company. IBM employees are also civic minded, giving back to the communities where they work and live.

  IBM employees are simply saying to the CEO and the world--give us some respect, not empty words and public relations campaigns. Treat us as assets not liabilities. Call us people not "resources". Reward loyalty with concern for employees well being. Let us have a true voice in the workplace. Let us join our unions and the global union alliance free from intimidation. Do all that and more and there will be cause to celebrate.

• Poughkeepsie Journal: IBM cuts more jobs; Dutchess affected. Excerpts: Centennial year or not, IBM Corp. is continuing its practice of trimming the workforce. Job cuts began Tuesday and include some in Dutchess County, where IBM is the largest private employer.

  Lee Conrad, national organizer for the Alliance@IBM, a union group, said that the cuts "seem widespread," and are in the Systems and Technology division and in Global Technology Services. ...

  The company has not announced anything, and no longer does, as a matter of policy. Tom Midgley, president of the Alliance@IBM, confirmed that a "resource action" is under way and that it has reached into local sites, though he did not have specific numbers. ...

  "I  don't think people are feeling too jubilant about the 100th anniversary while their jobs are being cut and the company is making record profits," said Midgley, who works at the East Fishkill IBM site. "It seems to most US employees that the 'churn and burn' in IBM just never stops, and it doesn't," said an online article posted by the group.

  Selected reader comments concerning the article follow:

  • Congratulations IBM. More families will be in trouble paying mortgage and school tax this year. What's not being reported is the salary freeze and salary cut practice in IBM Global Services division since 2006 (before the recession). People here don't believe me that the annual 5% or so increase in school tax feels like 15-20% every year, because of the salary freeze, salary cut, and grocery price increase combined.
  • With record profits and recent conviction of Moffat Palmisano's right hand man at IBM. I think it's time to lay off Palmisano. As a former 31 Year IBM Senior Manager I am ashamed of how IBM is treating their employees.
  • The employees may not be happy but I'm sure the stockholders are. Truth be told, IBM cares little about the employees but that feeling is mutual. It's one of the dirty little secrets of business - employees don't care about the company. Oh, they may say they do, but if another job paying more comes knocking, they're gone. For-profit companies exist primarily to increase shareholder equity. IBM has done that very, very well.
    • They're gone because of job security...why have faith in a company that will just chew you up and spit you out because you speak English, not Indian....
    • IBM's ISO9001 Quality Policy mentions "stakeholders", which is supposed to include employees. IBM stopped caring about the employees when it stopped being a leader and instead became a follower- we don't have to be the best, just the most profitable. Let others innovate and we'll sell their product to our customers. Any old-time employees or retirees will tell you about opinion surveys, where one question was always "How confident are you that you will continue to have a job with IBM as long as you do your job well?" Other questions included how competitive benefits and salary were. Do they even have opinion surveys anymore? Oh, and if it is so cost-effective to offshore manufacturing jobs, imagine how much more cost effective it would be to offshore executive jobs.
  • Alliance ... are they still around? Let's give IBM more tax breaks. Sam gets a bonus and employees get the SHAFT! When are our politicians going to learn, IBM is leaving the Hudson Valley.
  • And some of you IBM'ers want public employees to give up what you don't have...maybe you should have unionized long time ago. 28 yr employee probably got canned for no other reason other than getting close to retire....was probably a great employee...will never know..and there are more out there I'm sure.
  • Of course people are leaving IBM. Voluntarily. This has happened in the past 10 years (at least). Just so you know many units have implemented salary freeze and salary cut (it is not company-wide). This trend is not only continuing, it is actually accelerating. That is why I worry this area will have a double dip housing crash when the house for sale sign will start increasing. Sometimes high earner household is replaced with low income household gradually over the years. The change is very subtle.
  • What a bunch of whiners. IBM is one of the only companies thriving in this economic environment. Why don't some of the whiners start your own company and run it the way you think it should be run? Let me know how that works out for ya. Palmisano should be given a raise to $100M per year. He is doing a fantastic job. This article shouldn't even be printed. 103 layoffs in a company that has nearly 450,000 employees. That's like a company with 5000 employees laying of 1 person. Would that make the paper?
• Austin Statesman: Report: IBM job cuts affect Austin, other sites. By Kirk Ladendorf. Excerpts: IBM Corp. has begun cutting jobs this week at several sites around the United States, including Austin, according to a union-related group that tracks the company's U.S. job moves. IBM had no direct comment on the extent or the size of its job cuts. ...

