Bonum Certa Men Certa

News From the Frontline: EPO Continues Unabated on Its Destructive Path

Guest-authored

Old train



Summary: An EPO outline of recent events, courtesy of readers

PD 43 Bergot's latest "cunning plan"



You may not believe it, but this is true stuff: visibly totally disconnected from reality (or perhaps under medication which alters her perception of our world), Mrs Bergot recently organised two sessions in Munich and The Hague to gather staff recently recruited (many of whom are still in probation period), for a rather challenging task: convince new comers to abandon their permanent employment conditions and instead accept a time limited contract!

And to motivate them (hahahaha) the only "benefit" that PD 43 was capable to propose to them was (and this is no joke): should these staff members decease prematurely, with a time-limited contract their survivors will receive a lump sum higher by 2% compared with the one paid for permanent staff.

A truly killing deal, is it not?

Obviously this is pure non-sense but at this stage of her Amoklauf, Mrs Bergot fears nothing, no one and can safely make herself a fool in public without fear (the rumour has it trusted circles that Mr Campinos is considering keeping her as PD HR since the fear factor makes EPO staff produce like hell and if he were to remove her, production figures may fall).

Of course as can reasonably expected, the members of staff gathered (euphemism for summoned) by the Grande Dame des HR did not believe what they were given to hear and no one accepted the "offer".

More pressure by DG1 management on examiners in probation



Currently DG1 Directors have been instructed by their PDs (and as can be expected from servants, they act zealously to satisfy their masters) to refuse (yes you read well REFUSE) examiners in probation to take their accrued holidays.

Why this? Because if examiners are off they cannot produce and targets cannot be met. Logical. As a result many new comers now sincerely consider leaving the EPO.

Well done Bergot et al.! Not only do they fail to attract top profiles any more (due to both EPO's terrible reputation on the work market coupled to far less attractive working conditions due Bergot et al. new policies) but now they even manage to motivate the few who got in to leave the EPO!

Sincerely we can only advise newcomers to run away before they become unemployable somewhere else, and they the longer they stay at EPO, the more unemployable they are.

Also from reliable sources, DG1 team leaders currently receive training from DG4 staff about how to “interpret” the Codex (read refuse), to avoid complying with legitimate requests by examiners who ask for special leave enshrined in the EPO Codex as rights (eg for sickness of a child, a spouse etc. Obviously the first ones who are affected (and cannot protest without compromising their future) are probationers and staff under contract.

Who said that EPO HR is anti-personnel?

Negative feedback upon Campinos: more of the same in sight?



Over the past 6 years, the EPO has been severely affected by the current top management team but it might continue to be destroyed big time under Campinos, due to the level of "competency" of those in charge.

Indeed from reliable sources, Campinos seems to fear that if he changes the current team (responsible for the mess we know), production figures will plummet and he will look like the one responsible for the drop.

As a result, Campinos is thus said to consider keeping them (e.g. Bergot, Chabod, Bauer etc) at their current positions or swap posts between them (!) so that with the "fear factor" going-on as-is, production targets remain at their current unhealthy levels.

Only a “detail” - which no one may have had the guts to bring to Mr Campinos’ attention: the level of exhaustion of EPO staff and with it, the genuine risk for new suicides (hundreds of EPO staff office-wide are currently in psy-related therapies to hold the pressure they face at their EPO desks).

If this feedback materializes, then Campinos – who was first selected with on its agenda as highest priority: restore social peace – will just be another bureaucratic puppet, incapable of taking real managerial decisions to preserve the interests of both the Organisation and Public, and EPO staff will remain parts of a mechanic which are to be thrown away when defect.

Legitimate reward of a true talent



Another "Good News": Sebastian Bauer who first worked in Investigation Unit (rebranded - don't die laughing - "Ethics and Compliance") as an investigator.

Always prone to serve his master Elodie Bergot whilst satisfying her most unhealthy wishes (e.g. Mr Bauer was heavily involved in the fake files generated by IU which served as basis to sanction several staff representatives and union officials (leading to several dismissals, downgrading etc), Bauer was recently promoted to Director level for his “good” performance.

But this was not the end of his success story yet: Now Mr Bauer has just been promoted Principal Director ad interim of Dpt. Ethics and Compliance (internally branded by EPO Staff as STASI) following the retirement of the previous PD.

Who said that true talents are not rewarded at EPO?

Recent Techrights' Posts

Where Microsoft's Bing Cannot Even Reach 1% "Market Share"
Looking at "I" countries
Links 16/02/2026: Barack Obama Responds to Racist Cheeto and Benjamin Mako Hill Studies Online Communities
Links for the day
 
