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When Companies Go Rogue
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ and its deal with the devil didn’t salvage the company; instead the company ended up in a country where it has almost no staff and almost no clients

TODAY we explained how the company I left last month had ‘relocated’ to the US for no real purpose (other than serving Bill Gates temporarily). The UK side of the business was meanwhile offloaded onto a newly-minted shell in a residential area (initially), based on likely illegal contract-signing, which will be properly explained tomorrow.

This past week I contacted the pension provider. It says it’s unable to find any records (Aviva and Standard Life say the same; the latter took more than half an hour over the phone), leaving us in limbo. What on Earth is the company doing and why did it register with a phony address just days before the witch-hunts began? The mystery deepens and more uncomfortable facts are being unearthed.

Just two days before the witch-hunt began:

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ is what people in the UK would likely consider/deem a “dodgy” company; today we revisit some aspects of that

IN many screenshots and PDFs shared here before (see the wiki for index) we’ve shown that Sirius changed its address many times before the witch-hunts. We also habitually present evidence that this company is too broke to be worth suing as it can take 12 months for a decision to be handed down; by then, the company might be bankrupt already, unable to pay. Apropos, regarding Microsoft layoffs, some anonymous employees say that the layoffs started last week and some people aren’t being paid severance. We’ll wait and see if more verifiable accounts can be found.

Over the past few years I occasionally downloaded documents (didn’t know years later we’d end up presenting and uploading them!) from what’s known here as “companies house” — basically a companies’ registry with PDFs hosted in AWS (millions of documents about British companies outsourced to another continent, which is ironic!). We’ve used those documents to show it’s getting worse over time as unbearable debt makes Sirius incapable of continued operations. We moreover hypothesise that the company is running away to dodge litigation and maybe dodge payments to the two ex-wives and 4 daughters, especially the young ones (early teens at this point in time).

It doesn’t look good, does it? It would be very difficult to sue or take this to court for dispute resolution. It’s not clear who to even sue because the company is registered at the address of Carbon Accounting and the UK ‘CEO’, whose own business is also registered at the address of an accountancy, is hiding his home address. He literally sends us letters without a return address. So it’s not only unclear where the company is actually based but also where its managers are based. You cannot simply sent legal letters to Carbon Accounting. It would make no sense. Carbon Accounting would turn the bailiff away.

Putting aside the fact that the company is registered with the accountants (Carbon Accounting) — a subject that I confronted the CEO about back in October (over the telephone!) — the address in the US may be an apartment and the addresses there seem inconsistent. The absent boss is also “sleek like an eel”, to use a term we mentioned the other week. Basically, the company now advertises itself as American (despite having at most one American staff member, a relatively recent recruit), it is playing legal tricks (and not following British law, even here in the UK), it tricked us all into signing of contracts we had not even seen (we’ll cover this later this month), and it keeps tricking people by storytelling, hiding the true story and the true state of the company.

This is especially upsetting because as far back as 2019 I insisted on getting some answers. But managers were mum; they were beyond evasive. The “cabal” had a sort of conspiracy of silence, as obviously the Office Manager and Support Manager who sat there in the contract-signing knew what was going on but did not tell the staff. I asked about the whole “US” thing and got no answers at all.

Lying to staff is about as bad as refusing to answer questions when asked. Something was being signed by the company with the Gates Foundation under an NDA.

In the next part we’ll explain how a “training and workshop” invitation turned out to be a trap, based on sheer deceit and obfuscation.

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Sirius Treats Staff as Lacking Basic Rights
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ failed to accomplish what its mission statement said, but it wasn’t the fault of Free software (or “Open Source”); it was the fault of management that does not understand Free software, rejects Free software, and cracks down on staff that advocates Software Freedom

THIS series has thus far shown that in 2019 things took a turn for the worse, perhaps coincidentally around the very same time the Gates Foundation secretly paid under an NDA. Within weeks at least 2 “managers” conspired to send not only me but also my wife to humiliating disciplinary action (we were fully acquitted by an external HR firm, but the bullying management was never held accountable).

Back then we realised (several different aggrieved employees) that had workers set up a union, even managers would be held accountable. But Sirius was already run by vicious people, who would never tolerate a union and would likely ‘hunt down’ any perceived union ‘leaders’.

