IBM, the silent job cutter, stokes worker anxiety, speculation

IBM’s new chief executive officer, Arvind Krishna, has continued an unusual company tradition, refusing to disclose the scale of its latest round of job cuts. The price: speculation about thousands of positions eliminated in the U.S. last month, and heightened anxiety among employees. “Everyone wants to know what the full picture is, but they’ll never get it from IBM,” said James Cortada, who spent decades at IBM and has written books on the company’s culture.

International Business Machines Corp. has kept mum on these numbers for decades, with arguably one exception in 1993 when Lou Gerstner, a CEO hired from outside the company, announced 60,000 dismissals. When Krishna took the helm in April, Cortada and current employees hoped the new CEO would use the reorganization to make his mark and be more transparent as IBM enters its third revolution in 108 years. Instead, Krishna, a company veteran, is sticking to the threadbare script.