Clients chasing while managers chasing staff that works overnight, entrapping the staff for using faulty processes and faulty software (the management’s own fault)

Summary: Lately we’ve focused on nepotism and special treatment at Sirius ‘Open Source’; today we show how the “club” (or the clique, which is sometimes literally family members) avoids responsibility and liability

THIS series has inevitably become long because there’s plenty left to say and a lot to demonstrate with more practical examples (sans names of people and companies, especially clients).

We’ve already shared several examples of management passing blame to staff that did nothing wrong while failing to hold itself accountable for its own failures. A year ago there was one classic example of this when a message about a potential client resulted in disciplinary warnings; I joked that since we had received no instructions whatsoever I can at best say “hi, it’s Roy” when picking up the phone. To spare all the ‘gory’ details, here’s a message I sent back then:

I’ve just caught up with E-mail.

I remember the scenario very well. This was the first time ever that I received a call over Google Voice while connected (online).

The browser requested authorisation for microphone access and other things before I could pick up the call AND also be heard. This is inevitably what happens when there’s no thorough testing of such new protocols (Rianne did do some testing on her laptop).

It boils down to our instructions (which I have saved locally) coming late and without any training after that. Or even being able to test it “live” in my browser, which understandably limits what site site wants to do with my hardware.

I hope this clarify what happened and helps prevent future such scenario (browser settings have been changed accordingly).

Regards,

I got the following reply:

Hi Roy,

Many thanks for your reply with responses on the points raised.

I will check on the points you have noted and get back to you to see if there were any steps where there was an issue with the process and any areas that we could have improved on.

I think a key point though is that nothing should prevent us from answering any call with a professional greeting that sounds like a Service desk response. First impressions are vital for customer confidence of course. This is something that with your years of valuable experience should be well-practiced.

Thank you for resolving the browser settings though for future calls and engaging with this change.

And then me again:

Just to note (I’ve not yet read the other 5 messages), for a number of weeks we were on duty “in the blind”. We were given no instructions at all regarding:

- How to answer
- What to say
- Who might phone
- What to ask
- Where to enter information

In a sense, had we answered, it would possibly prove worse than not picking up at all.

A hypothetical call would be something like

“Oh, hello, who are you?”

“What do you want?”

“What are you? What am I? What am I even supposed to do?”

So I think that higher up (than me) someone failed to prepare us. I did not raise this concern at the time.

Regards,

Long story short, the company expected technical staff to carry out purely clerical work using defective products that many staff members had issues with (but could communicate with peers to affirm that pattern) trying to meet impossible demands like picking a call within 3 rings using defective stuff. Sometimes it would not phone or ring, sometimes it is a background process (not an actual phone!), sometimes there was insufficient memory.

At the end came a long document with a fabricated timeline of what had actually happened. Why? Because you can never assert that people above you blew it. Or that it’s their fault that faulty products are used and no instructions are available.

It’s not even clear if the above client was actually a paying client. The company was habitually announcing clients that later turned out to be ‘pre’ announcements or truly premature as nothing would ever come out of it. Giving false hopes to staff to discourage looking for other employment may seem fair, but it is still misleading. The managers were very eager to give a false impression (illusion) of getting business.

We previously shared some screenshots from the Internet Archive, demonstrating with the Wayback Machine the contents of old sites of Sirius, mentioning words like community and advertising more honestly (staff, clients etc.). Well, honesty is long gone at Sirius.

Sirius is now a minuscule company. At the moment it paints a misleading picture of who works in the company and who the company works for. We’re already in the second half of January and this still hasn’t been rectified. I happen to know that at least one client (telephony company) asked to be removed from the fake “clients” page. There were probably more, but I wasn’t a witness to that. Should Rianne and I keep asking them to remove our names from the site too? They’re not even removing our prior staff that left years ago; one of them changed jobs to work for our client.

Sirius is very fake.

Video download link | md5sum ae1efc68cafb1d4dec5a536eb6aaf511
Do Us a Favour, Stop Asking for Favours
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: Employers must not ask staff to do jobs outside the remit and scope of their work contract; anything else should be strictly forbidden, based on my personal experience which I talk about today

THE video above speaks of Sirius ‘Open Source’ and the notion of coercion. Apparently this is done to volunteers in Debian as well (i.e. unpaid people). Being part of a project or a company does not constitute a master/slave relationship. Voluntary contributions outside one’s work are welcomed, but when subordinates cannot (easily) say “no” to those who pay their salaries or hired them…. that’s a potential problem.

