Related: Battistelli-Led EPO “Led to Tensions and Even to Suicides Among Employees, Say the Unions”



Summary: EPO depression has spread like the plague and it is the fault of the management, which wants the staff terrified, blindly docile, divided, helpless and on the verge of collapse

"Comment found on IP Kat today," wrote a reader to us regarding this new comment,"is quite terrible to read [...] Many people people are in serious distress at the EPO."

Yes, we have heard from a few -- some worse than this -- and suicides are in fact underreported and still happening (never mind the fact that EPO management denies law enforcement any access to actually investigate these). Bavarian television has identified the cause of at least one such suicide (the one it looked into). It was Battistelli's Investigative Unit, which Dutch politicians compare to "gestapo".

Here is the comment in full:

"Right now the friends of my friends are being ‘disappeared’ Soon it will be my friends’ turn And then mine (…) " (text from Professor Salman Haider)

At the EPO, several colleagues around me disappeared (suspended and/or dismissed). We survive with the stress that the next day it could be our turn. Most of us experience trouble sleeping. I take antidepressants medication. Last week I saw a colleague crying alone in his office. Another colleague speaks often about suicide. Maybe soon or later he will jump out the window. The EPO does not recognise psychological stress anymore. The persons who dare to declare themselves in depression or in job burnout are immediately investigated. It is a little bit like in the Khmer Rouge prison Camp, the prisoners who dare to complain to be sick were immediately killed. At the EPO, of course the investigation unit does not kill a depressed colleague. The investigation officers harass him, threat him of dismissal, do not pay his salary (as it was done to Laurent Prunier). That is the best way to reduce absenteeism in the workplace. Nobody dare to declare a psychological stress anymore. For the depressed staff member, the best way to survive is to hide that he is depressed to avoid to be harassed by the investigation unit. I come to work. My doctor advised me to stay home because with the antidepressants medication I take, I'm not able to work. It is true. I can hardly read a document and understand its content. But do we really need to read and understand? The only point important is to keep a high production to avoid an investigation. Soon the EPO will look like a psychiatric hospital with a lot of people in great psychological distress granting patents for Europe. Just missing the doctors to help.

To reuse a famous saying, Team Battistelli "has blood on its hands." How long can that utterly ridiculous immunity endure? ⬆