2 weeks Ago By Riddhima Kanetkar
A large-scale corporate restructuring is underway at IBM, with the company looking to lay off close to 9000 employees across several locations in the US, as per reports. A major portion of the job cuts is likely to affect IBM's Cloud Classic division, with close to a quarter of its workforce facing redundancy, according to a report by The Register. IBM has yet to officially announce the exact number of layoffs.
Reports state that this move will affect IBM employees in locations such as California, New York City and State, Texas, Dallas, Raleigh, North Carolina, and more. As per reports, the employees in consulting, corporate social responsibility initiatives, cloud infrastructure, sales, and internal IT teams, working under IBM’s Chief Information Officer, will be most affected by this move. It is said that the main reason behind the layoffs from IBM Cloud Classic, which is based on the company's acquisition of SoftLayer in 2013, is its steady plan to shift employment to India.
IBM, slowly but steadily, has been moving jobs overseas, and this restructuring further revs that shift. In India, IBM has a presence in cities like Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, and Hyderabad. The Register reported that IBM, as of now, has more job openings in India than in the US.
IBM CEO Arvind Krishna had earlier also stressed “shifting labor focus to India”. The report also stated that the employees remaining in the US will also be subjected to new work policies. The ones who were spared from layoffs have been asked to return to the office at least three days a week, beginning in late April.
"Management is monitoring badge swipes and only allowing medical exemption, which is being frowned upon by executives and even discouraged by middle managers. Concrete numbers are being kept private. It is in the thousands," the report said, as quoted by The Register.
IBM is yet to publicly comment on the precise number of job losses or the extent to which it is restructuring..