So we ended up in a crooked, dishonest, lousy company, where technical staff collectively suffered the wrath/”big ego” of the “Big Shot” management (it’s always right and it knows everything; even when it’s wrong it will never admit it). The management disregarded Free software, failed to make payments to providers (we’ve shown examples), and basically rode the “brand” of company already (by that time) over 20 years old. Opportunists and charlatans.

The video above explains the last straw. It was all about me chatting with a close friend about what I was experiencing at the company, only after the company had failed to act as I expressed those same grievances internally. What I did wasn’t wrong. First of all, what I said was accurate; it’s all true. Second, nobody is mentioned. Third, it’s informal and management should not spy on staff outside work. Fourth, Rianne had nothing to do with the informal chats and wasn’t even aware of them. They’re not “publication” but mere act of fast, informal, typos-riddled chatting in a command line about very legitimate issues brought forth internally first (the culprits want to keep it secret because the truth is embarrassing).

If you work for ogres, don’t wait for them to start a witch-hunt. Quit proactively and explain to the world what happened. If you worry about what future employers might think, worry not. Clever employers with real integrity can value honesty and can identify innocent victims of utterly mad companies, governed by ruthless control freaks.

Summary: Today we take a closer look at what Sirius ‘Open Source’ management said about unions. We have plenty left to say about Sirius ‘Open Source’ (many posts already; about 200!), so we expect this series to go on until next month. We’ll show a lot more examples and evidence of scandals.

FOUR years ago I seriously considered leaving Sirius in light of the abuse suffered due to management being liars and manipulative bullies. The abuse started only weeks after the Gates Foundation had gotten involved, according to our records (we re-checked the dates recently). Earlier this winter or in autumn I had already made up my mind, having tentatively decided to do that around 12 months ago (leaving the company), but Rianne is another story. Rianne did not want to leave. My own motivations were explained in blog posts last year. Ethics were a key part of it, instrumental in the decision-making. The company ceased to be ethical.

Earlier this month we showed that a boss had picked on my wife using non-evidence and non-facts. It was a total disaster (we previously showed Rianne’s resignation letter and Rianne’s departure message at tuxmachines.org). A boss who hoped to prove that Rianne had done something wrong ended up doing many wrong things himself. For more information see Anatomy of a Corporate Witch-Hunt, especially parts like these, which reveal the full chain of correspondence. People can assess that for themselves. Readers can form their own opinions.

Here at Techrights we’ve been covering many union-related activities, especially at the EPO (since 2014, i.e. nearly a decade already). So we’ve spent more time studying this situation at Sirius, striving to accurately explain that “fluke”. The gist of the story is, on November 18^th a letter was sent to Rianne, probably before the company was getting legal advice and before Rianne herself could seek legal advice. Rianne insisted that she should be given time to speak to a lawyer.

Then, on November 28^th, an entirely different letter was sent. Ever so suddenly the tone of the letter and content changed because the boss and the sidekick apparently spoke to actual HR people for the first time. They checked the law and realised they had left something out. These gross omissions — and more generally the unprofessional management style — were consistent with what had been criticised for years already. This merely reinforced the legitimacy of the criticism.

“My lawyer says I can be accompanied not only by a trade union person,” Rianne wrote to the bully. “Sirius doesn’t have a union.”

The response came about a day later (after the revised letter):

Dear Rianne,

Thanks for your message.

As per our letter, you are entitled to be accompanied by either a work colleague or by a Trades Union representative.

Just to be clear, it is not Sirius’ responsibility to run or operate a Union. Trades Unions are independent bodies that operate separately to employers so that they can work for the benefit of their members.

It is also not Sirius’ responsibility to nominate a suitable Trades Union. It is a right under UK law for each employee to make an individual decision to choose whether or not they wish to join a Union. Sirius is an equal opportunity employer and makes no distinction at all between those who are members of a Trade Union and those who are not.

Kind regards,

There’s a lot wrong with that response and an upcoming video will elaborate some more. Rianne responded by stating that it was a false dichotomy and moreover the boss admitted that he would “tinker” with the witness prior to any meeting and be in a position to even deny the request. This means that any impartial or sympathetic (to Rianne) witness is deemed disqualified or subject to judgement (or warning) from the accuser. Cushioning a ‘kangaroo court’ with more kangaroos does not improve things — it merely gives the illusion of balance even where none exists. It’s like those notorious compositions in internal appeals at the EPO — compositions that were repeatedly deemed inadequate by the ILOAT.

