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posted by on Thursday February 09 2017, @09:08AM   Printer-friendly
from the end-of-an-era dept.

Exclusive IBM is cracking down on remote workers, ordering unlucky employees to either come into one of six main offices and work "shoulder to shoulder" – or leave for good.

In a confidential video message to staff seen by The Register on Tuesday, chief marketing officer Michelle Peluso told her US marketing troops they must work at "a smaller set of locations" if they want to continue with the company. Staffers have 30 days to decide whether to stay or go.

This means affected IBMers who telecommute, work at a smaller district office, or otherwise work separately from their team, will now have just a few weeks to either quit their jobs, or commit to moving to another part of America. The company's employee badge system will be used to ensure people do come into the office rather than stealthily remain remote workers.

According to sources, the six "strategic" offices US marketing staff must work from are in: Austin, Texas; San Francisco, California; New York City, New York; Boston, Massachusetts; Atlanta, Georgia; and Raleigh, North Carolina. El Reg understands that employees will not get to choose a nearby office, but will instead be assigned a location based on where their team is predominantly situated. The first wave of workers were informed of the changes on Monday. The next wave will be instructed in early March, we're told.

Marissa Mayer has worked wonders at Yahoo and the rest of the tech industry should follow her lead?


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Dunbal on Thursday February 09 2017, @11:43AM

    by Dunbal (3515) on Thursday February 09 2017, @11:43AM (#464950)

    So there aren't enough cubicles for everyone, and anyone not sitting down at a cubicle by next month is fired. We've brought gamification to losing your job.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by BenJeremy on Thursday February 09 2017, @01:14PM

    by BenJeremy (6392) on Thursday February 09 2017, @01:14PM (#464978)

    At HPE, a VP seriously told his people that if there were no cubes to sit at, they could sit in the cafeteria and use WiFi to connect their laptops and work all day there, writing software for 8 hours on 15in screens. The hobo cubes weren't much better than a bench and cafeteria table... I saw keyboards with ripped out USB cables, monitors where, after hooking up through DisplayPort (digital), the display would run in shades of purple (typically a symptom of a bad analog connection, NOT DisplayPort). Of course, being HP/HPE, i was baffled at the poor quality of the specs, too... 1600x900? What is this? 2002?

    The mobility cubes were first come, first serve, and on occasion had the potential to provide thunderdome-like action between to employees vying for the same cube.

    • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:24PM

      by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Thursday February 09 2017, @03:24PM (#465022) Journal

      Call me cynical. I suspect upper manglers are laughing themselves silly watching this play out.

      --
      People today are educated enough to repeat what they are taught but not to question what they are taught.