Duffbert's Random Musings

1 - Call me "wanting to think the best of people", but I don't think this was a shot at why they left as much as it was his lament over how he felt he was treated during his time at IBM.

I would have commented to that affect on his site (and I tried), but I get the same redirect. I've emailed him in hopes that it can be easily addressed (and I was hoping that I did nothing to offend/warrant banning/etc.).

2 - That could well have been his direction, and if I misread it, I'm sorry. But if I were going to go off on a company I used to work for, I wouldn't do it in the context of others leaving said company, and make it appear that our reasons for leaving were the same or similar... Especially after many years have passed.

3 - Yeah, he's all class, man. Can't you tell? He works for such a classy company!

4 - Oh, jeez, it's a simple configuration error a lot of people make in setting up Blogsphere. I've done it TWICE. What throws me is that it isn't written in Gary's voice, like he wrote it in a hurry. I don't doubt that a great deal of it's true (almost every large organization overvalues "managers" and undervalues the people who build cool shit) and what's more, I'll guess that the subjects of the post understand this completely, having themselves been on both sides of the Blue Curtain. I... have not. At least not for money.

5 - During Lotusphere his blog was deleted (file not found). The advisor blogs are not well maintained. I am with Chris in (1) that it reads more like a reflection of his own experiences.
For IBM being such a bad company. If IBM would offer Gary Bobs job I think he would take it. A lot of his comments sound like he has not finished with IBM yet and Microsoft does not cut it either.
It must be horrible not being allowed to say that stuff like Vista sucks.

6 - I find the post a little disappointing in that Gary is speculating based upon his own experience which was quite some time ago.

Gary talks about how rough life was at IBM a fair bit, which seems strange. When you have a cool (now-no-so-new) job with a different employer, why keep harking back to grimmer times? Enjoy the here and now!

7 - I've always lived by the rule, "Don't burn any bridges. Ever!" which Gary was apparently never taught. He had legitimate reasons to feel badly about IBM, although the one sided way he presents his experience is reinforced by the fact that IBMers involved are not allowed to respond publicly in any way to either defend themselves or give a different perspective on his departure. Even though I am sure he was simply reflecting his own experience, it wasn't either a smart or a classy move. Google is not your friend when future potential employers, including IBM, can read nasty stuff you have said about former employers, including IBM.

8 - I posted my comments on Gary's site (looks like he fixed the submit button problem).

The main point is, I was a Notes product manager once, too. I chose a less-technical path forward, but there were many other options along the way. Look at Chris Reckling, also in Notes product management at the time, now running the entire MA user experience design team. Or Carl Kriger, who runs a development team. Plenty of Notes product managers still in the org, plenty doing the same kinds of roles, and plenty doing different ones.

9 - Time to move on, Gary!

In any case, you are right, Ben, that managers cannot "defend themselves" in public, while the employee has the choice to tell their side of the story. I'll leave it at that.

Chris

10 - Stuff like this posting of Gary Devendorf makes all this a bit more interesting and human. But for the tech blog consumer, its just a little piece of dust in a massive stream.
He has not mentioned any names. And the people who actually know the names, surely know much more interesting anecdotes.
Ed Brill showed that IBM managers as a group can defend themselves against that blog posting.