Bonum Certa Men Certa

The Sirius 'Open Source' Fantasy — Part IV — Crushing the Workforce Means Crushing the Company

Series parts:

  1. The Sirius 'Open Source' Fantasy — Part I — In 2022 the Company Was Already Too Deep in Debt
  2. The Sirius 'Open Source' Fantasy — Part II — Briefings About the Company
  3. The Sirius 'Open Source' Fantasy — Part III — Staff Input (From Technical Workers) Not Accepted
  4. YOU ARE HERE ☞ Crushing the Workforce Means Crushing the Company


Video download link | md5sum 123a41526a6d53bb9f2378df84318c7c Envisioning Bankruptcy Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The story of last summer at Sirius (it started in late spring) is told now in retrospect, based on about 5 hours of recordings (3 meetings); it didn't work out as the managers had hoped/planned and instead the company's last chief is now doing double-shifts (16 hours in a row!), basically trying to make up for extreme understaffing amidst a clients exodus; the CEO left last month as well, so he seems to have become unemployed after sinking the ship he rode on

MY final year at Sirius 'Open Source' was last year and it was already getting pretty awful. There was lying, deceit, and cover-up. Managers were pretty much predicting doom (without saying it out loud) and they had already silently robbed past staff.

"People can hear right from the horse’s mouth that things were getting really bad, no matter how much lipstick was put on the pig."The video above has a period of long silence in it because, for the first time, I forgot to unmute myself after playing back what a manager said last summer (90 minutes after the start of this recording). People can hear right from the horse's mouth that things were getting really bad, no matter how much lipstick was put on the pig. The silent bit hopefully didn't cover anything too critical (which wasn't repeated later, but it'll serve as a lesson for future videos regardless).

'Fantasies' of Sirius became more commonplace, and this wasn't limited to just discussing "re-infrastructuring" and other 'big words'. After taking notes or listening to suggestions from staff they eventually did what they planned all along. In other words, nothing has been implemented since then that wasn't premeditated. Previous suggestions were rejected... despite never-ending options put forth by staff.

It's regretful that I lost part of what I said due to the muting lasting too long; this is probably the first time I lost audio since last summer when we recorded about Belarus/EPO (a bad mouse button was to blame back then).

"Sometimes it’s better to be quiet than to say out loud something foolish if not illegal."Anyway, as a side note I recall how one of the romantic partners of a manager (he has several) kept suggesting that we should lower the already-low salaries of people who work all night long and are highly qualified, have high seniority or have long served the company during a year of massive inflation (about 10% in the UK!) while leaving in tact the salary of her girlfriend, who covers daytime. This person does not seem to have any understanding of the law; when people work overnight the salary must be a lot higher than in daytime/Office Hours. Sometimes it's better to be quiet than to say out loud something foolish if not illegal.

But that's not "the" crime; it's just a side issue for a company that became "petty thief" (very big thief).

This is the last part of this mini-series. We hope it has helped explain what happened last year without naming any people or revealing any clients.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Facebook's Debt Leaps to Over 51 Billion Dollars
A lot of this is a bubble, aside from the bubble the media irresponsibly dubs "AI"
3 Days Ago Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news
Most of This Month Will Deal With EPO Scandals
A timeline of sorts
 
The Long-Coveted Milestone of 3,200 Active Gemini Capsules
Despite being away some days last week, about 50,000 Gemini requests were served each day, on average
Five More Days Till Techrights Party
We'll have many more batches of Daily Links as we catch up with a 'backlog' of news
Links 02/11/2025: More Nuclear Escalations and "Anti-Cybercrime Laws Are Being Weaponized to Repress Journalism"
Links for the day
Gemini Links 02/11/2025: "The Pragmatic Programmer", Perl New Features and Foostats
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, November 01, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, November 01, 2025
Linux.com is Becoming Microsoft
They took a once-reputable site with a vast audience and turned it into a pile of trash
Microsoft Lunduke: People Pointing Out I'm a Bigot is a Badge of Honour
It's almost as if he openly admits being a troll and is proud of it
Oracle's Debt Continues Rising to All-Time Highs, The "Slop Bubble" is a Smokescreen for Larry Ellison
wishful-thinking bubble waiting to implode completely
News on the Web is Becoming Rare, Shallow, and Difficult to Find
To efficiently and rapidly find original and important news without underlying comprehension/understanding of the news (and its context) is a hard task
Slopwatch: Linux Journal, Serial Slopper, WebProNews, and More
getting back into the habit
The Cocaine Patent Office - Part III: European Patent Office Officials Cannot Claim False Identification
Corroborating with other sources is always desirable if possible. We shall do so later in this series.
Still Catching Up, Daily Links a Top Priority
Readers who have additional information about the EPO can send it along to us
Links 01/11/2025: "Americans Are Defaulting on Car Loans at an Alarming Rate" While Many Left to Starve (SNAP)
Links for the day
Gemini Links 01/11/2025: FIFO and Gemini Age Survey
Links for the day
Why Does German Media Protect the EPO From Accountability for Cocaine?
Can we trust such media to properly inform the public?
Links 01/11/2025: Microsoft Azure Goes Offline Again
Links for the day
Links 01/11/2025: Microsoft Distributes Malware Again, Radio Free Asia Shut Down by Dictator
Links for the day
November is Here, Anniversary Party This Coming Friday
Expect this site to return to its normal publication pace either by tomorrow or Monday
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, October 31, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, October 31, 2025
Gemini Links 01/11/2025: Synergetic Disinformation and Software Maintenance
Links for the day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, October 30, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, October 30, 2025
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, October 29, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, October 29, 2025