How IBM quietly pushed out 20,000 older workers

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Imagine it's 1980.
想像我們在1980年代。

Mullets are cool.
胭脂魚髮型很潮。

The Empire Strikes Back is playing in theaters.
星際大戰5帝國反擊戰正在戲院上映。

And International Business Machines or IBM is the world's dominant technology firm.
而國際商業機器公司，又稱為IBM，則是領導全球的技術公司。

It embodies the American Dream with a progressive agenda of equal opportunity and prides itself on a stable workforce.
它是具現化的美國夢，與進步的機會平等機制，並以穩定的勞動力為榮。

It's so thrilling to see the new IBM personal system - in the hands of an old master.
看到新的IBM個人系統被舊的東家使用真的是太令人激動了！

According to this handbook in over 40 years, full-time employees haven't been touched by layoffs.
根據40年來的紀錄看來，沒有一位全職員工被裁員過。

People are a treasured resource and are treated like one.
員工是很重要的資產，也被公司當珍寶對待著。

Fast forward to the present.
快轉到現今。

ProPublica estimates IBM has eliminated 20,000 American employees age 40 and over in just the past five years.
ProPublica估計，在過去五年中，IBM已經淘汰了20,000名40歲及以上的美國員工。

That's about 60 percent of its estimated US job cuts during that time.
在那段時間裡，這大約是美國總共裁員量的60％。

How did IBM go from valuing its older workforce to systematically getting rid of them?
IBM如何從重視老員工到制式化地擺脫他們？

Through the '80s, technology started shifting rapidly.
自從80年代後，科技開始大幅的進步。

Among other things, Apple introduced the first Macintosh and took a direct shot at IBM.
除此之外，Apple也推出了第一台麥金塔並直接向IBM發起了攻擊。

It appears IBM wants it all.
IBM好像過於貪婪了。

By the early 2000's IBM fell further as new rivals like Google, Facebook, and Amazon took the lead.
到2000年初，隨著谷歌，Facebook和亞馬遜等新競爭對手的領先，IBM進一步下滑。

In our world the speed and tempo of modern living are increasing at an ever-accelerating rate.
在我們的世界中，現代生活的速度和節奏正以越來越快的速度增長。

And as it slipped, IBM had to deal with something most of these competitors didn't have: a large number of experienced and aging employees.
在她下滑的同時，IBM要與處理她的競爭公司所沒有的問題；極多的經驗和逐漸老化的員工。

They reacted to new setbacks with layoffs, and many of them were older workers.
他們通過裁員來面對新的虧損，其中許多人都是年長的工人。

ProPublica heard from over 1,400 former IBM employees.
ProPublica聽取了超過1400名IBM前員工的意見。

Here's what we know.
就我們所知道的。

In making staff cuts, IBM has side-stepped US laws and regulations intended to protect workers from age discrimination.
在裁員方面，IBM採取了一系列措施，來迴避美國政府拿來保護工人免受年齡歧視的法規。

In the past, they would get two lists from IBM.
在過去，IBM會提供兩個列表。

One that had ages of people staying and another with ages of those being let go.
一個是在職員工的各別歲數，一個是即將被裁員員工的歲數。

In 2014, IBM stopped giving that information.
在2014年，IBM開始不提供這類訊息。

On top of that, the company required people to sign away their rights to sue for age discrimination in court, in exchange for their severance packages.
最重要的是，該公司要求員工放棄對他們公司起訴年齡歧視的權利，以換取他們的遣散費。

By signing the documents, laid-off employees waived the right to go to court.
通過簽署文件，被裁員的員工等同於放棄了起訴公司的權利。

They could only pursue their age cases through confidential arbitration.
他們只能通過保密的管道來尋求解決方法。

They also have to do it solo, so they couldn't combine forces with other workers who may be claiming similar age discrimination.
但因為保密，只能自己進行；所以他們沒辦法得知，並且跟其他有相同問題的員工合作。

Studies show arbitration overwhelmingly favors employers.
研究表明，仲裁絕大多數有利於雇主。

Workers win only 19% of the time, when their cases are arbitrated versus 36% of the time when they go to federal court and 57% in state courts.
當他們的案件被裁決時，工人只有19％獲勝率，而聯邦法院只有36％，州法院則有57％。

IBM has also laid off and fired some older workers with review techniques that effectively made their age a disadvantage.
IBM還通過審查技術解僱和解雇了一些老員工，這些審查技術性且有效地使他們的年齡變呈不利因素。

Take the case of one business unit that was using a point system to evaluate workers.
舉一例說明，IBM旗下單位正在用點數制度來評估員工。

The more points a person got, the more protected they were from negative changes to employment.
一個人獲得的積分越多，他們在面對企業的負面變化時就越有保障。

But the system itself appeared biased.
但是系統本身似乎存在偏見。

Employees were given points for being relatively new at a job level, so those who worked there fewer years earned more points than long time IBMers.
員工在相對較新的工作上獲得了更多分數，因此那些新進的員工比那些長期待在IBM的員工獲得的積分更多。

The bias against older workers is evident when you compare the number of points to years of service.
當您將點數與服務年數進行比較時，對老年工人的偏見是顯而易見的。

Those with no points worked there an average of more than thirty years.
那些沒有點數的通常是服務超過30年的老員工。

Those with higher points average fifteen years.
而那些點數很高的員工平均在職15年。

But the numbers don't reflect worker skills.
但這些數字無法反映員工的才能。
80% of older, more long-term employees, the ones with lower points, were rated by the company itself as "good enough to stay at current job levels or be promoted", while only a small percentage of younger employees with high numbers had similar ratings.
80%的年長，資歷更高、點數低的員工，是被公司的評比為"能力足以勝任目前工作崗位，並且有晉升資格的"，但只有一小部分的年輕員工擁有同等級的評比的。

They've also converted many layoffs into retirements, forcing ex-employees to accept a retirement package or leave with no benefits.
他們還將許多裁員變相為退休的方式，迫使僱員接受其提供的退休待遇，或在沒有任何福利下離開。
They've told remote workers, including older ones who had worked from home for years, to relocate to offices potentially thousands of miles away from their homes.
他們也將他們的遠距離聘僱人員，包括在家工作多年的老員工，搬遷到距離他們家幾千英里的辦公室。

Their options were relocate or resign.
他們只有舉家搬遷，或解聘一途。

In response to all of these findings, IBM has said "we are proud of our company and
our employees ability to reinvent themselves era after era while always complying with the law."
針對所有這些調查結果，IBM表示“我們為公司和員工感到自豪，我們的員工能夠各個時代中自我轉型，同時始終遵守法律。“

The problem is protection for workers under the law is eroding.
問題在於，保護勞工的法律正在腐敗。

In the past few decades, rulings in age discrimination cases have said former employees must prove that there were no factors other than age involved in their job changes, but companies like IBM have made it near impossible to prove that.
在過去的幾十年裡，年齡歧視案件的裁決表明，前僱員必須證明除了年齡之外沒有其他因素影響其於工作上的變化，但在IBM這樣的公司下，要證明這一點幾乎不可能的。

With nearly 400,000 employees worldwide, IBM is still a tech giant.
在全球還擁有著40萬名員工的情況下，IBM仍然是科技巨頭。

And how it handles its older workforce could encourage other companies to follow suit,
even though a lot of these companies have a younger workforce now.
它們在如何處理老員工的方式可能引起其他公司效仿，即使很多這些公司現在擁有更年輕的員工族群。

Here's the thing about aging: it happens to everyone.
但是衰老這件事情，每個人都會面臨的。

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