Benj Edwards (Ars Technica) Used Fake Articles to Promote Ponzi Scheme for Conde Nast and Its Client (Marketing)
What Ars Technica and Conde Nast do here helps defraud the general public
Slop Technica: Ars Technica Seems Like Repeat Offender, a Part-Time Slopfarm
The culprits are repeat offenders, but the publisher will never admit this in public
Only One in 50 Saudis Would Use Microsoft for Search, Almost Same as Would Use Russia's Yandex
If statCounter is to be trusted
Microsoft's "AI" Concerns Are All Indian (or Low-Paid Workers Who Work Extra Hours Unpaid)
portraying charlatans and frauds like they're some kind of visionaries and luminaries
Microsoft Turned Bing Into Censorship Machine of China, But Bing Is Pegged at a Mere 2% in Asia, Yandex is Bigger
Expect many Bing layoffs some time soon (like in past years)
Just Like The Register MS, Conde Nast's Ars Technica Has Just Publicly Admitted That It Published Fake Articles (Slop) Made by LLMs About Serious Subjects
Conde Nast might shut Ars Technica down to escape the bad publicity/association
Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA) Way Too Slow to Respond to Financial Fraud at Law Firms, in Effect Helping Those Law Firms Defraud Many More People (Fleecing Clients)
Who will hold the SRA accountable for this?
Techrights Became a Hub for News That IBM/Red Hat Doesn't Want You to See (and Pays Mainstream Media to Distract From)
the more viciously the notorious organisation attacks the reporter, the greater the interest in what the reporter has to say
EPO's Central Staff Committee on Fourth Technical Meeting, Two Days Before First of (At Least) 4 Winter Strikes at the Second-Largest European Institution
“future orientations on the salary adjustment procedure”
IBM's Collapse Continues, Half of EU Countries to Have Mass Layoffs, "IBM Clearly Disinvests From Europe" Says IBM European Works Council
Recent publication
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, February 16, 2026
IRC logs for Monday, February 16, 2026
Gemini Links 17/02/2026: Alpenglow Industries' Closure and Gemini Server Issues
Links for the day
The Southern California Linux Expo (“SCALE”) or SCALE 23x Becomes Microsoft
It's not supporting the event, it is buying it.
Microsoft to Focus on Name-Dropping Buzzwords to Distract From Declining Business, IBM RAs (Layoffs) With Staff Stack-Ranked
Calling everything cloud or reclassifying as "AI"
Another EPO Strike One Week From Now, Local Staff Committee Munich to Discuss It This Week
Campinos MIA while Office staff goes on strike at least 4 times
Gemini Links 16/02/2026: Task Completed by Avoidance and "Playing Again With Akkoma"
Links for the day
Happy Birthday (or Anniversary) to SoylentNews
"Happy Birthday SoylentNews"
Techrights' Architecture
Stability is the main goal
IBM Reduces the Thresholds for Acceptance (and the Salaries)
Are chatbots good enough as IBM staff?
When It Comes to Rust, Keep All the Eyes on the Ball (Technical and Legal Perils, Sustainability Questions)
It's not about security or politics
Linux Foundation Continues Falling Off a Cliff in Geminispace
Gemini Protocol will turn 7 this summer
Links 16/02/2026: cURL’s Daniel Stenberg Asserts That Slop is DDoSing Free Software, But Still Uses a Plagiarism and GPL-Violating Blender (Microsoft GitHub)
Links for the day
The Techrights Community Never Needed Money, Only Goodwill
We accomplish things by a track record of suppressed facts
"AboutCode" is a Microsoft Proxy and Microsoft's Acquisition of the OSI Advances Via OSI Moles
presenting direct evidence anybody can verify
Social Control Media is Just a Digital Weapon
Social control media is not social and not media
They Will Call Smart People "Luddites"
Is society "seeing the light"?
Microsoft Amutable Already Reveals That Its Focus Is Not Linux, It'll Promote "Remote Attestation"
This is basically an attack on Software Freedom, even if they toss around the brand "Linux"
More People in Chad Move to GNU/Linux
Last year we began to see GNU/Linux rising there - a trend which continues this year
Dr. Andy Farnell on How Universities and Culture of Education Got Crushed by "Technofascist Nightmare"
Farnell says he "already soft-quit in [his] mind"
Debt of Broadcom Grew by More Than 50%, Broadcom is Deeper in Debt Than Google
Expect many more cuts
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, February 15, 2026
IRC logs for Sunday, February 15, 2026
Links 15/02/2026: Slop, Politics, and Gemini
Links for the day
Small is Beautiful (in Cascading Style Sheets/Inheritance Rules)
If done correctly, pages can take a tenth of a second to fully load
Microsoft Has Fallen to New Lows in Hong Kong This Year
That Windows "market share" falls there is perhaps expected
Free Software Foundation (FSF) Raised About 1.5 Million Dollars This Winter, Almost 50% More Than in All of 2024 Combined
Verbal advocacy goes a long way
Spread the Word About EPO Strikes and Patent Injustices in Europe
Corruption in Europe is a real thing
The Register MS is Promoting Slop, Promotion Connected to Microsoft (Trying to Replace Judges With Microsoft)
marketing spun as "science"
He Did Not Have Enough Souls
A lot of the subjects we cover here no other site dares touch
"Mix Vale" is a Slopfarm
3 "articles" about "ubuntu"
Links 15/02/2026: Roy Medvedev Dead at 100, Rise of "YouTube Politicians"
Links for the day
Links 15/02/2026: How Alexey Navalny Was Executed by Putin, Erdogan Helping Iran
Links for the day
IBM Fedora Keeps Promoting Slop, Red Hat Has Been Turned Into Chaff and Trash to Help IBM's Stock (With "AI" Storytelling)
Red Hat's Fedora is an old brand (20+ years). It no longer stands for what it meant to people in the Fedora Core days (I was a Fedora user back then).
What IBM Said About 2026 Layoffs and What's Happening in Practice
t'll leave IBM at the very bottom, in due course (customers will notice something profound has changed)
Gemini Links 15/02/2026: "Already Midway February" and Loadbars Remembered
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, February 14, 2026
IRC logs for Saturday, February 14, 2026