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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.
    • (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.
  • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Scruffy Beard 2 on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:26AM

    by Scruffy Beard 2 (6030) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @10:26AM (#434850)

    IBM has a long history of enhancing Government efficiency with automation.

    After reviewing the wikipedia page on fascism, best I can tell it is over-used as in insult. However, it generally refers to authoritarian nationalist governments, where patriotism is more important than individual rights.

    The thing that disturbs me most about people claiming that Trump is a modern day Hitler is that it is not easy to show they are actually wrong.

    I think it is prudent to keep an eye on things as they develop. I still hope that Mr, Trump will be an unexpectedly good president.

    • (Score: 2, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @11:27AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @11:27AM (#434861)

      I think it's absurdly trivial to show they are wrong.

      Hitler had radical and unpopular ideas and was part of a party that had numerous incidents of political-related violence. His party never won a majority in a popular election until he outlawed competing parties. The way he came to power was through backroom political maneuvering and some well timed deaths in the hierarchy. And you know this election we did have a candidate who managed to hold onto their position by backroom political maneuvering and whose party has been involved disorganized violence towards the 'opposition'. And this candidate thought the murder of the leader of a sovereign nation -not long ago an ally- under the guise of "regime change" was just a jolly good laugh https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fgcd1ghag5Y [youtube.com] They could barely contain themselves while also choosing to quote Julius Caesar. That candidate most obviously was not Trump.

      Trump wants to get people in the country illegally out and increase the difficult of immigrating here. That's the beginning and end of his rhetoric. The hyperbole beyond that is thanks to a unified media acting as a branch of the Hillary campaign who, and we have the emails showing, conspired to paint Trump as a "dangerous bigot" to try to put him on the defensive and mask her own shortcomings. It really is a shame too that people who can't tell the difference between a true "Hitler" and a media hatchet job get to play such a large role in our election. Or maybe they didn't. Trump was a shit candidate and he won, largely because of this stupidity.

      And it's Godwin.

    • (Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:32PM

      by FatPhil (863) <pc-soylentNO@SPAMasdf.fi> on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:32PM (#434891) Homepage
      Your inability to spell "Godwin" shows inferior genes, off to the konzentrationslager!
      --
      Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
  • (Score: 3, Informative) by Geezer on Wednesday November 30 2016, @11:26AM

    by Geezer (511) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @11:26AM (#434860)

    "Please don't derail our off-shoring/H1B gravy train!"

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:25PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:25PM (#434885)

      Please don't derail our billions in government contracts.

      That appears to be the mechanism by which he browbeat Carrier into keeping 1000 jobs in Indianapolis. Carrier is owned by United Technologies [wikipedia.org] which has defense contractor subsidiaries like UTC Aerospace and Pratt & Whitney.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:53PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @01:53PM (#434899)

        The F-35 would be even worse as a glider.

        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @03:08PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @03:08PM (#434922)

          Not by much.

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

            by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:30PM (#435071)

            Well, if the many-billions F-35 needs to be towed, it will be consistent with the Zumwalt needing a tug.

  • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday November 30 2016, @04:31PM

    by jmorris (4844) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @04:31PM (#434976)

    That letter is just an introduction to the new administration and a brief outline of products and services IBM thinks the incoming Administration might want to look at. A corporation in the business of selling products and services looking to maintain and develop the relationship with one of its biggest accounts as that account changes leadership. Who ever head of such a thing! Obviously this is another sign of impending fascism; remember IBM sold to Nazis, so obviously they are secret Nazis just like Trump. Do you morons ever listen to yourselves?

    To compare that to horrid behavior like the GrubHub idiot is idiocy.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @04:55PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @04:55PM (#434993)

      I doubt Trump read past the beginning of the third paragraph, which started with "I am writing to offer ideas that I believe will help achieve the aspiration you articulated and that can advance a national agenda in a time of profound change." He briefly skimmed the rest and tossed it aside.

      As others have mentioned, this is just a courtesy call to reduce the chance of Trump making an example of their company, like he did with Ford and Carrier/UTC.

      Trump is a global capitalist at heart, look at his 50-year record in business. He doesn't give a shit about American workers. But, he did make a lot of promises during the campaign, and he wants to be re-elected, so he can't just blow off all the things he said.

    • (Score: 2) by jcross on Wednesday November 30 2016, @05:01PM

      by jcross (4009) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @05:01PM (#434998)

      Yeah, a lot of the letter can be read that way, but I find it hard to avoid reading the following paragraph as anything other than a plea to escape punishment, coming from a company that's known to have outsourced a shit ton of jobs:

      "Mr. President-elect, IBM’s roots are in the United States. We are investing, hiring, and continuing to reinvent our company for long-term competitiveness. At more than 50 major locations across the country, we hired more U.S. employees last year than in the previous five years. We are opening new innovation centers and business units across the country. We are proud of the work we do here in the United States, just as we are proud of the work we do in more than 175 countries around the world."

      I mean why exactly does that need to be said?

      • (Score: 2) by jmorris on Wednesday November 30 2016, @05:18PM

        by jmorris (4844) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @05:18PM (#435006)

        Do you even read the headlines? It isn't a state secret that Trump ran on a platform of being against outsourcing, offshoring, etc. Trump is not making a secret that he wants to help create jobs here, not elsewhere. So it makes perfect sense that any sales pitch, and that is what this letter is, would be sure to talk up their hiring here in the U.S. as a way to assuage those concerns.

        • (Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:18PM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:18PM (#435038)

          Its also not a state secret that he's backed out of pretty much every single campaign promise already, and he's still not even close to taking office, so your thinking he's going to stick to any of them is at best denialism, at work delusion.

        • (Score: 2) by jcross on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:48PM

          by jcross (4009) on Wednesday November 30 2016, @07:48PM (#435084)

          Oh I fully agree. But my guess is that they have a bit more to lose than just failing to sell contracts to the US government. Trump's administration could easily tilt policy against the outsourcing strategy they've been pursuing in recent years, which really has screwed over their stateside workforce. To me all the crap about their futuristic high-tech offerings sounds like padding around the more essential message of "please don't hurt us, we love America". I'm only disputing that this letter is about winning more, rather than losing less. And hey, I'm all for IBM taking some well-deserved punishment here, and it doesn't smell much like impending fascism to me. Maybe more like natural consequences.

          • (Score: 1) by shanen on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:24AM

            by shanen (6084) on Thursday December 01 2016, @04:24AM (#435268) Journal

            Well, I definitely agree with your comments about outsourcing. My last dealings with Big Blue mostly involved substituting cheap chopped Chinese chicken labor on short-term contracts for expensive local people... However, that doesn't make much sense to me as the motivation here. Trump don't care, but if I were still closely involved with IBM, then I'd feel nervous about continuing to doubt Trump's competence, let alone his honesty. Or maybe I just hate liars too much? (Not just Trump, btw.)

            Lots of ACs around, though I haven't seen any reason for their anonymity. No one has come out and said anything about their own employer getting on board the Trump train.

            --
            #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, @04:33PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @04:33PM (#434980)
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:17PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 30 2016, @06:17PM (#435036)

    Look at the current dust-up around Penzey's Spices. Their leadership is coming out loud and proud for the other side.

    Frankly, I think the IBM approach is classier. "Hi, we recognise there's a new sheriff in town, we're basically a constructive force, let's work together, here are some ideas."

    Not exactly the apocalypse, there.