What happened to keeping your word?
I work for IBM. I have a great job and very supportive management, but there is one issue that keeps surfacing when I talk with others who are also long-standing IBMers -- the Pension Plan. Something critical has gone wrong here, and it colors our entire feelings for the firm and its leaders.
IBM was once a leader in valuing its relationship with its people. Their mantras of "Respect for the Individual", "Good corporate Citizenship in the local community", and "excellent business practice" became hallmarks of how a well-run business got and stayed ahead in the 1950's and 60's, but IBM was there long before that. There is a story that in the Great Depression, TJ Watson, Sr did not release his engineering staff, as so many of his competitors did. Instead, he kept them on in any role he could find - sweeping floors, if necessary. When WW II came along, he was poised with a qualified and loyal team to pull out all the stops to support the effort. IBM flew out of the gate and never looked back. Loyalty flowed both ways and all benefited.
Fast forward to a new world of tough times. GM is way in the red. Airlines are suffering. IBM slashes their defined benefit pension plans along with these failing behemoths. Why? "This is the business trend, so we are getting on early.' So IBM is being run as well as such business luminaries and GM and US Air. Congratulations.
IBM should be ashamed. For years, they staved off the unions by providing benefits that rivaled union shops. For years, they promised to take care of their people and now, while the company is strong and healthy, they abandon that promise to chase the easy solution to meeting quarterly objectives.
IBM's own business conduct guidelines say, "Honesty based on clear communication is integral to ethical behavior. The resulting trustworthiness is essential to forming and maintaining sound, lasting relationships." Does not honesty start with keeping your word? Sure, the legal blurbette has always said, "IBM reserves the right....", but this is not about the Law. It is about honesty - which puts you in the moral landscape. When a company has a team of 200 lawyers seeking ways to break a promise without incurring legal damage, that is morally the same as an out-and-out lie.
God, help me to pray for the well-being of my company and its leaders. They have hurt me through their misguided desire to fix what they see as an unsustainable business model. Their willingness to follow the path that others, weaker than themselves, have trod is reprehensible. If I, in return, refuse to give them an honest day's work for my pay, I am every bit as guilty. Only through your grace and my trust in your care can I let go of my anger and give my best.
Amen.
IBM was once a leader in valuing its relationship with its people. Their mantras of "Respect for the Individual", "Good corporate Citizenship in the local community", and "excellent business practice" became hallmarks of how a well-run business got and stayed ahead in the 1950's and 60's, but IBM was there long before that. There is a story that in the Great Depression, TJ Watson, Sr did not release his engineering staff, as so many of his competitors did. Instead, he kept them on in any role he could find - sweeping floors, if necessary. When WW II came along, he was poised with a qualified and loyal team to pull out all the stops to support the effort. IBM flew out of the gate and never looked back. Loyalty flowed both ways and all benefited.
Fast forward to a new world of tough times. GM is way in the red. Airlines are suffering. IBM slashes their defined benefit pension plans along with these failing behemoths. Why? "This is the business trend, so we are getting on early.' So IBM is being run as well as such business luminaries and GM and US Air. Congratulations.
IBM should be ashamed. For years, they staved off the unions by providing benefits that rivaled union shops. For years, they promised to take care of their people and now, while the company is strong and healthy, they abandon that promise to chase the easy solution to meeting quarterly objectives.
IBM's own business conduct guidelines say, "Honesty based on clear communication is integral to ethical behavior. The resulting trustworthiness is essential to forming and maintaining sound, lasting relationships." Does not honesty start with keeping your word? Sure, the legal blurbette has always said, "IBM reserves the right....", but this is not about the Law. It is about honesty - which puts you in the moral landscape. When a company has a team of 200 lawyers seeking ways to break a promise without incurring legal damage, that is morally the same as an out-and-out lie.
God, help me to pray for the well-being of my company and its leaders. They have hurt me through their misguided desire to fix what they see as an unsustainable business model. Their willingness to follow the path that others, weaker than themselves, have trod is reprehensible. If I, in return, refuse to give them an honest day's work for my pay, I am every bit as guilty. Only through your grace and my trust in your care can I let go of my anger and give my best.
Amen.
posted by Cliff at 7:11 AM
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