Bonum Certa Men Certa

The European Patent Office (EPO) Cannot Understand Women

Video download link | md5sum 677d4cd8d2baa294cdc0f8d9bdbc038c EPO a Men Club Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The EPO is being made aware of women's issues; since a lot of the management is a bunch of 'alphamales' [1, 2, 3] like Benoît Battistelli and his crony António Campinos (and their friends) we're not likely to see policies that are kind to women (heck, Campinos tells women that he is "the f***ing president"; borderline harassment)

THE EPO has a number of crises, including a crisis of legitimacy. It does not obey court orders, it discriminates against women (even in 2022), and only about a third of staff is female. Those in higher-up positions are spouses and friends of male managers. Imagine trying to extend this crooked system to the courts (UPC), setting aside the gross biases on European software patents; the EPO is an epic bubble of crime, a bundle of corruption. Diplomatic immunity helps this persist.



"With management like this, will they get listened to? Will they find a sympathetic ear or just more "mansplaining"?"This video concerns a new document in circulation. In it, menopause is explained and the Central Staff Committee insists that EPO management should take the matter seriously. With management like this, will they get listened to? Will they find a sympathetic ear or just more "mansplaining"?

In the words of the Central Staff Committee: "Dear colleagues, Have you already dared to talk about menopause with your colleagues or your manager? Considering the EPO’s age pyramid, women over 45 are a growing population and this should make menopause and menopausal staff an important topic in our organisation. Yet the challenges faced by our colleagues at this natural phase in their life have been so far largely ignored and there is no specific support in place to ensure they can remain at work. Your Staff Representation explains the need for a menopause policy at the workplace and strives for a supportive working environment for menopausal colleagues in this paper."

The paper is discussed above and reproduced below as HTML/GemText/plain text:

Zentraler Personalausschuss Central Staff Committee Le Comité Central du Personnel

Munich, 04/11/2022 sc22132cp

Menopause: not a taboo



Dear Colleagues,

According to the Social Report 2021, out of a total of 6.261 staff members, 2.125 are female, this is 33,9% of EPO staff.

The majority of our female colleagues are 45 years or older1 and might therefore presently be going through pre-menopause or menopause. The menopausal transition most often begins between ages 45 and 55. It usually lasts about seven years but can be as long as 14 years, hence, it is likely that female staff suffer symptoms up to the time they retire.

Menopause is a natural part of a woman’s life; all female colleagues will eventually go through it. It can affect work-life severely, making this topic a major occupational health matter.

Still, menopause does not come naturally in conversations, and its impact on women remains largely ignored or underestimated. And worse still, it is often dismissed as a joke. Women themselves are often underinformed about the symptoms and fail to identify the first signs. When they finally become aware, they mostly keep to themselves and do not seek support. For instance, almost half of the women who needed a day off due to menopause symptoms say they would not tell their employer the real reason2.

Symptoms of pre-menopause and menopause impacting life at work

The symptoms that a woman in the menopausal phase experiences vary from one woman to another. We list below the most frequent menopausal symptoms that can affect women’s life at work3:

● vasomotor symptoms, including hot flashes, night sweats, and flushing (an estimated 75 percent of women experience hot flashes with menopause) ● insomnia ● depression ● anxiety ● difficulty concentrating ● memory problems ● headaches ● racing heart ● urinary tract infections (UTIs) ● reduced muscle and bone mass ● painful or stiff joints

_____ 1 EPO Social Report 2021 (CA/40/22 Add.2, page 9) 2 A woman’s relationship with the menopause is complicated. British Menopause Society fact sheet. Women’s Health Concern. www.womens-health-concern.org, published October 2017 3 Menopause: Symptoms, Causes, Treatment, and More (healthline.com)




These symptoms have an impact on well-being at work, self-confidence, performance, and might simply render it impossible to complete a normal working day. Certain tasks become more challenging or stressful than before, and symptoms occur unpredictably throughout the day making it harder to plan the working day.

Why the Office should offer support to pre-menopausal and menopausal staff

A menopause policy should be regarded as part of the duty of care of an organisation. Failing to support staff suffering menopause-related symptoms also bears risks for the employer and creates a lose-lose situation4.

The European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) published exhaustive recommendations to employers, managers, healthcare professionals and women to make the workplace environment more menopause supportive, and to improve women’s wellbeing and their ability to remain in work5.

Some assessments of the impact of menopause at work show an alarming trend. An UK’s industry-wide research has revealed that nearly one million women (in UK) have had to leave their jobs due to uncomfortable menopausal symptoms, as menopausal women become the ‘fastest growing workplace demographic’6.

