IBM Tells STG Workers To Take A Holiday On A Third Of Pay

August 12, 2013 Timothy Prickett Morgan

IBM is doing a little belt tightening in the parts of the company that make chips, servers, storage, and systems software, as well as those workers who buy all the myriad parts that go into these devices.

Big Blue confirmed last week that it was indeed asking selected employees in the United States to take a week of mandatory holiday. The employees are in the company’s Systems and Technology Group and in the cross-divisional Integrated Supply Chain operation that procures parts for devices made by IBM.

An IBM spokesperson tells The Four Hundred that the employees are being asked to take a week off starting on either August 24 or August 31. (It was not clear if they could pick the week, or IBM had not decided yet.) The executives working for Systems and Technology Group and the Integrated Supply Chain division that supports it are not being given pay for that week of forced furlough, but all other employees will be given one-third of their normal pay for that week.

“In lieu of other options considered, this approach best balances the interests of employees and the competitiveness of the STG business,” the IBM spokesperson explained. And it is hard to argue with that, with IBM having laid off thousands of employees–many of them in Systems and Technology Group–during the past quarter.

It would have probably been a good idea for morale at the company if CEO Ginni Rometty took a sympathy week off from her pay like the STG and ISC executives.