HAVE just returned home, feeling both satisfied and upset. I basically just got back from sun-soaking trip, saved about 70 pounds, but the annoying thing is, I spent a lot of time reporting injustice and there was a corporate effort to cover up the injustice instead of tackling this injustice.

Let me explain.

Today at the till I was served by the same lady whom I reported before, after she had stolen one pound from me (in change) THREE TIMES IN A ROW…

Not kidding.

I’ve been trying to avoid her since then and when reporting her I said the goal wasn’t to get her sacked but to stop the stealing (it’s impossible to get such basic maths wrong “by accident” three times in a row).

Today I could not avoid her. She just sat in place of a colleague when I was in a queue (taking a colleague’s seat)… and did it to me ONCE AGAIN the same short-changing (one pound; same as always) along with the same excuse, so again I had to wait there for a boss to “correct” the mistake, then stood there at Customer Service to report the person (who already did this to me and is still there… and still up to the same old things). My assumption is that she can short-change (one pound) about 10 people per shift and then pocket a tenner without the register detecting an anomaly. Maybe she tips herself (bonus) that way… but at whose expense and at what cost to the reputation of the business, the time/patience/composure of the customers and so on?

But wait, it gets worse.

At first Customer Service turned down my request to report this worker or their stealing, in effect covering up for her. They decided to say all the managers were “at the/a meeting” (which I doubted, it’s just a classic excuse and that shop has about 10 managers on duty). I persisted, persevered, and only after (several other) further arguments they magically found a manager who could come out and pick the report. He seemed a little junior for a manager, but let’s not be too judgemental of appearances. They then made an excuse for why a manager becomes available when the issue becomes more of a nuisance or a risk. Why lie to the customer? Never lie to the customers. Whether the customer is “always right” or not, do not lie.

This is really awful and I said that if they have staff stealing from the shop, that’s one thing, but don’t steal from the customers. Pay them better perhaps; one man next to me at the till had a good joke about how “they need to make money”. He didn’t doubt this was intentional; it kept happening. It will probably keep happening unless I can avoid this cashier every time in the future. But what about other people? They might think it’s an accident or not even notice.

Businesses being apathetic to staff that steals is a very big problem. I’ve already spent about an hour (all combined) dealing with and reporting this issue. They don’t compensate me for the time and trouble; heck, it doesn’t seem like they even do anything with my reports, so what’s the point reporting it to them? Maybe even an external entity would treat this issue as too “low-value” to merit proper investigations. This means people can get away with a lot of cheating (or petty thieving) as long as it’s not “big enough”.

In hindsight, it was always hard to get a hold of a boss to report these issues too. It was slow, cumbersome, almost impossible – maybe by design. Maybe Customer Service people even get trained in stonewalling people.

The world is becoming a cruel place, not just to staff but also to customers.

was going to report something negative, but at the last minute there was a breakthrough.

On May 23^rd we reported issues to Nationwide and today at the branch I spoke to 3 people, one of whom over the telephone. Only the third person whom I spoke to finally took the feedback seriously and passed it on. I reported an issue with their platform and also an issue reporting much-needed issues to their so-called “IT team”, which lacks a contacting mechanism. Assuming they didn’t just pretend to pass it on, they will at least take the issues into consideration.

Video download link | md5sum 9364e74c9fb26a531bfe13118066b89d
When Companies Lie to Applicants
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Pension fraud and other crimes rendered my last employer incapable of recruiting and retaining staff; we want to make this a cautionary tale for other companies and technical workers out there while at the same time working towards full accountability

I was running background checks on this company as “Seems too good to be true” situation,” a person told us about Sirius ‘Open Source’. It later turned out that this person was nearly ready to work for the company. But a little bit of research changed the plans.

As it turns out, our series continues to have a lot of impact even about a year later. We knew the company very well (I was there since 2011 and my wife since 2013), but we didn’t know until this year about the pension fraud. Things got really bad in the last 4 years and especially the last year (2022). The video above explains more.

“I’m just starting my Linux career,” the person above told me. He was under the impression Sirius was based in two places, so I had to clarify that the company is almost 100% UK, but it is hiding in the US (dodging the law since around 2019). Apparently it’s not so uncommon a practice (there is a new shell in the US, bearing the name “Inc.”).

“I’m stuck in a position as this would be a good stepping stone for me,” the person said, “but I don’t want to deal with company drama.”

“Also they offered an extremely low amount (25k) for a technical role (understandably, helpdesk but Linux based… hmm).”

“Reading your posts about them being skimpish with cash I can completely understand,” he added.

I explained to him that some salaries were in fact reduced over time, not even taking inflation into account (my highest per-hour salary was in 2011 when I had just joined the company!) and one co-worker from the southern hemisphere, now living with his wife in England, was paid 21k for the same position as his colleagues. So there was an element of exploitation and even a ground for litigation (if he chose to pursue that; it’s not cheap). Yes, same role, different salary.

I also mentioned the nepotism, lack of holiday pay and so on. There’s the whole “Google is your friend” mindset as well. “One of the questions I was being asked is “What are your skills like with Google workspace etc”,” the person recalled. So they’re still rejecting “Open Source”, even though it is in the company’s name.