On the 22nd of March 2022, the EPO addressed the topic of menopause in a CIN drop-in session. The topic attracted 100 participants, mostly women. A poll among the participants revealed that 87% of them were impacted by menopausal symptoms at work. There seems to be a cause for action at the EPO.

With respect to the Office’s duty of care, and the recent initiatives on D&I topics, we expect that the Office is prepared to update the work policies in collaboration with the staff representation in order to truly support women in menopause.

Staff representation supports our female colleagues

In recent months, we have been in contact with the Occupational Health Services and the training department in order to find ways to raise the awareness of staff. We also encourage our female colleagues to bring up the topic of menopause. A review of the health and safety, well-being, and staff absence policies and frameworks is necessary so that menopause is recognised as a health issue.

We strongly encourage you to contact OHS should you experience symptoms or be in need of a medical advice.

As staff representatives, we re-affirm our offer for a safe place to share your concerns. We are there to support you and will work towards a review of the Office’s policies.

For us, menopause is not taboo, and it should also not be for you.

The Central Staff Committee

_____ 4 Employment law and menopause – Menopause in the Workplace | Henpicked 5 Global consensus recommendations on menopause in the workplace: A European Menopause and Andropause Society (EMAS) position statement 6 Research shows that menopause symptoms are forcing women out of the workplace | Aon


Based on the above links, the Microsoft takeover of the EPO persists. The EPO has become so utterly incompetent that it outsourced a lot of stuff to Microsoft (almost certainly illegal) and now it has Sharepoint with an intranet domain called "epocloud". The EPO is run by corrupt clowns who rob the place and promote an illegal agenda of special interests. There's more on this topic in our next video.

Recent Techrights' Posts

The US Government is Now in the Business (Literally!) of Saving Microsoft and Intel
This means that President TACO/Cheeto now has greater financial incentive to also prop up Microsoft and Windows
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
 
