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GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
United States
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June 10, 2010
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Jan 7, 2026, 10:16 am

Quote: Originally posted by Artist77 on Jan 6, 2026
Awww thank you G5. You are one of my fave lp members.

I believe it was the LP site owner who told him to knock off the religious ranting some time ago and he has had more than a few posts locked on the basis of his name calling. He assumes we all have short term memories.

This was the person who bragged on his celebrity status, alleged wealth, all his women, etc. A pretty disgusting excuse of a human being. He goes through the same 8 stages with every mental breakdown.

1. I am the king of all knowledge and smarter than everyone.

2. When he is challenged, the name calling begins and escalates.

3. He says he only did x, because of another member. Blame shifting.

4. The religious rants escalate as well as his claims of moral superiority. He is now a defender of the downtrodden and poor!

5. Makes up facts to support his bizarre claims such as Bryan Kohlberger went to law school and makes a fool of himself by not doing any basic research. Then says it does not matter.

6. Reiterates his importance such as his allegedly sharing the "same DNA" with a well known person or having met celebrities

7. After more pushback, he says he was attacked first and he loves everyone.

8. More religious rants and claims of racism.

And the steps start all over.

I LOVED #6. "Reiterates his importance such as his allegedly sharing the "same DNA" with a well known person or having met celebrities"

Although I'm not a blood relative to the late Joseph Heller (author of one of the biggest best selling novels ever written -"Catch 22") my niece was married to Joe Heller's brother in law. Hollywood even made a movie called Catch 22.

I met Joe Heller twice, once at a wedding and at a house party given by my niece. Couldn't stand the guy! And he made it very clear that he detested us "common people." He sat all by himself out in the lobby of the restaurant where the wedding reception for my niece and his brand new brother in law was being held. Every other attendee (including his wife, who was my niece's brand new sister in law) was having a ball dancing and singing to a great jazz band in the dining room. A little boy (my four year old son, Christopher) wandered up to Joe and stood in front of him just staring at him. (like many little kids often do)

Joe looked away.. fidgeted for a while, and finally got up and went into the mens room without uttering a single word. To this day, my family and I roar with laughter every time we remember how my 4 year old Christopher stared down Joe Heller. After his death, his estate was probated (a 33 million dollar estate) and he left his wife 11 million dollars. His two kids by a previous marriage got 11 million each.

I don't tell people the story above very much. I don't want anybody to know that I was connected by marriage to an ogre like Joe Heller. I must be weird or something, right??? G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
United States
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June 10, 2010
7,148 Posts
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Jan 7, 2026, 11:22 am

Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jan 7, 2026
Yup, I'm here living on Florida's "Suncoast" and I must tell you despite the heat of Summer, I love it.

See, I'm a transplant from New York. (upstate which is more "Red" than "Blue") So now I'm living amongst people that have many of the same values (not to mention political views) that I do.

It was kinda tough having to live almost all of my life in a Blue State like NY. Sure, I had my Republican friends, but I had Liberal neighbors (some of whom I liked quite a bit because they were high quality/excellent people... it was their politics that stunk) and at work, I had DEI forced down my throat by Big Blue. "Celebrate Diversity!" was their battle cry. But being a white male limited my career advancement more than just a little bit. So I learned to throw IBM verbal curve balls and told many a manager that I supported all of the company's left leaning garbage. And yes, that was pretty darn hypocritical of me and I absolutely hated being a hypocrite. What else can a guy do? Many (and I do mean many) white men that I knew were doing it right along with me, and some of those guys careers moved along quite nicely. It was corporate politics (which included the "buddy system") at it's ever lovin' best. My brother worked for IBM too, and he once said to me "Ya know, it's like a wild scramble for good jobs in this place. People will do ANYTHING to get a good job." And they did exactly that! Trust me on that one. Reports both in the halls of IBM and stories appearing in the local newspaper were shocking. Extramarital affairs, heterosexual and homosexual sex after hours behind closed office doors, cocaine and other narcotics being used in the workplace, and theft of IBM's high dollar mainframe computer parts being sold on The Black Market were only a few things that happened during my career. Unbelievably bad immoral behavior on the part of some employees, and I'm no bible thumper.

