Anti-Trump activism
An Oracle senior staff member and anti-Donald-Trump activist has quit the company in response to co-CEO Safra Catz’s decision to join the president-elect’s transition team and her expression of Oracle’s intention to support his policies.
Viral open letter
George Polisner, who worked in Oracle’s managed cloud services team for four years, took to LinkedIn earlier this week to express his opposition to Catz and her politics.
“I am not with President-elect Trump and I am not here to help him in any way,” Polisner said in his now viral open-letter.
Specifically, Polisner’s opposition to Catz and her politics may stem from an emailed statement she sent earlier this month. “I plan to tell the President-elect that we are with him and are here to help in any way we can,” Catz said. On December 14, a group of tech executives, including Catz, were invited to a meeting at Trump Tower. While several signed an open letter opposing his presidency, Catz was the only member of the group known to have had a previous relationship with Trump.
The hero/the fool
Reactions to Polisner’s form of protest have come from all directions. One Twitter user called him a “Hero of the Resistance,” while others shared feelings that his decision was foolish or futile.
Eva Galperin, an Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Global Policy Analyst, said she hopes others will follow in Polisner’s footsteps and step down as well.
The first in what I hope is a long series of resignation letters from Oracle over their CEO's cooperation with Trump https://t.co/DMk86w4kDp
— Eva (@evacide) December 20, 2016
Another Twitter user praised Polisner for being on the right side of history.
My new hero. 23 years at Oracle. His convictions are on the right side of history. https://t.co/Bio495pVY0
— laura i. gómez (@laura) December 20, 2016
Others were less supportive of Polisner, and of Oracle as a whole.
Who is George A. Polisner? Who care!
I had used Oracle since 1995, but I never used it from 2002. Why? Oracle is getting worst.— Leicester G (@Leicest90768232) December 21, 2016
I hate to be the one to break this to you, but if you worked for Oracle for 10 years, your integrity was not so hot to begin with
— Jeff Atwood (@codinghorror) December 21, 2016
Got what he wanted
Polisner, with his 30-plus years working in technology, will likely find a new opportunity soon that more aligns with his political views, and Oracle will likely fill his post with an equally qualified, less anti-Trump candidate.
It’s up to you to decide how meaningful or impactful Polisner’s decision to quit was, but maybe just getting us talking about it is what he ultimately hoped would happen.