Today I gave two personal examples where the company’s management asked me to do favours (gratis work) for their own friends. I use some analogies to exemplify the absurdity and I certainly hope other people, including employers, can learn something. There should be clearly expressed laws that forbid that. This should be illegal.

New:

Video: (until Google removes it)

Description:

Changes of ECG parameters after BNT162b2 vaccine in the senior high school students

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36602621/

Full text link

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9813456/

Data collected, December 2021

Published, January 2023

Aims

Determine the ECG parameter change

Determine efficacy of ECG screening after the second dose of BNT162b2

In cooperation with the school vaccination system of Taipei City government (Taiwan)

N = 4,928 (mostly male)

12 to 18 year old

Before and after 12 lead ECGs

Three follow up 12 lead ECGs

ECGs read by by pediatric cardiologists

Serial comparisons of ECGs and questionnaire survey

Heart rate increased significantly after the vaccine,

(mean increase of 2.6 beats per minute)

QRS duration and QT interval decreased significantly after the vaccine with increasing heart rate

763 (17.1%) had at least one cardiac symptom after the second vaccine dose.

After the first dose, 209 (5.7%) had at least one cardiac symptom

Cardiac symptoms

Chest pain

Palpitations

Dizziness or syncope

Depolarization and repolarization parameters

All 4 cardiac symptoms significantly higher after the second dose of BNT162b2 vaccine (p less than 0.001)

N = 4,928

Abnormal ECGs were obtained in 51 (1.0%)

31 students were asymptomatic

ST – T changes, 37

Premature ventricular contractions, 4

Sinus bradycardia, 2

Atrial tachycardia, 1

Incomplete right bundle branch block, 3

Abnormal QRS, 2

Prolonged QT, 2

4 judged to have significant arrhythmia

1 was diagnosed with mild myocarditis

10, suspected pericarditis

All of these symptoms improved over time

Asymptomatic at one month

No covid in Taiwan at this time.

Conclusion

Cardiac symptoms are common after the second dose of BNT162b2 vaccine

Incidences of significant arrhythmias and myocarditis are 0.1%

One in a thousand

Rotavirus vaccine Rotashield, (1999)

https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/rotavirus/vac-rotashield-historical.htm

1 to 2 serious events per 10,000 vaccinees

(Intussusception)

Vaccine withdrawn

From the authors

BNT162b2 has a better safety profile than mRNA-1273 Moderna

Cardiac-related adverse effects, as peri- and myocarditis, are of particular concern because of possible serious complications

US vaccina advice

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html#children

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/stay-up-to-date.html

CDC recommends one updated (bivalent) booster dose:

• For everyone aged 5 years and older if it has been at least 2 months since your last dose.

• For children aged 6 months–4 years who completed the Moderna primary series and if it has been at least 2 months since their last dose.

UK vaccine advice

Who can get a COVID-19 vaccine

Everyone aged 5 (on or before 31 August 2022) and over can get a 1st and 2nd dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

People aged 16 and over, and some children aged 12 to 15, can also get a booster dose.

O we might have a fourth Prime Minister in less than 12 months. Things aren’t so “strong and stable”, are they, Tories?

Given the awful state of public health and the bailouts for the rich (including energy giants) it “pays off” to be prudent and proactive. I left my job last month and lately I’ve been checking the state of pension schemes, knowing some of them are akin to pyramid schemes. I was already cautioned about this more than a decade ago (after the first financial crisis and meltdown). Shown above in this figure is our rapidly growing national debt (similar trend to the US, the political sibling of the UK). This does not seem sustainable simply because it is not. And as health and long life are a sort of wealth I decided to leave the job (almost a year ago I finalised this decision), but now it’s time to worry about financing the future.

I’ve ranted already about pension providers barely responding to their customers. I documented this here.

With Aviva, it took nearly a fortnight (and persistent nagging) merely to get this not very useful reply from a generic E-mail account (and no name):

> Dear Customer,
>
> Thank you for contacting Aviva.
>
> To allow us to get your query to the relevant Administration department
> as quickly as possible, we require some additional information to help
> us find your policy with us.