One woman I knew "celebrated diversity" to her maximum advantage and was brazen enough to tell me exactly HOW she was doing it. Her exact words to me were - "I got dealt some aces in a poker game and I'll be ed if I'll give them back to the f***ing dealer." Here's another quote from an IBM manager to me -- I was being considered along with others (some were female) for what I considered to be a good career move, but I didn't get the job. I asked my boss what I could have done better in my interview so that in any possible future interviews I'd be a stronger candidate for the position. His response was "IBM is a meritocracy and all promotions are based upon merit. Except in this case your d**k got in the way of you getting that job." The only thing I can recall about my reaction to his comment was "How crude!" All that comment did was make me despise him. I previously had a good relationship with him right up until he made that comment. I should have turned his idiot a$$ in, but I did'nt.

Good God!! After rereading what I wrote above, am I ever glad I'm retired and relocated to Florida. How I hacked that BS for 32 years, I'll never know! G5

This post has been automatically changed by the Lottery Post computer system to remove inappropriate content and/or spam.

Not to belabor the point, and replying to one's reply to a previous post is definitely a bit tacky, I want to share some additional details of how DEI and "Celebrating Diversity" bit IBM squarely in the behind. That said, I'm NOT going to refer to the salacious/racy goings on that I wrote about in my previous post.

I'd rather flesh out the theft of high dollar mainframe computer parts being sold by IBM employees on the Black Market. I personally knew two of the members of the six member ring that eventually went to prison who were involved in the scandal. I knew The Ring's leader, and a member of the ring. Both of them were arrested on IBM's premises and led out of the building in handcuffs by local detectives. Both men were African Americans, and they both benefited from affirmative action programs IBM had in place. Of course, IBM immediately terminated their employment.

The Ringleader was an IBM manager. He could barely speak English, and any emails he sent were sometimes unintelligible. When the story broke in the local paper, imagine our reaction when we read The Ring leader was a convicted felon prior to being hired by IBM.

The other guy, was very literate, eloquent, was soft spoken and friendly, an excellent athlete, and I thought prior to the theft ring being exposed, he was an all around good guy with a bright future ahead of him. (And rightly so, or so I thought) He was married to a nurse, and they had twin infant daughters. She did not work and my guess is that she chose not to work because of the workload on her plate with regard to having twin babies. She was a lovely person.

Talk about IBM management having egg on their face! But this whole ugly episode didn't slow down IBM's DEI freight train. I'd also point out that my IBM site was not the only IBM site in The USA where things of this nature went on. I attended many meetings with IBM colleagues from sites scattered around the country and heard similar stories.

Yes, I'm critical of an IBM program that failed miserably, and I don't have an alternative/better solution to offer. IBM wouldn't have listened to me even if I did have a better alternative. When I talked off the record to a personal friend who happened to be an IBM manager, he said to me - "Think about it for a second. What else can we do or offer?"

DEI is just another failed heavy handed but well intended liberal Democrat program forced upon the American public. Some have asked me why I'm a "Mean Old Republican"? Now you know why that's the case. I've no quarrel with anything a liberal Democrat might say, especially if what they're advocating has no negative impact on me personally . But if what they're advocating for is something that hammers me, that's where I draw the line. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
United States
Member #92,603
June 10, 2010
7,148 Posts
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Jan 7, 2026, 11:35 am

Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jan 7, 2026
Not to belabor the point, and replying to one's reply to a previous post is definitely a bit tacky, I want to share some additional details of how DEI and "Celebrating Diversity" bit IBM squarely in the behind. That said, I'm NOT going to refer to the salacious/racy goings on that I wrote about in my previous post.

