Dive Brief:

• In a letter to employees, Carrier, a United Technologies company, announced it was moving 1,300 jobs to Mexico, MEDIAite reports.
• The move comes after a meeting president-elect Donald Trump had with Carrier officials in what some describe as a “shakedown” by Trump to encourage the company to keep 800 jobs in Indiana.
• Opponents of Trump’s meeting with Carrier, including the Wall Street Journal, called his tactics "threatening" rather than negotiations with the company based on incentives for keeping jobs in the states, but for employers it reveals potential pitfalls of internal and external communication errors.

Dive Insight:

It’s not known whether Carrier viewed the Trump meeting as a “shakedown” or threat, or if the company was defying Trump with its job-shipping announcement. Fortune says the company expressed satisfaction over the “deal” and incentives discussed with Trump. 

In more general terms, this situation reveals problems a company may face when external messaging and internal messaging don't quite mesh. In this case, employees were told in a company letter that jobs were still going to Mexico. The difference between the two messages could create morale problems within the workforce —especially considering the way it was conveyed.

Additionally, the situation may signal how the new administration will handle company incentives and the like, meaning employers will need to pay attention.