*WARNING LOCALS AND NONLOCALS* DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME AT ROCKET CENTER - Software Developer IBM Employee Review

1.0
Aug 23, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You can get certs and free training for certs that about the only pro about rocket center

Cons

I have never worked for a company to exploit its employees like this one does. 80hr weeks, the min is "44" and you get paid for 40 hrs. Zero compensation. Rocket Center Management is so out of touch with reality, they hire from outside of the area and those employees leave and they think its because they are not from here.... they leave because you MIGHT make 45k so they are targeting locals to exploit because they think they won't leave. Management also wastes money on "video game nights" so zero holiday bonus like a respectable company gives.. Rocket center is a revolving door and about a 50% or more turn around rate, employees never stay because the paid is band 4 and they have you listed as band 11 and you work 80hrs and every single holiday, 7 days a week. They do no look into why a project was lost, its your fault and you will be punished. You feel like a slave and you can't stand up for yourself because you fear losing your job, its yes Master and thats it. Salary is modern salvery. I could go on but read the rest of the reviews... nothing has changed in the last 3+ years.

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5.0
Apr 27, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Investing in the right areas.

Cons

The got rid of 401k match for “pension”.

4.0
Aug 26, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Disclaimer: A lot of what I'm writing below of course depends on the work area and management chain. But I found this to be fairly pervasive policies in IBM in my 9+ years with the company. 1. IBM's policies and management are very flexible when it comes to working remotely or accommodating various life situations (sick days, doctor visits, etc.). Management is encouraged to measure an employee by their work and impact, and not by hours spent at their office. 2. Great colleagues! Though unfortunately, many have been leaving due to the instability of IBM's HW development business. 3. At least in my area, there's a high level of flexibility on which projects should I undertake based on my and my management assessment of business impact.

Cons

1. Unfortunately, IBM still uses the "normal distribution" rating system, where at the end of the year each employee is ranked as a top contributor (5%), above average contributor (15%), average contributor (~75%), and bottom contributor (5%). This curve is difficult to apply in the R&D world, where you may have many members of the team working long and hard hours, and end up being "average contributors" at the end of the year, because there just isn't room for all to be top contributors. 2. The above may not be so disturbing, if only IBM didn't practically cancelled all raises, performance bonuses and incentive for the non top-performers. I've had a consistent "above average" rating in the last 4-5 years, and my raise and performance bonus were ridiculous mere 1.5-2% of my salary. Were I rated "average contributor" I would have gotten NOTHING. So you can imagine that people can go year after year without any raise to their salary. From talking to manager friend, this is IBM's way to eliminate the non-top-performers without having to fire them, as part of its direction of reducing US manpower. 3. Hiring freeze in many areas - again, as part of IBM's attempt to reduce its workforce across North America and Europe we see many jobs move to the India and Far East markets. This is of course upsetting to see local teams shrink and disappear, especially when many great local IBM colleagues and experts begin to drop out. From my experience thus far working with India SW teams - they are still very far away from the standards I would have expected from US and Europe based teams. 4. Poor top down communication about company's and divisions' future. Employees learn from rumors and news websites what's about to come...

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IBM Response
10y
Thanks for sharing your experience, and we're glad that you've had a positive experience working with talented colleagues and taking advantage of IBM's programs. IBM is in the midst of a major transformation, --our Systems business is going through its own changes to strengthen competitiveness. Change is never easy. As part of our transformation, we just launched a whole new approach for how we are coaching employees, delivering feedback and managing reviews. No distribution guidelines or what some think of as 'stacked rankings." What's particularly great is that this was co-designed with our employee base from all over the world... to the tune of hundreds of thousands of page views, comments, on-line debates and discussions. IBMers even named the new system Checkpoint, to reflect the regular feedback rituals we're adopting. Managers are more empowered with the new methodology to help them acknowledge the great work of their teams and help their employees develop professionally. These steps and more are showing up in our employee surveys as well. So IBMers are feeling the change. We are confident these changes will help us in continuing to attract and retain great talent.
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