I'd rather flesh out the theft of high dollar mainframe computer parts being sold by IBM employees on the Black Market. I personally knew two of the members of the six member ring that eventually went to prison who were involved in the scandal. I knew The Ring's leader, and a member of the ring. Both of them were arrested on IBM's premises and led out of the building in handcuffs by local detectives. Both men were African Americans, and they both benefited from affirmative action programs IBM had in place. Of course, IBM immediately terminated their employment.

The Ringleader was an IBM manager. He could barely speak English, and any emails he sent were sometimes unintelligible. When the story broke in the local paper, imagine our reaction when we read The Ring leader was a convicted felon prior to being hired by IBM.

The other guy, was very literate, eloquent, was soft spoken and friendly, an excellent athlete, and I thought prior to the theft ring being exposed, he was an all around good guy with a bright future ahead of him. (And rightly so, or so I thought) He was married to a nurse, and they had twin infant daughters. She did not work and my guess is that she chose not to work because of the workload on her plate with regard to having twin babies. She was a lovely person.

Talk about IBM management having egg on their face! But this whole ugly episode didn't slow down IBM's DEI freight train. I'd also point out that my IBM site was not the only IBM site in The USA where things of this nature went on. I attended many meetings with IBM colleagues from sites scattered around the country and heard similar stories.

Yes, I'm critical of an IBM program that failed miserably, and I don't have an alternative/better solution to offer. IBM wouldn't have listened to me even if I did have a better alternative. When I talked off the record to a personal friend who happened to be an IBM manager, he said to me - "Think about it for a second. What else can we do or offer?"

DEI is just another failed heavy handed but well intended liberal Democrat program forced upon the American public. Some have asked me why I'm a "Mean Old Republican"? Now you know why that's the case. I've no quarrel with anything a liberal Democrat might say, especially if what they're advocating has no negative impact on me personally . But if what they're advocating for is something that hammers me, that's where I draw the line. G5

Actually, I'm not a Mean Old Republican. I'm a Mean Old Conservative. And there's definitely a difference. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
Think

Marquette, MI
United States
Member #20,540
August 20, 2005
1,384 Posts
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Jan 7, 2026, 11:36 am

@G5 A lot, if not most, people have those famous people stories.

They just don't feel it's that big of a deal.

Anyway... everybody now...I Bm you Bm we all Bm for IBM😉

.
Artist77

United States
Member #121,737
January 16, 2012
10,899 Posts
Offline

Jan 7, 2026, 11:36 am

Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jan 7, 2026
Not to belabor the point, and replying to one's reply to a previous post is definitely a bit tacky, I want to share some additional details of how DEI and "Celebrating Diversity" bit IBM squarely in the behind. That said, I'm NOT going to refer to the salacious/racy goings on that I wrote about in my previous post.

I'd rather flesh out the theft of high dollar mainframe computer parts being sold by IBM employees on the Black Market. I personally knew two of the members of the six member ring that eventually went to prison who were involved in the scandal. I knew The Ring's leader, and a member of the ring. Both of them were arrested on IBM's premises and led out of the building in handcuffs by local detectives. Both men were African Americans, and they both benefited from affirmative action programs IBM had in place. Of course, IBM immediately terminated their employment.

The Ringleader was an IBM manager. He could barely speak English, and any emails he sent were sometimes unintelligible. When the story broke in the local paper, imagine our reaction when we read The Ring leader was a convicted felon prior to being hired by IBM.

The other guy, was very literate, eloquent, was soft spoken and friendly, an excellent athlete, and I thought prior to the theft ring being exposed, he was an all around good guy with a bright future ahead of him. (And rightly so, or so I thought) He was married to a nurse, and they had twin infant daughters. She did not work and my guess is that she chose not to work because of the workload on her plate with regard to having twin babies. She was a lovely person.

Talk about IBM management having egg on their face! But this whole ugly episode didn't slow down IBM's DEI freight train. I'd also point out that my IBM site was not the only IBM site in The USA where things of this nature went on. I attended many meetings with IBM colleagues from sites scattered around the country and heard similar stories.

