this post was submitted on 18 Jan 2024
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342
IBM scraps rewards program for staff inventions, wipes away cash points | Big Blue staffers aren’t pleased to lose out on potential bonuses (www.theregister.com)
submitted 11 months ago by L4s to c/technology
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IBM scraps rewards program for staff inventions, wipes away cash points | Big Blue staffers aren’t pleased to lose out on potential bonuses::Big Blue staffers aren't pleased to lose out on potential bonuses

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[–] captainlezbian 95 points 11 months ago (3 children)

Nothing like informing your employees that hard work won’t be rewarded. Wise business decision

[–] AngryCommieKender 40 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

It's even more insane when you find out that IBM has a history of forcing their employees to sign contracts that state that anything that their employees work on at home in their own free time, is the property of IBM

[–] Alchalide 28 points 11 months ago

A company where I applied wanted me to do that as well. I was going to be a truck driver..

[–] [email protected] 11 points 11 months ago (3 children)

I'm not defending this, but this is an extremely common practice in the US.

[–] jaybone 9 points 11 months ago (1 children)

No it’s not.

If this were such a common practice there would hardly be any US contributors to open source projects.

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 8 points 11 months ago

The legal practice is common. Enforcement is significantly more challenging (particularly when you're working under an online alias in a niche space).

[–] [email protected] 5 points 11 months ago

IP assignment is extremely common, but there are almost always exceptions that you still own the IP if it's your own time, your own equipment, and not directly related to what you do for your employer.

[–] ThatWeirdGuy1001 3 points 11 months ago

It also extends to other fields.

Disney has this rule on all artistic creations of it's employees

[–] UnderpantsWeevil 11 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

If hard work was rewarded, the richest people in the world would be African miners, Chinese manufacturing workers, and Indian telemarketers.

Besides, why do we need a bunch of enthusiastic PhD candidates with decades of experience developing, testing, and refining novel applications of technology? We've got AI! AI will do everything for us, starting tomorrow and onwards until forever!

[–] [email protected] 6 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Next step: no more free coffee in the office.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 months ago

They tried that years ago in Australia - it didn't last long.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 months ago

That's one of the fastest ways to lose the top 20% of your workforce.