For decades, IBM avoided layoffs. Its culture was called “cradle to grave.” The company held “lavish carnivals for workers and their families.” Its guiding value was “respect for the individual.”
In 1993, under its new CEO, Louis Gerstner, IBM cut about 60,000 jobs. A 2016 Marketplace series called it “the unthinkable.” A former communications manager remembered the message: “It was basically look to the left, look to the right, some of you won’t be here.” A retiree said: “It’s no longer respect for the individual. It’s respect for the stockholders.”
Sources differ on when the change began. In 1992 Time reported that IBM had begun “de facto layoffs” the year before.