Yes, I'm critical of an IBM program that failed miserably, and I don't have an alternative/better solution to offer. IBM wouldn't have listened to me even if I did have a better alternative. When I talked off the record to a personal friend who happened to be an IBM manager, he said to me - "Think about it for a second. What else can we do or offer?"

DEI is just another failed heavy handed but well intended liberal Democrat program forced upon the American public. Some have asked me why I'm a "Mean Old Republican"? Now you know why that's the case. I've no quarrel with anything a liberal Democrat might say, especially if what they're advocating has no negative impact on me personally . But if what they're advocating for is something that hammers me, that's where I draw the line. G5

Well you are in an ideal place now. I was always very pro affirmative action but DEI is simply about a messed up guy in a dress or a freak that likes to steal high end luggage with women's clothing from airports or stealing the place of a girl or woman in sports. A deserving individual who simply needed a leg up was never even considered.

DO NOT BE AFRAID.

How Great Thou Art. God has blessed America.
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
United States
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June 10, 2010
7,148 Posts
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Jan 7, 2026, 11:40 am

Quote: Originally posted by Artist77 on Jan 7, 2026
Well you are in an ideal place now. I was always very pro affirmative action but DEI is simply about a messed up guy in a dress or a freak that likes to steal high end luggage with women's clothing from airports or stealing the place of a girl or woman in sports. A deserving individual who simply needed a leg up was never even considered.

Thanks. A man masquerading as a woman stealing the place of woman in sports is bad enough, but using the Ladies Locker Room is total insanity. Not to mention perverted. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
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June 10, 2010
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Jan 7, 2026, 11:53 am

Quote: Originally posted by Think on Jan 7, 2026
@G5 A lot, if not most, people have those famous people stories.

They just don't feel it's that big of a deal.

Anyway... everybody now...I Bm you Bm we all Bm for IBM😉

.

True enough. I guess I too didn't think it was worthy of telling people about it because I thought it was no big deal.

Most people who never met Joe Heller couldn't possibly know he was an ogre. They'd all very likely "look for the best in people" only to be disappointed by friendly old Joe. But if you were Paul Simon or Mario Puzo, then he'd talk to you. I know that because my niece and her husband attended a party at Joe's apartment in NYC with those two particular celeb's in attendance (among many other celebrities) and told me how Simon and Puzo ignored them after Heller's wife introduced my niece and her husband to them.

Heard that little ditty from many of my fellow "Beemers" too many times to count. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
United States
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June 10, 2010
7,148 Posts
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Jan 7, 2026, 12:00 pm

Quote: Originally posted by Artist77 on Jan 7, 2026
Well you are in an ideal place now. I was always very pro affirmative action but DEI is simply about a messed up guy in a dress or a freak that likes to steal high end luggage with women's clothing from airports or stealing the place of a girl or woman in sports. A deserving individual who simply needed a leg up was never even considered.

I have to pat myself on the back in this post (which I'm usually loathe to do) but I was that deserving individual who simply needed a leg up. Never got it.

Deserving individuals are the flaw with all things Affirmative Action/DEI related. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
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June 10, 2010
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Jan 7, 2026, 2:12 pm

Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jan 7, 2026
Yup, I'm here living on Florida's "Suncoast" and I must tell you despite the heat of Summer, I love it.

See, I'm a transplant from New York. (upstate which is more "Red" than "Blue") So now I'm living amongst people that have many of the same values (not to mention political views) that I do.