  IBM employs more than 6,000 people in Austin, which remains one of the company's most productive research and development operations. Much of the company's work in Austin is tied to Unix software and hardware development, development of the Power family of microprocessors, Tivoli Systems software, and Linux development. ...

  "The number of IBM jobs has declined dramatically over the last five years in the U.S.," Conrad said. "A lot of jobs have been off-shored and outsourced to India, China and South America."

  The group said that IBM's in this country declined from 133,789 in 2005 to 105,000 in 2009 before the company stopped providing a U.S. headcount. In recent years, it said, IBM's hiring has been heaviest in India, Asia-Pacific and Latin America, where wages are generally lower. The organization believes that IBM's U.S. job total now is below 100,000.

  Selected reader comments concerning the above article follow:

  • IBM = India Brazil Mainland China. RA with over 20 years. My last day can't come quick enough to leave this hell hole!! I may be broke but I will be much happier.
  • From personal experience - IBM is a horrible company. They treat their employees like garbage with excessive, unpaid overtime, no option for utilizing comp time, and general disrespect for treating people with respect. I would never, ever, recommend them to anyone. For anything. The people who lose jobs here in Austin are much better off w/o IBM.
  • Anyone that criticizes IBM for making cuts or moving jobs overseas hasn't the least bit of common sense regarding business. You have been sold and bought a set of lies by the Liberals that make you believe a company's purpose is to hire and keep employed people. You are a fool if you believe that and you would not last a year running your own business following that stupid model.
• Yahoo! IBM Employee Issues message board: "Who is Doug Shelton?" by "sby_willie". Full excerpt:

  "IBM re-balances its skills and resources throughout the year to ensure that we meet the evolving needs of our clients," said Doug Shelton, IBM's director of corporate media relations. "IBM does not comment publicly on details of its staffing plans or headcount."

  Doug Shelton. Is he actually a person? Or is he the voice of the Watson Jeopardy! computer? Is he just a tape recording released to the media?

  He always and only comments with the same remarks above.

  Does anyone have any other comment Shelton has made, other than not or declining to comment?

  Being IBM director of corporate media relations seems an real easy and cozy job: you don't have to say much; and you just have to say the same thing all the time.

  IBM should eliminate IBM director of corporate media relations and save the stockholders the equivalent of his salary and benefits as an effective cost cutting measure.

• Glassdoor IBM reviews. Selected reviews follow:
  • IBM User Experience in Austin, TX: (Current Employee) "Decent if you want to play the corporate game." Pros: Decent pay, they love people who want to grow their career and will give you the opportunities. Can be fairly flexible with work hours and location (can work from home). Cons: Have to play the corporate game if you want to be seen as a "valued contributor" - raises and bonuses are tied to this. Continuing to offshore jobs which makes it difficult to work with knowledgeable people that are needed when developing new projects, makes the job that much harder. Company is less concerned with putting out software that doesn't look like it was developed by interns and tons of defects. If the project needs 5 people to work on it, only 2-3 will be allocated. Advice to Senior Management: Learn how to properly evaluate your employees and quit using the generic/all-in-one PBC method that gets abused by people putting so much spin on what they do, they make paint drying sound like an engineering breakthrough. Offshoring jobs may save a buck to make the stock look good, but the people you hire are mostly incompetent with high turnover. In the end it will cost you more money than what you saved since it's takes them 3x as long to get it done and hurts the companies image by producing a poor user experience due to all the bugs/defects.
  • IBM Anonymous: (Current Employee) "IBM...I'm By Myself" Pros: flexibility to work from home is great, but can be very impersonal at times. Cons: management is never satisfied. they want more more more and give you less less less. Advice to Senior Management: stop outsourcing to other countries and getting rid of US employees
  • IBM Anonymous in Bangalore (India): (Current Employee) "Good. Awareness of opportunities minimal" Pros: Work life balance extremely good. Global opportunities. Cons: Highly process oriented. Too much information available and process driven. Advice to Senior Management: Highly hierarchy oriented making it difficult to reach out anytime.
  • IBM Senior Program Manager in Toronto, ON (Canada): (Current Employee) "Great company to gain experience." Pros: Ability to move to different areas and different job roles. Cons: Gone are the days of "respect of individual." Advice to Senior Management: People are the most important capital of a company, executives need to treat people/employees the way the like to be treated.
  • IBM Sales: (Current Employee) "OK Work/Life Balance, Decent Benefits, But big and frustrating" Pros: - You will not be punished for taking vacation; - Work from home; - Decent pay to pressure ratio; - Strong R&D and acquisition strategy. Cons: - Too many employees, too few structured processes to get things done; - Middle management filled dead weight and annoying pet projects; - Inside sales strategy is worthless; - Customers are dissatisfied with support; - Accountants prevent deals, yet expect rapid sales cycles; - Very little cross team collaboration (peers often are gatekeepers of clients); - Company is run by spreadsheets. Advice to Senior Management: - Eliminate 30% of the management staff; - Eliminate 20% of sales staff who do not contribute; - Give your reps a CRM tool that manages contacts and pipeline; - Blow up the inside sales org and hire new management from a competitor; - Abandon the mindset that pressure can shorten sales cycles from months to weeks; - Give management back time to work with the field to close business and execute quickly.
  • IBM Anonymous: (Current Employee) "DBA" Pros: IBM name value still exist in the market. So I can utilize the name value to find another job at best. Cons: IBM treats employees just a worker and does not give us any respect to have personal life and career path. Advice to Senior Management: IBM management should establish a solid and robust career program so the employees can work towards the career goals instead.
  • IBM Managing Consultant in Armonk, NY: (Current Employee) "Inertia at its best." Pros: Good benefits, both medical and 401K. Pay is about on par with competition. To get fired is a rarity. Cons: Environment is very bureaucratic and risk taking is limited. Old ideas continue to overpower new ones. Advice to Senior Management: Promote accountability and responsibility.
• CNN: America can learn from Europe on work-life balance. By Cary L. Cooper. Excerpts: Americans have a lot to offer the world in terms of business innovation and technological advances, but they have a great deal to learn from Europeans about getting better balance between work and life.

