Sounds like the unkindest cut of all – instead of asking employees whether they’d prefer a small deduction from the payroll every month to pay for the upkeep and doing a sale and leaseback deal on the place, IBM Canada Ltd has brutally put the 328-acre IBM Country Club in Markham, Ontario, which it has operated for the benefit of employees since 1942, up for sale: the club is open to Toronto-area employees, IBM pensioners and their families and has been at its present site since 1967; Bill Etherington, president and chief executive of IBM Canada, said callously, Maintaining our investment in a recreational facility isn’t consistent with our new strategic direction; the announcement went out at 5:14pm New York time on Friday in hopes that no-one would notice, and neither the Wall Street Journal nor the New York Times picked it up.