It was kinda tough having to live almost all of my life in a Blue State like NY. Sure, I had my Republican friends, but I had Liberal neighbors (some of whom I liked quite a bit because they were high quality/excellent people... it was their politics that stunk) and at work, I had DEI forced down my throat by Big Blue. "Celebrate Diversity!" was their battle cry. But being a white male limited my career advancement more than just a little bit. So I learned to throw IBM verbal curve balls and told many a manager that I supported all of the company's left leaning garbage. And yes, that was pretty darn hypocritical of me and I absolutely hated being a hypocrite. What else can a guy do? Many (and I do mean many) white men that I knew were doing it right along with me, and some of those guys careers moved along quite nicely. It was corporate politics (which included the "buddy system") at it's ever lovin' best. My brother worked for IBM too, and he once said to me "Ya know, it's like a wild scramble for good jobs in this place. People will do ANYTHING to get a good job." And they did exactly that! Trust me on that one. Reports both in the halls of IBM and stories appearing in the local newspaper were shocking. Extramarital affairs, heterosexual and homosexual sex after hours behind closed office doors, cocaine and other narcotics being used in the workplace, and theft of IBM's high dollar mainframe computer parts being sold on The Black Market were only a few things that happened during my career. Unbelievably bad immoral behavior on the part of some employees, and I'm no bible thumper.

One woman I knew "celebrated diversity" to her maximum advantage and was brazen enough to tell me exactly HOW she was doing it. Her exact words to me were - "I got dealt some aces in a poker game and I'll be ed if I'll give them back to the f***ing dealer." Here's another quote from an IBM manager to me -- I was being considered along with others (some were female) for what I considered to be a good career move, but I didn't get the job. I asked my boss what I could have done better in my interview so that in any possible future interviews I'd be a stronger candidate for the position. His response was "IBM is a meritocracy and all promotions are based upon merit. Except in this case your d**k got in the way of you getting that job." The only thing I can recall about my reaction to his comment was "How crude!" All that comment did was make me despise him. I previously had a good relationship with him right up until he made that comment. I should have turned his idiot a$$ in, but I did'nt.

Good God!! After rereading what I wrote above, am I ever glad I'm retired and relocated to Florida. How I hacked that BS for 32 years, I'll never know! G5

This post has been automatically changed by the Lottery Post computer system to remove inappropriate content and/or spam.

I've done too good of a job hijacking this thread and for that I apologize.

Therefore this will be my last post regarding some of my negative experiences while employed by IBM. (BTW I had many positive experiences too)

I said I thought to myself "How Crude!" when my manager made his disgusting remark regarding why I didn't get a career enhancing I job I wanted. Just like a lot of stories there's usually a tad more to the story.........

After his crude remark, my boss went on to say "Everybody in management knew who was going to get that job because it had already been decided before HR listed the job opening. Everybody knew 'Suzy Schmaltz' was The Executive VP's choice. HR had no choice but to list it as an opening so they just went through the motions of doing their job."

It was at a much later point in time while I was in a local shopping mall that I saw The Executive VP holding Suzy Schmaltz's hand as they walked along together. I wondered what Suzy's husband thought about that, or if they had separated/divorced. Eventually Suzy gave birth to a daughter, but nobody that I was acquainted with was sure who that baby girls father was. A very sad ending to the whole thing was I read The Veep's obituary. He committed suicide by hanging himself in his bedroom closet. I heard that via The Grapevine from First Responders that I knew who were called to the scene of The Veep's death. His obit just said he "died unexpectedly". G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
Coin Toss

Zeta Reticuli Star System
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January 17, 2006
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Jan 7, 2026, 3:46 pm

GiveFive, You are by no means even close to being even near a thread hijacker, let's that title belongs to a member who is always bragging about them self, their picks hitting somewhere, or their past. 😊
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
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Jan 7, 2026, 4:01 pm

Quote: Originally posted by Coin Toss on Jan 7, 2026
GiveFive, You are by no means even close to being even near a thread hijacker, let's that title belongs to a member who is always bragging about them self, their picks hitting somewhere, or their past. 😊

Thanks Toss. Good to hear. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
Coin Toss

Zeta Reticuli Star System
United States
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January 17, 2006
12,515 Posts
Offline

Jan 7, 2026, 4:55 pm

Lotterologist, You really need to see this, Mathematics forum , Very Interesting Article.
GiveFive

Florida's West Coast
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June 10, 2010
7,148 Posts
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Jan 7, 2026, 11:49 pm

Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jan 7, 2026
I've done too good of a job hijacking this thread and for that I apologize.

