Are you an IBMer?

Would you be concerned if you were working for a massive blue-chip company that is considering reducing their workforce by nearly 300,000 people within the next 5-6 years?

IT giant IBM told Personnel Today that the firm’s global workforce of 399,000 permanent employees could reduce to 100,000 by 2017, the date by which the firm is due to complete its HR transformation program.

Tim Ringo, head of IBM Human Capital Management, the consultancy arm of the IT conglomerate, said the firm would re-hire the workers as contractors for specific projects as and when necessary, a concept dubbed ‘crowd sourcing’.

Just to confuse IBM employees a little bit more, an IBM spokesman denied that they were about to cut their permanent workforce by three quarters in seven years so, we can’t be 100% sure which version is true although I’m a firm believer that actions speak louder than words and…

Lee Conrad, national field coordinator ofAlliance@IBM said that: “It’s clear IBM is moving work offshore at a record rate,” the union reported that IBM had cut more than 1,200 jobs in the U.S. and Canada as of Monday afternoon.

IBM reported a whopping $13.4 billion record profit in 2009 which is 9% higher than the previous year so we can’t blame them for trying to save money eh?

And what is crowd sourcing anyway?

Crowd sourcing is “the act of taking a job traditionally performed by an employee and outsourcing it to an undefined group of people on a project-by-project basis, in the form of an open call.”

That’s the fancy definition… You and I would use more simple terms, like it’s as easy as 1, 2, 3.

1. After years of loyalty and working hard for your employer, they fire you.
2. Your job them magically whooshes off to India, China, Costa Rica or some other far-off land where…
3. Someone else now does the job you had and earns way less money than you ever did, normally with zero benefits.

Crowd sourcing, offshoring and outsourcing are all fantastic community building tools.

Unfortunately these tools are building communities in other countries that most of us will never see and, what we still don’t seem to understand is that over the long-term, this is destroying communities in our own cities and towns in the USA, Canada, the UK and Europe.

As a corporation, you can tell me that IBM’s only responsibility is to its shareholders, to always try and reduce costs and to constantly try to increase its profits and I agree but, surely the people who manage and work for the company also have a social responsibility to their fellow employees and the overall community in which they live?

And maybe we could even look further into the future than just the next quarter’s earnings report and perhaps wonder what jobs will remain for our children? And their children?

Are you an IBMer?

If you are, take a look at IBM’s half page advertisement in Costa Rica’s La Nacion newspaper (the first advert above) and maybe you could try and offshore yourself and your job to Costa Rica?

It will be as hard for you to get visa to work in Costa Rica as it would be for a Costa Rican to get a visa to work in the USA but, you never know…

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Written by Scott Oliver, author of 1. Costa Rica Real Estate Scams & How To Avoid Them, 2. How To Buy Costa Rica Real Estate Without Losing Your Camisa, and 3. Costa Rica’s Guide To Making Money Offshore.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.