Rianne never bothered with that stupid ‘kangaroo court’. She had already suffered enough for 4 years. She wasn’t planning to waste any more time in such a corrupt company. On Friday at 4PM a PDF was sent and on Saturday morning she formally resigned, having explained how she felt about the whole thing (see links in the relevant wiki for contents of the PDF).

Our current plan is to explain these matters and in the coming fortnight or so we’ll be publishing many more blog posts (they’re semi-drafted already) — with many more later, according to any further issues that arise (like the company trying to silence us). We cross-post, add to wiki etc. in order to better preserve access to all this information. We won’t allow that to be censored. The long report, followed by a PDF version, was already seen by the company a very long time ago. They knew what was coming. They didn’t know what to do. All the writing was done only after the bullying. In recent weeks we had to check with pension providers if the company was trying to ‘punish’ us through pensions. This is still under investigation (the pension provider opened a ticket for this and keeps updating us). This series has not been easy to publish as the company attempted to prevent access to our own E-mails! The company failed at it, so we still have access to evidence that vindicates us. We have some long articles on the way and maybe then some more blog posts (remaining notes, more embarrassing examples). We’ve meanwhile learned about the impact on the company. It can pretend all it wants that it doesn’t care, but it hurts really badly. That’s karma. Think before you shoot. Check the law before you leap to conclusions.

In the next part we’ll take a look at Carbon Accounting, which is where Sirius claims to be based. As we showed before, not only the company Sirius but also its CEO use their accountants to pretend to have an office. Sirius is a very fake company. It’s run by phonies who lie to the staff and to clients.

Video download link | md5sum 93ed07dde58f9f18674c2d75a0c2a72c
Management That Dislikes Geeks
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ has devolved into a kakistocracy that lies to staff and gaslights technical workers. This is how companies perish.

TODAY’S COVERAGE of Sirius focused on how the company was treating valuable geeks, whom the company should thank and be grateful to even have. It can barely hire any more; those who come leave very quickly.

A deficit of technical knowledge has long doomed the company. A deficit of technical staff is even worse. Treating them like “crap” only makes things worse, leading to dissent, protest, and resignations. The video above covers the latest meme and article. Tomorrow we’ll talk about unions.

My wife Rianne never appreciated these insulting analogies (calling NOC staff “monkeys” and treating them accordingly)

5 Little Monkeys Swinging In The Tree

Summary: As per Rianne’s departure message about Sirius ‘Open Source’ (tuxmachines.org post), the abuse endured since 2019 did a lot of damage and false accusations were the last straw; the role was created by people who called folks who would occupy it “monkeys”; that’s how some would view the staff

THE staff will always remember what happened. The staff does not forget bullying. Witch-hunts are also impossible to forget. While Rianne strongly suspects that Matthew Garrett ‘doxxed’ her to her employer as part of his efforts to silence me, the more plausible explanation is that Sirius management was looking for excuses to quell technical dissent and moral defense. I’ve been arguing against many of the company’s decisions for a long time (internally).

I wasn’t alone though; other staff also felt unhappy and some found the courage to speak about it, not just to peers but also to management. We’ve already shown a bunch letters after videos on grievances and there might be a letter-ripping video after explaining and showing the chain of events.

Adding insult to injury, in Rianne’s case her love of animals and regular donations to animal charities were sort of weaponised, hence the image below:

The company relied on truly ‘flimsy’ ‘evidence’. The management said, without any evidence, that I had uttered something “defamatory”; it took two weeks to actually show something and what they then showed was some side IRC channel (that nobody reads) stating perfectly factual information about my experiences, without naming people or the company. It was a chat between just two people and didn’t reveal anybody’s identity. It was factual and necessary; it was moral to object to bad ideas. Blind obedience and unquestionable docility should not be seen as a merit.

