But IBM’s latest early retirement programme to cut up to 10,000 jobs looks to have misfired like the earlier ones, reports Computer Systems News, which says that the offer has generated overwhelming response, but that many of the people that want to go are not the ones that IBM would be pleased to see the back of. At the San Jose big disk plant, nearly three times as many people as IBM wants to lose have applied, the trade paper hears, and many of the volunteers in planning and marketing have been actively seeking jobs with other Silicon Valley companies. Gartner Group reckons that the company may allow as many as 15,000 to go – but IBM will seek to hang on to the ones it regards as key. But it then faces the problem that if they already have offers of jobs elsewhere, they may decide to take them even without the IBM pay-off, especially if the would-be employer is keen enough to offer to match IBM pay-off terms with a signing-on bonus.
