Bonum Certa Men Certa

Working From Home When the Rich and Powerful Corporations (or Governments) Make All the Important Decisions and Rules

Video download link | md5sum 93a0419b4767b7f430378580a700f1b3



Summary: A video and further thoughts about the situation at the EPO, where working outside the Office became somewhat 'normal', albeit seemingly to the detriment of workers

LAST night I responded to a new publication from EPO staff representatives. I was a little apprehensive at first because it might come across as dissenting or combative. I was surprised to see (in my opinion or based on my interpretation) insufficient opposition or weak push-back. I speak from experience here, as one who has worked from home for nearly 15 years. They say that sometimes you need to be a "techie" to understand why lots of technology should be rejected (e.g. electronic voting) because "techies" better understand the downsides and the gory technical issues (paper trail is better and usually highly essential). In the case of home-working, by sheer coincidence only hours after last night's article my audio system broke down. It had wires all over the place (almost 10 wires in total); so it took hours to remove it (rearranging lots of things) after about an hour of investigation into what was going on (testing with instruments and spares to confirm its death; it seems impossible to repair), so there won't be many articles today. It's a really frustrating experience as I'd rather get work done than deal with defects, then clean up the place (lots of that remains to be done, still).



Working from home isn't Disneyland. It's not like "being on holiday while doing work on the side..." (I say this not as one who rejected it or never experienced it)

"Working from home isn't Disneyland."You inevitably begin to associate being at your own home with being at the workplace, which you cannot escape (you even literally sleep there). There's extensive amount of text (articles) we've already published about this topic, especially in the middle of last year. We'd rather now repeat much of what was said back then. There's also ample literature and punditry on this topic out there on the Web and in libraries.

Lowering of expenses associated with offices and maintenance (food, rent, travel, cleaning and so on) might lead one to think that the employers will raise the salary or improve working conditions, but that almost never happens because what the employer is compelled (by law) to do during a pandemic gets spun/framed as a gift or an act of generosity. António Campinos already did this last year; he reportedly claimed that staff was ever so lucky because workers elsewhere were worse off. Relativism of this kind should be condemned. He keeps pretending the Office is poor, but they could very well afford to let all the staff be on paid leave until the end of the year.

There may be a false perception of improvement, but it's only veiled and temporary. Instead of privacy (and personal dignity) improving it typically gets a lot worse, digitally, albeit covertly (things like malicious "apps" being required; some run in a Web browser).

"There may be a false perception of improvement, but it's only veiled and temporary."Today I spent 2-3 hours (and I'm not even done yet) rearranging my 'home office' due to faulty hardware, which nobody will pay to replace (I'll just use headphones instead). In the process I broke a few things and had extensive cleanup work to do. When you work for an employer in some office all that hassle is spared (delegated to other staff, specialised staff with proper equipment and experience); it's out of one's hands and head. In my 'daytime' job (it's always nighttime, not daytime) I've received no pay increase for over a decade and last July we shut down our physical office due to the pandemic (that office was barely used anymore, so not much was lost). A similar scenario can easily be drafted at the EPO; the staff won't be privy to or told all the details, but of course the managers will pretend that "spoiled" examiners just moan about their "holiday" (in some apartment in a country foreign to them, bought or rented without foresight of it becoming a de facto workplace some time in 2020).

We call ourselves "tech rights" because this is the kind of stuff we wish to speak about and many in what's left of the media fail to speak of. Like cars that spy, home offices that send keystrokes to one's boss, and Web 'pages' that run programs on the users' machines as if it's some bizarre exchange like, "I let you read one article, but in exchange I want to hijack your machine and use up your power for a bit..." (we recommend Gemini instead)

"The future of the EPO only looks grimmer if offices are being emptied while salaries decrease, head count goes down, and patent scope gets broadened like banks give out loads of mortgages until a debt crisis."Spyware is only advancing and getting worse over time; it's never letting go. What's here today will get worse tomorrow. The only solution is to reject it outright from the get-go.

Home working might be a thing of the future, it might even be good for the environment (an upside, sure), but it's not made to work for 'low-level' workers. Instead, it's used as a pretext to take away many things workers fought for and have come to expect (like refectory/cafeteria/canteen/coffee machines at work). By perpetuating the narrative that this is all so great we devalue and diminish rights of workers. The decision makers don't render themselves obsolete but instead pass the savings to themselves while depriving/robbing staff below them.

The future of the EPO only looks grimmer if offices are being emptied while salaries decrease, head count goes down, and patent scope gets broadened like banks give out loads of mortgages until a debt crisis.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Traf-O-Data, the Company That Jeffrey Epstein's BFF (Bill Gates) (Co)Founded 53 Years and Went Out of Business Due to Heavy Losses
Who will die first, Bill or Microsoft?
A Note on SimilarWeb
Or why SimilarWeb is meaningless for more than 99% of the sites on the Web
IBM Said to be Shutting Down Offices or Sites in the United States
the press can no longer avoid admitting that IBM moves many jobs to India
LLM Slop as Attack Vector on the Reputation of Linux
The attacks on Linux have escalated to information warfare
 