Based on a two-person chat, however, the company started breaching protocols and making up processes, as we shall show at a later date. The procedures set forth were disregarded and extreme measures taken for no good reason, so we resigned. It was done with immediate effect, as per the law; and “you are unlikely, in most circumstances, to need to continue the process,” say the rules. So we’re free to speak about what happened. We shall soon talk about labour union aspects as well. It’s something I’ve spoken about with friends for almost 4 years already.

In a company where some technical workers are compared to “monkeys” and there are about as many “managers” as non-managers, something has truly gone wrong. We had a moral duty or felt an urgent need to explain what had gone wrong. We now have a wiki that maintains several sections, including: memes, videos, report, key facts in a nutshell…

We’ve published about 45 videos with good titles (explaining in short the issues at hand), cases of clients (without naming them), openwashing, clown-washing etc.

As a reminder, we talk about a company that despite opposition from its own technical staff basically outsourced almost everything (Sirius also used to host for clients, on its very own premises). It used to self-host even the VoIP and file storage, but now, with no actual office, Sirius is just some account in another company’s server.

As we’ve said before, the company stands no chance of surviving. It’s deep in debt and it doesn’t know what it’s doing. Even its own clients began accusing it of “incompetence” (direct quote). When I joined the company in 2011 the staff had extensive media contacts in the wiki (for outreach, promotion, advocacy). It deteriorated over time as management was dismissing people without informing staff what actually happened (not safe to rely on hearsay and misinformation). Then, in Freenode, there was already an outlet for staff to discuss issues. Tackling a tradition of secrecy (dishonest management, but not quiet management), the IRC channel about the company insisted that “management wasn’t always right”, hence the need for a space in which bosses could be scrutinised. Now we do this in Techrights. The “monkeys” speak out.

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Management Always Right
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Sirius ‘Open Source’ has a seemingly very common problem; managers cannot be held accountable and even when shown that they failed at something, instead of apologising or taking actions against themselves they resort to accusing/blaming the reporter

TWELVE years ago the management at Sirius was a lot better. I was there. I saw it. Managers were typically technical people (like programmers and sysadmins). Things have changed though.

In recent years managers were just self-styled ‘managers’ or “professional managers” with experience in babysitting (literally).

As noted here a few hours ago, bringing a concrete example to the table, managers had made bad technical decisions and then refused to admit that. The evidence does not matter! It’s all about one’s pride. It’s about protecting brands^*.

Moreover, in that same example, it should be clear that staff wasn’t properly informed or trained; then, a falsified timeline was constructed for post hoc-type cover-up.

This example is about a year old, so in relative terms it is recent. If you work in a company that behaves in this way, consider leaving. Things won’t improve as this sort of attitude repels geeks.
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^* At Sirius, Google and AWS/Amazon were stubbornly defended no matter what (also Slack and Clownflare to a lesser degree). Readers of Techrights would likely be going one step ahead, correctly guessing some companies (not Sirius!) or even universities/governments (public sector, accountable to their citizens) which made a move to Microsoft would be ‘religiously’ defending bad decisions/choices (bribes often play a role, as Microsoft whistleblowers have repeatedly demonstrated in the recent past).

And whenever things fail, as always happens (Microsoft products are even defective by design), Microsoft just pushes them more Microsoft as the supposed solution. More sales! The culprits who brought Microsoft to the business/government want to “prove” it’ll work; so they pay Microsoft some more, albeit not at a personal expense. It’s a vicious cycle. Everyone loses, except Microsoft. And if only everything ran on Microsoft, they insist, things would be ‘optimal’ (until the next ransomware attack).

As an associate put it (to paraphrase), the problem is always that there wasn’t sufficient faith in Microsoft and that is always solved by buying TheNextVersion(tm) and MORE of it. For decades the cycle has been the same, namely it’d work if only they could achieve 100% Microsoft integration. Once that happens, the target goal posts move, and it would work if only they could purchase TheNextVersion, and if that happens before they run out of money, then the goals posts move again. At that point it becomes, it’d work if only they had the right Microsoft training. Then by that time, the $TheNextVersion has become $ThePreviousVersion and that part of the cycle starts again. And yet they still blame outright collapses on “Linux people” and your average worker agrees to believe that excuse. The problem is not new, it as it goes back to the 1990s. But for a recent example look at Aaron Swartz’s blog post about Conde Nast and why he had no choice but to walk out the door and not look back.