Under the radar

From "Quiet Layoffs Sting Workers Without Notice," by Steve Lohr, in today's New York Times:

I.B.M. is one such company [that "routinely carries out scattered layoffs that are small enough to stay under the radar"]. It reported surprisingly strong quarterly profits in January, and in an e-mail message to employees, Samuel J. Palmisano, the chief executive, said that while other companies were cutting back, his would not. “Most importantly, we will invest in our people,” he wrote.
    But the next day, more than 1,400 employees in I.B.M.’s sales and distribution division in the United States and Canada were told their jobs would be eliminated in a month. More cuts followed, and over all, I.B.M. has told about 4,600 North American employees in recent weeks that their jobs are vanishing.
    ...
    Depending on how the businesses want to portray themselves to investors and the public, layoffs might not fit the message.

I feel a bit critical of IBM myself. Even before I left after thirty years (at the end of 1996), "IBM" had come to stand for more than International Business Machines.