According to comments made by numerous IBM workers on several discussion boards, the outfit is planning a massive job cut in January.

Workers believe IBM announce the move in the first half of January, before it posts its quarterly results. The outfit currently employs 386,000 workers worldwide, and according to some of them who took part in the discussions, as many as 4 percent, or 16,000, will get their notice on January 23.

One of Alliance@IBM union representatives, Lee Conrad, himself a former IBM employee, claims there have been numerous "small, silent" job cuts over the past weeks. Although the move is expected to affect IBM workers worldwide, Conrad believes the US will be the hardest hit, as this was the case in the past.

IBM spokesman Fred McNeese refused to comment the rumors. As we all know, not commenting rumors tends to make them magically disappear, while it makes elves start to dance around fires and chant gibberish.

More here.