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posted by Fnord666 on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:22AM   Printer-friendly
from the what-does-watson-think dept.

The CEO of IBM wrote an open letter to Trump soon after the election. IBM had a long tradition of staying out of politics, but I don't see any way to interpret this letter that isn't some sort of endorsement of Trump's administration, partly because it barely alludes to the latest buzz-phrase "cognitive solutions in the cloud", At the optimistic end, maybe it's just saying IBM doesn't care as long as Trump lets the corporation make bigger profits, but at the pessimistic end it could be taken as a warning to IBM's employees and business partners to keep their mouths shut if they don't like the Donald.

Has your employer done anything along these lines? I'm guessing that Ginny Rometty's letter was emailed to all hands and posted on the intranet, as well as the public posting at https://www.ibm.com/blogs/policy/ibm-ceo-ginni-romettys-letter-u-s-president-elect/ for everyone. Can anyone inside IBM confirm? If you've gotten something along these lines from your employer, do you care to speculate about why? Or even say how it made you feel?


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by jimshatt on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:55AM

    by jimshatt (978) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:55AM (#434841) Journal
    I don't see this as endorsement per se, but Trump is unpredictable so they're probably sucking up to ensure he doesn't suddenly do anything rash.
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  • (Score: 1) by shanen on Wednesday November 30 2016, @08:20AM

    by shanen (6084) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @08:20AM (#434842) Journal

    So I'm taking that to mean your own employer hasn't said anything about the election? Do you have any idea which way your boss feels about the election, or is your office that free of politics?

    --
    #1 Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice{5} ≠ (Beer^4 | Speech) and your negative mods prove you are a narrow prick.
    • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 30 2016, @09:15AM

      by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 30 2016, @09:15AM (#434845) Journal

      So I'm taking that to mean your own employer hasn't said anything about the election? Do you have any idea which way your boss feels about the election, or is your office that free of politics?

      Why ask? An easy way for an employer to sow discord in the workplace is to publicly take a side. And of course, we can't characterize all employers from knowing the leanings of jimshatt's employer and boss(es).

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:29PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:29PM (#434889)

        > An easy way for an employer to sow discord in the workplace is to publicly take a side.

        Which happens all the time. Corporations regularly lobby their own employees to support candidates. Its kind of gross actually.

        • (Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 30 2016, @03:29PM

          by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 30 2016, @03:29PM (#434933) Journal
          And which also doesn't happen all the time. Far more corporations don't do that precisely because it causes trouble.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:57PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:57PM (#435057)

            khallow, hey it's me the guy who you met at the slashdot meet up--we hung out in vancouver i think later? can u drop me a line at scybert at gmail dot com ? be nice to catch up.

        • (Score: 2, Insightful) by shanen on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:52PM

          by shanen (6084) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:52PM (#435182) Journal

          Generally I ignore ACs, but I understand in this case. Also, I have a relevant personal example to report:

          In 1988 I was working for AMD, whose honcho was a big supporter of Poppy Bush. In the period leading up to the election, everyone knew that the company was having problems and there were lots of rumors of layoffs. However, management assured everyone things were fine. As soon as the election was over and Poppy had won, then BOOM, the layoffs. (I actually survived that round, but better people were cut for the heinous crime of earning more money than I was making.)

          I think a lot of Trump's angry losers are going to be disappointed, but I predict they won't blame the Donald when they continue losing. Mexican and Muslims! Yeah, they did it!

          --
          #1 Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice{5} ≠ (Beer^4 | Speech) and your negative mods prove you are a narrow prick.
    • (Score: 4, Informative) by jimshatt on Wednesday November 30 2016, @09:48AM

      by jimshatt (978) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @09:48AM (#434847) Journal
      I don't live in the US (i.e. my employer thinks Trump is a dick).
      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:11AM

        by GungnirSniper (1671) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:11AM (#434849) Journal

        Considering the NeoCons scurrying in the doors of the White House, I hope your country does not have oil or you're going to get a whole new appreciation of the American version of "freedom".

        • (Score: 1) by shanen on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:45PM

          by shanen (6084) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:45PM (#435176) Journal

          Well, maybe this is close to the nub of the matter. We have video of the Donald promising to run the government more like a business, and every large and "successful" American business is only measured by one number: The PROFITS. From that perspective, IBM's letter to Trump sounds downright patriotic, doesn't it?