  The U.S. has some of the longest working hours in the developed world. On top of that, Americans also have some of the shortest paid vacation leave. And although many European countries have seen increases in their working hours -- particularly the UK -- employees are typically given between four and six weeks' paid vacation time by their employer.

  So what drives Americans to work such long hours and take few, if any, vacations?

  One explanation is that Americans are intrinsically "workaholic." Getting ahead at work is fundamental to their self image, and to the image they like to project to their employer, and, indeed, to the outside world -- America is open for business 24/7! And this is not only about individual behavior, but also about corporate culture.

  Another explanation, which is more psychological in orientation, is that American workers are intrinsically more insecure than their counterparts in other countries. Many European countries have better employment protection for workers, including legislation about redundancy pay, or sick leave, or hours of work, or break times at work.

  Indeed, in the European Union there is the Working Time Directive that specifies that workers are not allowed to work over an average of 48 hours per week over a specified number of weeks, together with other specific constraints about breaks and length of shifts. Most E.U. countries have signed up to this Directive.

  In the U.S., with less employment protection and employees more vulnerable to instant job loss if they don't deliver, I suspect that many workers are frightened of taking up their holiday entitlement, as meager as it is, because they fear it sends the message that "I will not be perceived as fully committed or giving 100%." ...

  Recent research is showing that consistently working long hours and not taking respite away from work, can have a damaging effect on health, and can negatively affect family life.

  The notion that working long hours and not taking holidays makes for a more productive workforce is, in my view, a managerial myth, with no foundation in organizational or psychological science. The human body is a biological machine, and like all machines can wear out.

• Vault: Bill Clinton: B-Schools Promote One of 'Two Bad Ideas' Hurting America. Excerpts: Bill Clinton, addressing NYU's graduating class inside Yankees Stadium, talked of two bad ideas that America has adopted over the last thirty years. These two ideas, he believed, have not only hurt our country badly, but exist only to serve the powerful.

  The seed of one of those bad ideas choking our country, Clinton said, has been sown in our business schools for some time now, that of a shareholder-only vision of the world.

  I was probably the last generation of Americans until the present day who could have gotten an MBA, if I went to business school instead of law school, with the prevailing theory being that American corporations had obligations primarily to all their stakeholders.

  Ever since then we've been teaching our young people that your primary obligation is only to the shareholders. The problem is that if you do that you ignore the other stakeholders.

  That could be why wages have been virtually stagnant for 30 years—because the workers are stakeholders. It could be why communities haven't been able to undertake economic transformations in many places—because communities are stakeholders. It could be why customers don't care so much what the source of their purchases are—they're stakeholders. I think we have to move back to a stakeholder not just a shareholder-only society in the United States and throughout the world.