IBM in the US is being quite open about its desire to reduce its head count, but IBM UK is instituting a much sneakier and more insidious method of achieving the same effect – as from September, IBM UK employees will be allowed to smoke only in designated areas, and as yet no-one has dared make a decision about what is and what isn’t an undesignated area – but if you’re a smoker, the more unwanted you are, the further away and more unpleasant the designated area is likely to be; already the ban on smoking extends to conference rooms, cafe areas and lifts, and apparently none of the executive directors are hardened smokers and all are sympathetic to the internal speak up weight of opinion saying smokers should be banned completely – but insiders tell us that the smokers are planning a backlash – perhaps they’ll decamp en masse for Amdahl.
