IBM Shifts Remaining US-Based AIX Dev Jobs To India

According to The Register, IBM has shifted the roles of US IBM Systems employees developing AIX over to the Indian office. From the report: Prior to this transition, said to taken place in the third quarter of 2022, AIX development was split more or less evenly between the US and India, an IBM source told The Register. With the arrival of 2023, the entire group had been moved to India. Roughly 80 US-based AIX developers were affected, our source estimates. We're told they were 'redeployed,' and given an indeterminate amount of time to find a new position internally, in keeping with practices we reported last week based on claims by other IBM employees.

Evidently, the majority of those redeployed found jobs elsewhere at IBM. A lesser number of staff are evidently stuck in 'redeployment limbo,' with no IBM job identified and no evident prospects at the company. 'It also appears that these people in 'redeployment' limbo within IBM are all older, retirement eligible employees,' our source said. 'The general sense among my peers is that redeployment is being used to nudge older employees out of the company and to do so in a manner that avoids the type of scrutiny that comes with layoffs.'

Layoffs generally come with a severance payment and may have reporting requirements. Redeployments -- directing workers to find another internal position, which may require relocating -- can avoid cost and bureaucracy. They also have the potential to encourage workers to depart on their own. We're told that IBM does not disclose redeployment numbers to its employees and does not report how internal jobs were obtained -- through internal search, with the assistance of management -- or were not obtained -- employees left in limbo or who choose to leave rather than wait.

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