“I hope this page gets more exposure so that people don’t fall for this,” the person added. “I’m still in two minds, because choices are pretty limited for junior devops type work and exposure in large enterprises.”

Remember this was in 2023 when companies laid off many people while imposing some strict “hiring freeze” policies. So many people were desperate to either get in or merely stay inside.

But “the gig won’t last long,” I told him, so it might not be worth the trouble. It can get uglier when HMRC and police get involved. This is an ongoing issue and we’ll make further progress.

There’s a lot more in the video above, but I’ve carefully omitted some details to protect the person in question from reprisal.

Video download link | md5sum fc2ca023aa9cd6715b0568cf80397df3
Sirius Behind the Veil of Lies
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ have made it virtually impossible to attract people who can support GNU/Linux systems; there are lessons to learn here, both for employers and for employees

THE collapse of Sirius is still being chronicled here, albeit less frequently than before. At the end of July we saw that the company had sunk deeper into debt and headcount fell to about half what the company falsely claims in its Web site.

There is also a staff exodus (people fleeing); this includes high-level positions. This is still an ongoing or outstanding issue. How long before it’s a one-man shop with huge debt? Many workers got burned, some got burned out, and many has been secretly robbed for many years. The details are updated still and indexed under our Wiki pages; since leaving the company I was contacted by people who had applied for the positions. All of them regretted even applying!

“I have decided to withdraw from the offer made by [redacted],” one told me. “I have also carried out a credit reference check and it confirms a lot of what you have said. I cannot be associated with a company like that. I think I have dodged a bullet and wanted to thank you for your wiki entries. [...] I ran a check through companycheck.co.uk, it gave me a full history of the finances and a score of the likelihood of the company folding. There was also a history of Sirius spinning up shell companies. I do not like companies trying to dodge their responsibilities by playing the system.”

“I looked at the companies finances and compared that to [redacted]‘s version. It didn’t match up, also [redacted] claimed contractors were “perm” employees to make it look like the company was more successful than it actually was.”

The video above discusses this in greater depth. Some time tomorrow we intend to tell a similar story. What takes a bit of effort here is hiding people’s identities. The thing of utmost importance is to explain this from a more generalised point of views, as it’s safe to assume many other companies behave similarly. We try to explain the patterns.

Video download link | md5sum 2fe9f82c74ba241e589746e3621e7289
Sirius Open Source Investigation Still On
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The Sirius ‘Open Source’ series is still ongoing and we have some sporadic updates on it

TODAY I wanted to speak about the time when (more than a decade ago) my employer attacked a blind colleague of mine who had done nothing wrong. She was isolated from us and colleagues were prevented from talking to one another about what was happening. You see, they basically took down our Jabber server for many weeks and pretended it was due to some technical problem. Bear in mind that by that point Sirius had already quietly plundered us, collecting our money for a “pension” that did not exist (it’s a very serious crime, that’s pension fraud).

We’ll progress with our pursuits and find justice one way or another. There are many impending steps and we’ve made some breakthroughs. Right now it seems safe to say that the subject will come back for months to come, maybe even next year. I say a lot more in the video above. Later this week my wife plans to publish something. Her first article is related to this.

It’s finally out (hours ago).

Note: The pension fraud would require investigating that shell abroad. 3 entities are deep in debt.

Summary: As noted the other day, Sirius ‘Open Source’ was eerily quiet or inactive and there was nothing for July until today (the very last day of the month) regarding its finances (e.g. balance sheet and headcount); the company still claims to be based where the accountant is (still the same accountancy) and the losses deepened last year, with only 166 pounds in the bank, a massive decrease in net assets, and debt growing by 20% (up until October 31^st, i.e. a month before both my wife and I resigned, followed by several senior colleagues). This was only “[a]pproved and authorised by the director” today; the company claims to have “7″ member of staff, but that was a year ago and it’s a lot less now. As it turns out, selling out to Bill Gates and playing to the tune of Microsofters who dox employees was a big mistake Microsoft had attempted this years prior], as usual).

“Netscape hired me to represent their interests, and when I announced this, controversy ensued. Which is a nice way of saying that Microsoft went berserk; tried unsuccessfully to get me fired as co-editor, and then launched a vicious, deeply personal extended attack in which they tried to destroy my career and took lethal action against a small struggling company because my wife worked there. It was a sideshow of a sideshow of the great campaign to bury Netscape and I’m sure the executives have forgotten; but I haven’t.”

–Tim Bray

Video download link | md5sum af2ede5cedf3d71835d542e233f4bb36
Liars in Charge
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: The crimes of Sirius ‘Open Source’ will be covered here about once a week and today’s video deals with the last part, which explains a history of lying and perhaps infidelity too

HE attempts to compel the British government to hold Sirius accountable for financial crimes won’t end soon. The British government was the biggest client of Sirius, so there’s an incentive to bury it all under some rug somewhere.

We recently made the decision to slow down a bit and issue progress reports once or twice a week. Many victims deserve to know what’s happening and what was happening since 2011 (12.5 years ago; it may have started sooner, but I hadn’t been there yet).

There is no very clear outline at the moment, but we have about 10 more steps to go through and a lot of information in the pipeline. The above video mostly sums up what we covered earlier this week.