IBM To Kernel Maintainer: "You Are An IBM Employee 100% Of The Time"

[phoronix]

Phoronix: IBM To Kernel Maintainer: "You Are An IBM Employee 100% Of The Time"

It's fairly common that many longtime Linux kernel developers use their personal email addresses for signing off on kernel patches or dealing with other patch work, especially when they are engaging with kernel development in their personal time too and occasionally jumping between employers over time while still sticking to interacting with the upstream kernel community, etc. There are also understandably some companies that mandate the use of their corporate email addresses for their official work/patches while now IBM seems to be taking things one step to the extreme...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=IBM-Employee-100p-Time

[macemoneta]

I had an employer that insisted they owned every line of code I wrote, even on my own time. Some companies are not worth working for.

[Jabberwocky]

Lets hope it's just a manager over reacting. It would be easy to see if this is a global IBM policy.

[KoenDG]

So they're basically saying "Activities done during non-working hours are actually working hours".

Am I reading that right"?

[alex19EP]

So they're basically saying "Activities done during non-working hours are actually working hours".

Am I reading that right"?

if so, they must pay for this time.

[blackshard]

So the guy should ask IBM a salary which is "100% of the time" and not just 8hrs per day.

[kloczek]

So now IBM and former RedHat emplees will have a problem ..

[User42]

Most contracts nowadays contains a "we own everything you do at any time as long as you are our employee" clause. That's probably what that manager is referring to.

Not respecting this kind of clause is not a crime. The worse that could happen is getting fired. I don't know about the US but in most European countries, you could go to court over this and very probably win.

Anyway, nice that it came out, I'm pretty sure other kernel-contributing companies will gladly hire somebody like this.

Finally, I'd be surprised if in the US such assertion would be accepted: being prevented from doing something lawful on one's free time is called slavery. Yes that developer can leave (though personal situation might make this very tough) but the mere fact an employer feels entitled to tell employees what to do off-work is really telling.

[skerit]

Poor guy. I can't imagine posting the "instruction" verbatim in the commit message is going to go over well with that manager, if it is verbatim and not paraphrased anyway. I hope IBM realizes they are in the wrong here and don't reprimand him over this.

[User42]

Poor guy. I can't imagine posting the "instruction" verbatim in the commit message is going to go over well with that manager, if it is verbatim and not paraphrased anyway. I hope IBM realizes they are in the wrong here and don't reprimand him over this.

No, this is probably a "hey guys, gonna be free soon, anybody's hiring?"