          Then again, Trump promised to reduce government corruption, too, even daring to appeal to his own experiences in bribing and manipulating the professional politicians. The Trump U settlement cost him a measly $25 million, but how much more would it have cost if Florida had joined in? One of my new predictions is that the investigation of his donations to her campaign is about to disappear, though he could always resort to a presidential pardon if things start looking too hot. Anyway, the bottom line RoI for that donation was YUGE.

          I think things are in a rather sorry state. It's not just that Trump has been on every side of every issue, but you better not say that unless you have the videos, too. Otherwise he'll just deny he ever said such a thing.

          However, we don't seem to be making any progress on the original questions, but that's probably a reflection of the tiny readership of Soylent News, and I've already offended people with my suggestions on that meta-topic. If there is someone around here who can still see inside of IBM, can you say anything about how hard the message was pushed internally? As regards the other question, the people who commented here did not report any such comments from their employers.

          Going to risk going a bit meta and off of the central topic, but the international aspect has been raised... I think the international force vectors have been completely reshuffled by this election. Russia is much more influential than before, and Putin plans to completely consolidate his position in Syria before Trump can blink twice. Iran's influence in the power vacuum (originally created by Dubya) has grown even larger. I think America's international force vector has already been greatly weakened, even among the friends and allies, and enemies feel emboldened. China is the wild card, but that actually comes back to the original topic of economic power. China's economic entanglements with America are actually inhibiting now--so I predict China will start to redirect its business focus away from America, but that will take some time.

          --
          #1 Freedom = (Meaningful - Coerced) Choice{5} ≠ (Beer^4 | Speech) and your negative mods prove you are a narrow prick.
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @09:53AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @09:53AM (#434848)

      My employer is the federal government.

      They are less than pleased.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:44PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:44PM (#434895)

        As a retired gov employee, I understand. Our bosses did not like uncertainty and neither did the employees.

  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by LoRdTAW on Wednesday November 30 2016, @12:36PM

    by LoRdTAW (3755) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @12:36PM (#434874) Journal

    I'm sure it has nothing to do with this: http://nypost.com/2013/10/05/ibm-now-employs-more-workers-in-india-than-us/ [nypost.com]

  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by VLM on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:40PM

    by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:40PM (#434893)

    Trump is unpredictable

    Actually, no, and thats what they're terrified of, and thats precisely why I voted for Trump.

    The whole IBM business model of bleed capital out of the American financial markets to outsource and offshore basically everything sucks. Worthless welfare parasite of a company. Pull their corporate charter let them incorporate in China or India where the vast majority of their employees are.

    Trump's fairly consistent about his opinion of Ford or Carrier or other companies with similar business models. Go Trump go, stomp on them.

    • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @02:59PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @02:59PM (#434917)

      Nobody is going to change anything that helps making companies make more money. Nobody is going to stop more people getting poor and rich people getting richer. Believing Trump is going to do anything for the working people is delusional.

    • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Whoever on Wednesday November 30 2016, @03:31PM

      by Whoever (4524) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @03:31PM (#434936) Journal

      1. What makes you think that Trump is going to change anything? He is appointing Washington and Wall Street insiders to his cabinet.

      2. Trump was wrong about Ford's plans.

      Trump is going to drain the swamp? He is doing the opposite. You voted for him, and you are still in denial about the type of person you voted for.

      Trump is going to have the most conflicts of interest of any President ever. The fact that Ivanka joined him in meetings with foreign leaders shows that he intends to use his presidency for personal gain.

      The lease on the old Post Office building explicitly states that no elected official can have a share in the lease: let's see what happens in that case.

      • (Score: 2) by VLM on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:27PM

        by VLM (445) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:27PM (#435041)

        He is appointing Washington and Wall Street insiders to his cabinet.

        Who?

        I was bored so I looked around and so few have been appointed...

        Yes you probably are correct that the Sec. Treas. almost has to be a white collar criminal under the existing economic system.

        In terms of those actually appointed so far I guess you mean Haley? Not exactly your average Mr Burns character...

        • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:45AM

          by Whoever (4524) on Thursday December 01 2016, @03:45AM (#435259) Journal

          Transportation secretary? Did you notice that she has worked in previous administrations? Did you see who her spouse is?

          And there are others. Trump is filling his cabinet with insiders. Remember all that talk of draining the swamp?

        • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:44AM

          by Whoever (4524) on Thursday December 01 2016, @06:44AM (#435302) Journal

          Actually, people like you make me very angry.

          You were warned about Trump, yet you voted for him. Now that he is doing the opposite of what he said he would do, where is your outrage?

          You wanted change, you are getting more of the same. Yet you don't seem to care. You have saddled the country with someone who is probably going to make life worse for all but the 1% of the population, but you don't care. You voted for someone who has stated his goals of taking away civil liberties.

          You think that Trump is consistent, but you haven't bothered to watch what is going sufficiently to realize that he is the opposite of consistent.

          I was going to say that Nero would be proud of you, but that's not true: you haven't been watching.

        • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Thursday December 01 2016, @05:27PM

          by Whoever (4524) on Thursday December 01 2016, @05:27PM (#435528) Journal

          Read this and then consider what the Trump presidency is likely to do for anyone who isn't mega-wealthy:

          https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2016/11/30/donald-trump-is-assembling-the-richest-administration-in-modern-american-history/?utm_term=.b99454e0b442 [washingtonpost.com]

          You were sold a pup.

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:18PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:18PM (#435066)

        "keep your friends close, and your enemies closer"

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by bzipitidoo on Wednesday November 30 2016, @05:24PM

      by bzipitidoo (4388) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @05:24PM (#435010) Journal

      Backlash against greedy elites is what put Trump in the White House. Establishment Democrats have to understand that a platform to "save the world" can't have the addendum "for the elites only". And establishment Republicans? Where to begin? They're so desperate to have power at all costs, that they seem not to have considered if it was worth the damage caused by stoking anti-intellectualism, denial, and corruption, as well as racism, sexism, and Islamophobia.

      In 2000, I wondered how important it was that the president not be an idiot. If he was well served, he didn't need brains. Alas, W. was not well served. Cheney in particular routinely pushed extreme policies, then tried to hide in the shadows, as if the V. P. could, and let W. take the heat when they didn't work out so well. Anonymity, however thin, emboldens people to take unethical shortcuts and escape opposition to their bad ideas and thinking. Like the police officer wearing mirror shades, and the corporate veil that obscures the individuals behind corporate policy,

      Would you have voted for Bernie if he'd won the Democratic nomination?

      • (Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:13PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:13PM (#435035)

        How is electing a greedy elitist backlash against greedy elites? You put a fox in charge of the hen house, don't be surprised when its ravaged and destroyed.

        • (Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:20PM

          by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:20PM (#435067)

          It would be nice if he turned out to be a Wheeler-style dingo, but given his cabinet appointments, it doesn't look headed that way.

          While he seems to care first and foremost about his business/family/self, I am holding on to some hope that he wants his name in the right pages of the history books, and will try to be a popular president.
          On the other hand, I wouldn't be surprised to see his own party to jump on the first chance to impeach him, to get his extremist VP in the big chair. I think I need to call a bookie and put some money on that.

    • (Score: 2) by edIII on Thursday December 01 2016, @12:47AM

      by edIII (791) on Thursday December 01 2016, @12:47AM (#435222)

      Trump's fairly consistent about his opinion of Ford or Carrier or other companies with similar business models. Go Trump go, stomp on them.

      I would be excited beyond belief if Trump truly started stomping on corporations, reversing outsourcing, and in general reduce the massive inequality and material deprivation of the working class.

      How does that happen when in violation of the NLRA he won't even deal with his own unionized workers? When he talks about making America great again with a baseball cap made in China?

      What I've also heard Trump say (unless the biased media flat out lied) that workers would get used to a lower wage by shuffling the factories across the U.S, and when the jobs come back they would "settle for less". That was a quote of him actually saying that, so I take that a bit more serious than an idea promulgated by the Republicans, or an inference based on an incoming cabinet member. These are his words, and his actions, not my opinions.

      What gives you hope, specifically, that the situation for the American worker will get better under Trump and his administration?

      --
      Technically, lunchtime is at any moment. It's just a wave function.