Moron fired for surfing porn chat rooms by IBM

Just noticed this on Drudge link.

Here's my take as a retired ex-IBM Boca Raton engineer. This whiny twit very likely got exactly what he deserved.

Typically, when IBM decides its time to fire someone, that person's manager has normally constructed a pretty airtight paper trail of evidence over time against them so there won't be any blowback like this. There's only a small handful of offenses that warrant immediately being stripped of your badge and frog marched out the door. That would include things like pissing on your manager's desk and setting his office on fire, or having 10 kilos of crank and a handgun in your desk. Surfing porn, on its own, normally won't warrant the instant frog march, but it would get you a warning to knock it off and keep that shit at home.

This collection of evidence phase might last several months even as long as a year in some cases. A 2nd and 3rd line managers will also be notified if there is some employee that's under the microscope for poor performance or other issues. If you're worth a hoot at all, IBM wants to try and salvage you before dropping the hammer.

If your performance is poor, you might be asked if a new position in another area might help. If you're an alcoholic or doper, counseling services will be provided. If you've got family problems weighing on your mind ruining your performance, a family leave will be arranged.

IOW, when IBM whacks someone, its the last resort. To whack someone who's been there for 19 years its really, really, really, a last resort.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and speculate this was probably the "last straw" in a very long series of problems going back many many years with this guy.

IBM has traditionally had an amazing tolerance for what we used to call IPR's - In Plant Retirees. Those were the people who had been around for 20 years and do absolutely nothing of value at all. They always had pleasant demeanor, neat organized offices, came and left on the dot, etc. If really pressed on it, they could usually be relied on to present a report someone else had produced though. In fact that's how the IPR survives - they'll act like a remora and take a ride along with someone else who does the real work.