Links 04/04/2025: Fury in South Korea, Flight MH370 Remains Mystery
Links for the day
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Anger and Raspberry Pi CM4
Links for the day
Links 04/04/2025: LLM Slop Bubble Bursting and Korea Music Copyright Association Bans Slop 'Music'
Links for the day
Why Microsoft's Shares Sank Almost 20% in Recent Months (the Bubble is Imploding)
verified press reports from the past 24 hours
GNU/Linux Rises to Almost 5% in Algeria While Windows Sinks to All-Time Low
GNU/Linux grew tenfold
Where to Get More Gags
A valued reader recommended that to us
Links 04/04/2025: Tech Stock (Inc. GAFAM) Fall, Google Pretends to Do End-to-End Encrypted Emails (With Google in Control)
Links for the day
To Participate in Fedora Diversity You Must Use Proprietary Software
Not for the first time either
Yandex About to Be Three Times Bigger Than Microsoft (Bing) in Asia
That's about 60% of the world's population
Gemini Links 04/04/2025: Decoupling Updates, Elaho as Gemini Client
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, April 03, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, April 03, 2025
Microsoft's Trouble in Africa and Asia
A new all-time high for GNU/Linux
Brett Wilson LLP Reported to the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA)
The saddest thing in all this is that law firms can maintain high standards shall they wish to
Links 03/04/2025: Tariff Pains and C.D.C. Cuts
Links for the day
StatCounter: Microsoft is Masking a Disaster, It's Way Behind DeepSeek Already and Interest in LLMs Has Waned
it turns out the money "raised" for "Open" "AI" may not even exist at all
Links 03/04/2025: SoftBank Money for Microsoft "Open" "AI" Probably Doesn't Even Exist, Wikimedia Foundation Blasts LLM Nuisance While Microsoft Admits Demand Has Shrunk
Links for the day
Gemini Links 03/04/2025: Patch Panel and Pictures
Links for the day
Islamic Republic of Iran: GNU/Linux at All-time High This Month, Windows Falls to 12%
Vista 10 is up this month despite being "end of life" (EoL) soon
Indonesia: All-Time Highs for GNU/Linux
What's noteworthy right now is the growth of GNU/Linux
statCounter Says GNU/Linux Usage is Up Again (Internationally)
some preliminary April data
Only on April 1st Can the Free Software Foundation Associate With Microsoft's Open Source Initiative (OSI)
We saw some pranks that day linking the FSF to Microsoft (e.g. "endorsing" Windows)
Confirmed in the Mainstream Media: A Lot of Microsoft "Workloads" Were Just LLM Slop (Helping to Fake Growth for Years, as Microsoft Had Paid "Open" "AI" to Become a "Client") and Demand is Rapidly Waning, Datacentres Canceled and/or Shut Down
Anything to facilitate further accounting fraud
Taiwan's Media Covers Closure of Microsoft's "AI" Lab, It's Time to Talk About the Gradual Death of Windows and Implosion of the "AI" Bubble
Earlier this week we showed that mostly Asian media had the 'nerve' to mention Microsoft silently shutting down its 'AI' lab
IBM Gets Rid of Kelly Chambliss as Mass Layoffs Reported in IBM Consulting, IBM Loses Key Contracts/Graft
IBM Consulting has been in disarray lately
More Gains for GNU/Linux, Based on Web Surveys
the Steam site shows rapid growth for "Linux" this month
Slopwatch: Anti-Linux Articles, Not Even Written by Humans
Why aren't Web sites more vocal about this problem?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, April 02, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, April 02, 2025
Links 03/04/2025: Apple Fined Over Secret Surveillance, "Elegant Writer For A More Civilized Age"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: Books and Cold Tea
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: More Layoffs, Nokia Again Takes Advantage of Illegal and Unconstitutional Patent Court With Nokia Staff as 'Judges'
Links for the day
Links 02/04/2025: Seizures and Returns to Windows of 24 Years Ago
Links for the day
LLM Slop Helps Obscure and Distort News About Layoffs (IBM, GAFAM)
It's hard to find accurate information
Links 02/04/2025: Microsoft Developers Are Threatening to Go on Strike, World Backup Day Noted
Links for the day
Gemini Protocol Has Growing Appeal (the Web Got Too Bloated and Full of LLM Slop)
For any "data plan" with bandwidth limits or "tiers" it would be cheaper to use/browse Geminispace
The Web Can Survive LLM Slop, But Only If We Collectively Shun and Discourage Serial Sloppers
Doing nothing ought not be a possibility
Amid Secret Shut-downs and Mass Layoffs at Microsoft (4 Waves of Layoffs in 3 Months of 2025) Some Microsoft Staff Expected to Go On Strike
workers going on strike
Gemini Links 02/04/2025: No more on Mastodon and Gemini Mention Script in Go
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, April 01, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, April 01, 2025
My Motion Disbarring or “Striking Off” Brett Wilson LLP for Enabling Violent Americans Who Try to Crush Microsoft Critics in the United Kingdom by Multiple SLAPPs
"Guns for hire" (for Microsoft people who received Microsoft salaries)
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office Hijacked Again by Patent Litigation Industry, as President Cheeto Prioritises Aggressors
The "mafia" has taken over the "industry" and the Federal system (justice and constitutions trampled upon)
Ubuntu Slop and FUD Manufactured With LLMs and Funded (by Oneself) 'Studies'
Slop and FUD are ruining the Web