Nobody is "Replaced by AI", It's Just a Smokescreen for Jobs Being Eliminated by Lack of Money (Too Much Debt) and Offshoring
It's also why many make the jokes about the "I" in "AI" being "India" or "Indians"
Men Who Abuse Women Should Never Spend Over 3 Years of the UK High Court's Time
This demonstrates that we need a reform in the UK
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, WebProNews, LinuxSecurity, and the Serial Slopper
The bubble needs to burst, but even then the Web will be left with residues of these slopfarms
Links 23/08/2025: Science, War, and Important Win for the British Media Against SLAPPers Who Abuse Women
Links for the day
Gemini Links 23/08/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and Back to Oldschool
Links for the day
"Deserved Victory" for "Women That Suffered"
"GNM defended its reporting as being both true and in the public interest and in a judgment on Friday"
Links 23/08/2025: onmicrosoft.com as Spam Cannon, The Cheeto-Intel Deal Is Official
Links for the day
Wired Complained About LLM Slop Only Days Before It Got Caught Doing That Itself
Never throw stones in a glass house
IBM "Value" Down 14.16% in a Month, Red Hat Layoffs Allegedly Discussed 12 Days Ago
"IBM is a dinosaur. Dinosaurs get extinct when the don't keep up."
We're Seeing More Countries Where Windows Isn't Even in Second Place Anymore (Third or Worse)
In a way, Microsoft can barely even hold onto second place anymore
Microsoft Workers on Canonical's Payroll
If you want something that's sort of like Ubuntu but is not controlled by Canonical, then look into Linux Mint, Debian, or LMDE
GNU/Linux Climbs to 4% in Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone isn't a very rich country (to say the least), but it's better off than some of its neighbours
The SLAPPS Run Out of Oxygen Because They're Abuse of Process
At the end of the day we plan to publish over 1,000 articles explaining what happened
The Register MS Gets Paid by the Employer of the Previous Editor in Chief to Promote the "AI" Ponzi Scheme, Which Does Considerable Damage to the Web and to Online Journalists
The Register MS can 'badmouth' slop all it wants; it gets paid to inflate this bubble. It's actively participating in it.
Soon It'll be Autumn, Time to Repair Things
Where they don't charge an arm and a leg
Doing Our Best to Cover Software Patents When the Mainstream Media Does Not
Even the FSF has its limits
Gemini Links 23/08/2025: August Questions and Network Solutions
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 22, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 22, 2025
Microsoft Has Issues in Guyana
It's not just Guyana
About 25% of the "Linux" News/Results in Google News Today Are LLM Slop, Almost 20% From the Same Rogue Operators of Slopfarms
Google, which tries to market itself as an LLM giant, apparently fails to understand what's wrong with it
Harassing People on Holiday
There are "no-go areas"; but that assumes all laws firms have ethical standards
The Great, Undeniable Value of Paper Trail, Not Purely Digital Systems
Suppose you have nothing but bits on someone else's computer and "word of mouth"...
The Company Behind Ars Technica, Reddit and Wired Caught Publishing LLM Slop (It Also Admits It Now)
Condé Nast busted
Links 22/08/2025: Lagrange 1.18.8, Wired Magazine and Business Insider Caught Resorting to LLM Slop
Links for the day
This Saturday It's Gonna be 3.5 Years* Since Russia Invaded Ukraine. No Microsoft Protests Against Microsoft Having Provided Russia With Services.
Companies do not have consistent policies and enforcement of "corporate values" is somewhat of an egg salad
Slopwatch: Sites Gone Rogue, Google Promoting Lies, and DDoS Attacks by Plagiarism Giants
Charlatans and frauds engage in a war against artistic industries, mislabeling plagiarism as "AI"
Links 22/08/2025: Cisco Layoffs, LA Times Says "AI Hype is Fading Fast"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 22/08/2025: K for Kentucky and Caddy Versus LLM Slopbots
Links for the day
The "End Software Patents" Initiative of the FSF Explains "WHY [to] ABOLISH SOFTWARE PATENTS"
We hope to cover patent-related issues more and more as the big anniversary of the FSF approaches
Freenode Sniffing
The grown-ups left the building
The Only Thing Worse Than Misinformation is Misinformation Sold to Everyone as "Intelligence"
Misplaced trust is worse than none at all
The Register MS Now Openly Admits LLM Hype Does Damage, But It's Also Being Paid to Participate in the LLM Hype (With Paid 'Articles' and 'Webcasts' for Paying Advertisers)
The Register MS gets paid to do this
End of the Smartphone Era? No.
Maybe the media should focus on producing accurate, factual news
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 21, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 21, 2025
Enshittification of Airports, Airlines, and Airplanes
If people are willing to tolerate standard declines and enshittification (nowadays sold as "pivot to AI" or "replaced by AI" or "AI layoffs") they will pay for it some other way
Latest Is Not Greatest: The Case of "Foldable" Tech
don't be shamed into abandoning old things just because the "fashion industry" of Apple and Samsung tells you to
Airlines and Their Tricks That Only Work in the 'Digital Age'
People sceptical of the direction technology has taken are not "Luddites"
Open Source Initiative (OSI), Which Became a Propaganda Front of Microsoft and "Hey Hi" (Hype, Misnomer), Wants You to Forget These Scandals
A lot of these issues won't be set aside until there's a resolution
The Culture of Overnight Coding
An industry-wise push-back is needed
Windows Down to New Lows in Guinea Bissau and Many Countries Around It
If Android is accounted for, Windows is down to about 10%
Gemini Links 21/08/2025: Modern Dating, Debian 13, and Apache
Links for the day
Microsoft Has Had About 10 Waves of Mass Layoffs So Far This Year (Not Two as Mainstream Media and Slopfarms Endlessly Claim)
Notice how the MSM (Mainstream Media) never mentions the debt of Microsoft. It is a conscious, deliberate decision.
Links 21/08/2025: Covid Cases on the Rise, "Social Media Trolls", Russia's Attacks Intensify
Links for the day
Gemini Links 21/08/2025: The Attraction of Back Alleys, Initramfs, and BSD ISPs
Links for the day
Links 21/08/2025: Stephanie Shirley Dies and "Groklaw Domain Hijacked?"
Links for the day
Search in 2025 (Age of DDoS Attacks Under the Guise of "AI" "Innovation")
One common concern when things go "live" is that any random bot out there can execute queries, pumping up RAM and CPU usage, as happened when we used MediaWiki and WordPress
Using Slop for Images Does Not Make Your Site Look Advanced or Witty, It Just Makes Your Whole Work Look Like Presumed Plagiarism
Lazy slobs and Serial Sloppers use the guise/excuse of "AI" to plagiarise and spam the Web
Financing of the "Hey Hi" (AI) Bubble by Those Who Profit From Planetary Destruction (Global Warming)
It's about personal gain, too
Richard Stallman Will Speak in Ethereum Cypherpunk Congress
it's good to see that the FSF pays considerable respect to it founder, who is moreover invited to speak at events
(At Least) Second Wave of Mass Layoffs in Microsoft This Month
This is not the first time this month that Microsoft has mass layoffs
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 20, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 20, 2025