Therefore this will be my last post regarding some of my negative experiences while employed by IBM. (BTW I had many positive experiences too)

I said I thought to myself "How Crude!" when my manager made his disgusting remark regarding why I didn't get a career enhancing I job I wanted. Just like a lot of stories there's usually a tad more to the story.........

After his crude remark, my boss went on to say "Everybody in management knew who was going to get that job because it had already been decided before HR listed the job opening. Everybody knew 'Suzy Schmaltz' was The Executive VP's choice. HR had no choice but to list it as an opening so they just went through the motions of doing their job."

It was at a much later point in time while I was in a local shopping mall that I saw The Executive VP holding Suzy Schmaltz's hand as they walked along together. I wondered what Suzy's husband thought about that, or if they had separated/divorced. Eventually Suzy gave birth to a daughter, but nobody that I was acquainted with was sure who that baby girls father was. A very sad ending to the whole thing was I read The Veep's obituary. He committed suicide by hanging himself in his bedroom closet. I heard that via The Grapevine from First Responders that I knew who were called to the scene of The Veep's death. His obit just said he "died unexpectedly". G5

I lied. THIS will be my last post about working for IBM! I decided to write it because of what I think will be some GREAT laughs. Hang in there while reading it because it will be lengthy.

I worked for IBM for more than 30 years, most of which I spent working in and around IBM's massive data centers in New York. One raised floor I worked on was 100,000 square feet. (That's more than 2 acres) In that data center IBM had every kind of hardware and software you could possibly think of. There were MVS mainframes, AS400 midframes, AIX/Unix servers, and Windows laptops too. I dabbled with writing code in COBOL, PL1, and C++, but coding wasn't exactly my forte so I avoided it as much as I could. I was fluent with JCL running on either JES2 or JES3 MVS mainframes, I supported DASD, worked with CE's, and did "Change Control". Cisco Systems was IBM's networking gear supplier, and as such I worked with Cisco Sales Rep's to have routers and switches installed on the raised floor. I learned all about T-1 lines, O-Rings, fiber optic lines, and Token Ring LAN's. I lead teams that performed disaster recovery drills where we pretended our data center was blown up by terrorists. We brought mainframes online in Gaithersburg Maryland that exactly replicated the machines that were "blown up" in NY. I helped install Uninterupted Power Supply's that should our data center suddenly lose power, those UPS's would immediately kick in and keep the machines on our raised floor humming. In short, I became "Mr Raised Floor". I had a TON of knowledge in my head, but hardly any of it was written on a piece of paper. Lotta "Geek Speak" there, but don't worry if you don't understand a word I typed.

Then in March of 2009, came that email from my boss who was located in Atlanta. (I'd never met him face to face or shook his hand either. Never even saw a picture of him too.) It read "Please call me." When he answered his phone, he read a prepared statement informing me I had been selected to participate in an IBM Resource Action. (That's IBM speak for a layoff) Little did he know I was overjoyed and swingin' from the rafters with that news!

When he stopped reading, I asked him who would I turnover my job to and when did it have to be completed? He'd get back to me on that.

A couple of days later, he called and said "Manoj" from Bangalore, India would be calling me to take turn over. And... if I did not train Manoj, there would be no severance pay for me. (One years salary) I simply said "No problem".

Manoj eventually called me and we started his training which had to be completed in one and a half months! Poor Manoj. He'd have to have spent at least a year working along side of me in my office to have even the slightest chance of learning about one tenth of the knowledge I had in my head. But he couldn't come to America, instead he'd have to learn my job by chatting with me via chat software. He and I had decided due to language considerations that chatting would be best. Bear in mind he was half way around the world from me. Noon my time meant midnight for him.

From time to time, I'd get phone calls from my boss asking me how was Manoj's training coming along? Of course I said "He's great! He's learning everything very fast." For his part, Manoj knew full well that if he didn't learn my job, then he'd be history. So he lied to his boss too.

