IBM thoughts

Here are photos of where I used to work at in Rochester when I worked on the AS/400 computer.  The first photo was taken prior to my working there.  The second photo when I worked there. The place looks different now.

The plant is large.  Roughly... the left half is development lab with the right half being the manufacturing plant. The buildings are two stories tall with many buildings in the lab also having a basement.  According to the Wikipedia site the plant is a mile long.  I don't remember it being that long.  More likely it was a mile if you drove around the plant.

In the second photo the open area in the lower right is now filled with businesses and box stores. Also the open area at the top of the photo is cluttered with businesses and houses.

A close up example of one of the blue buildings I had worked in (though not this particular building).

When I was in Rochester a few weeks ago I also noticed the IBM parking lots now are nowhere near full. They actually seemed empty. When I worked there in the 80s and 90s if you came late you often had a problem finding a parking spot. Apparently IBM has laid off a lot of people earlier this year.  Talking to people I am learning that a number of my peers over the age of 50 were laid off.  Apparently IBM is shipping their jobs to China.

It's too bad.  I have fond memories of working at IBM.  Lots of people working there; full parking lots; people excited about what they were doing, new computers to design and build; the promise and excitement of a future.  I wonder what it is like to work there now.  Must be a depressing place with the feeling that the best times have passed.

People no longer ask me if I wished I was still working for IBM.

From the articles I am struck at how different the mindset is between Minnesota and Montana.  The economic downturn is hitting the Flathead Valley hard.  The loggers and the lumber plants are hurting with the housing downturn.  The aluminum plant is closing the end of this month. Etc., etc. Yet our Montana U.S. Senators and Representative are talking of protecting and promoting jobs and are securing and ensuring government financial and educational help to the laid of people, even when only 50 are laid off.  I noticed in the following news articles, and in other similar articles, the lack of any political help by the Minnesota officials for the laid off IBMers.

IBM Rochester layoffs may number more than 1,000

IBM Jobs: 60% of STG terminations were over age 50