IN our previous post we quoted the Dutch as saying (about last month's meeting of the Administrative Council of the EPO): "With regard to recruitment, it was also mentioned that one-third of the new staff members are of German nationality and that, on the other hand, the percentage of women is below par. Given the desire for diversity, the EPO staff made a comment on this."

"Sadly for the Office, not many people even want to work there anymore."Last year we found out that recruitment of Brits had gone down by 80%. Earlier this year a British worker committed suicide. He had a wife and a child. However poorly, Battistelli has long attempted to bury this issue. Suicides, lack of national diversity (e.g. many Frenchmen around him) and lack of gender/racial diversity is something that nobody 'dares' bring up in front of the autocrat. Sadly for the Office, not many people even want to work there anymore. There is a deep recruitment crisis. It guarantees brain drain and thus degradation in quality of service (e.g. examination).

Yesterday, one reader showed us that the EPO was trying hard to recruit in LinkedIn. It has gotten pretty bad and we gave some examples of this in the past (people publicly say that the EPO chases them, even with very low job requirements). "Desperately," this reader explained, they still try to find staff. "But if you read this account of an interview you get an idea of how low they got...it’s appalling! Even to me [it's] hard to believe, of such a level right on an interview." ⬆