After I left IBM I saw a couple of IBM employees that I had worked with over the years. When I asked how things were going, they rolled their eyes and said "It's brutal. Everything is all over the floor and absolutely nothing is getting done." I just laughed. My severance check had electronically been deposited and was sitting in my bank account. G5

Play Smart! That's IF there is such a thing as playing smartly!!
OhSoClose

Tyrone, PA
United States
Member #198,209
May 15, 2019
305 Posts
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Jan 8, 2026, 5:45 am

I was in tech for over 30 years, on a much, much smaller network than yours, but I learned quickly that it's a sad fact that the big boss sees you as nothing more than an overpaid janitor. Zero clue what you do, the problems you are equipped to solve, and how often you put out fires before anybody even knows there's a problem. In my case, the big boss really hated me because I negotiated a better salary than they wanted to pay. Three times, the big boss assigned somebody to watch me for days at a time to figure out what I did because he thought I was expendable. The third guy sat beside me for 3 days straight and when he reported back to the big boss, he told him that he still had no idea what I was doing but he did know one thing: they needed me. Big boss grudgingly left me alone after that and a couple years later, I negotiated a million dollar windfall for him and that's when I finally got a little respect.

Retired after 23 years in that position and the rules said they couldn't even hire my replacement until after I was gone. The little boss told me to write up project notes in detail which I did. Step by step stuff and about 30 pages of it. I turned it in to the little boss who looked through it and nodded. The organization has a history of calling retirees in after they've gone and asking them to spend a week with the replacement to get them up to speed. They expect this to happen without compensation and surprisingly a lot of people comply with that request. When I left, I told them that if they called, they should be prepared to have a purchase order to reference. The phone did not ring. Rule number one: Know your worth.
lottoplayer111

us
Member #257,305
December 11, 2025
12 Posts
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Jan 8, 2026, 8:21 am

Quote: Originally posted by GiveFive on Jan 7, 2026
Not to belabor the point, and replying to one's reply to a previous post is definitely a bit tacky, I want to share some additional details of how DEI and "Celebrating Diversity" bit IBM squarely in the behind. That said, I'm NOT going to refer to the salacious/racy goings on that I wrote about in my previous post.

I'd rather flesh out the theft of high dollar mainframe computer parts being sold by IBM employees on the Black Market. I personally knew two of the members of the six member ring that eventually went to prison who were involved in the scandal. I knew The Ring's leader, and a member of the ring. Both of them were arrested on IBM's premises and led out of the building in handcuffs by local detectives. Both men were African Americans, and they both benefited from affirmative action programs IBM had in place. Of course, IBM immediately terminated their employment.

The Ringleader was an IBM manager. He could barely speak English, and any emails he sent were sometimes unintelligible. When the story broke in the local paper, imagine our reaction when we read The Ring leader was a convicted felon prior to being hired by IBM.

The other guy, was very literate, eloquent, was soft spoken and friendly, an excellent athlete, and I thought prior to the theft ring being exposed, he was an all around good guy with a bright future ahead of him. (And rightly so, or so I thought) He was married to a nurse, and they had twin infant daughters. She did not work and my guess is that she chose not to work because of the workload on her plate with regard to having twin babies. She was a lovely person.

Talk about IBM management having egg on their face! But this whole ugly episode didn't slow down IBM's DEI freight train. I'd also point out that my IBM site was not the only IBM site in The USA where things of this nature went on. I attended many meetings with IBM colleagues from sites scattered around the country and heard similar stories.

Yes, I'm critical of an IBM program that failed miserably, and I don't have an alternative/better solution to offer. IBM wouldn't have listened to me even if I did have a better alternative. When I talked off the record to a personal friend who happened to be an IBM manager, he said to me - "Think about it for a second. What else can we do or offer?"

DEI is just another failed heavy handed but well intended liberal Democrat program forced upon the American public. Some have asked me why I'm a "Mean Old Republican"? Now you know why that's the case. I've no quarrel with anything a liberal Democrat might say, especially if what they're advocating has no negative impact on me personally . But if what they're advocating for is something that hammers me, that's where I draw the line. G5

OK boomer.

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