It took you nearly two weeks to finally respond to me.

> Please reply with the following information ?
>
> Policy Number ?*please note we may not be able to trace your policy
> without the policy number *

As far as I know, Aviva never sent me any correspondence with any details. Myself and my employer paid Aviva, but I have no record of the actual Policy Number.

> Full name (including any previous names that may be linked to your
> policies)

Roy Schestowitz

or

Roy Samuel Schestowitz

working for Sirius Corporation

> Date of Birth

[... redacted]]

> Full address (including any previous addresses that may be linked to
> your policies)
>
> National Insurance Number

[... redacted]]

> As soon as we receive the details we need, and we are able to find your
> policy our Admin team will be in touch.

Please do. I’ve been frustrated by how long it took you to respond and even blogged about it.

Aviva hardly bothered to communicate with me, ever.

> Warm Regards,
>
> The Aviva Customer Team

There seems to be no “safe” place for one’s money these days. Commodities, cash, “crypto” (scam)…. they’re all volatile. Pension schemes don’t even assure anything; they’re just there and people assume they too are “strong and stable”.

Nothing is “strong and stable” these days. Pension providers barely want to even speak to their so-called ‘customers’. All they want is their money. Keep paying us every month, they insist, no questions asked…

There were times I literally stayed at their home because they didn’t want to spend money on suitable accommodation (e.g. hotel)

Summary: At Sirius ‘Open Source’ I was sometimes asked by management to look after personal affairs or help family friends; employers aren’t supposed to leverage their workforce like that

TECHRIGHTS deals with a variety of “Tech” issues and a broad range of “Rights”, including so-called ‘IP’ so-called ‘rights’. There is currently a constitutional crisis brewing in Germany and it relates to patents, but today we focus on labour rights pertaining to workforce outside the workplace.

As readers are aware, my wife and I resigned last month and left our job (after a combined period of 21 years in that employer). Today I’d like to highlight a likely common situation where the employer tries to get workers to do personal favours outside the business or outside the workplace. Many people don’t like to talk about it, as it might come across as “moaning” or a lack of generosity. After all, some colleagues — typically below the pay grade of their bosses — end up picking up post or picking up the kids from school. They may end up like family assistants. They try to “get ahead” by improving the relationship with the boss or, to put it more bluntly, “sucking up” to the boss. It’s unprofessional, but it is still done a lot. Some bosses exploit that, knowing it’s construed as impolite to say “no” to the people who pay the salary.

In practice, bosses should never do this. It’s not like asking for sexual favours, but it’s still bad. It’s better not to even ask or bother with such a request.

Today’s example is old but still relevant. I can finally speak about it. The CEO and his wife asked me to look into a site of a family friend from Spain, in spite of language barriers and the site having nothing whatsoever to do with my job. Like I’m a “home butler” of theirs, serving guests.

It started like this:

Hi xxxxx,

I have cced Roy into this mail as he knows a lot about wordpress so he should be able to help you sort out the problems you are having.
I will leave you to chat between yourselves.

See you in a few weeks

xxxxxx xx

The person in question spoke, but with very weak English — to the point where it’s extremely difficult to communicate at all. It was a massive language barrier. I followed up:

Hi xxxxx,

Can you please show me your site and tell me what you are hoping to
achieve, maybe with examples of sites that accomplish what you’re after?

Regards,

The communication was informal, but I was expected to give technical help to a family friend of the CEO and his wife. Here’s example of communication that I received:

Hi xxxxx!!

Thanks!!! My mum thinks that she is going to pick me up hahaha so you will See her at the AirPort

Hi Roy,

Ill have to give you acces to the blog Cuz its not aviable now, Also Ive got allready a list with the things that I would like to change if its possible of course

Do I give you access with this email?

Thanks a lot for your help

xxxxxxx
Enviado desde mi iPhone

It didn’t go very far, but the point of the matter is, the manager was asking me to provide support to someone who wasn’t a client but a personal friend.

On another occasion, more recently, the CEO was asking me to speak to a personal friend who had become the target of a patent troll, as if I was some unpaid ‘consultant’ on this matter.

“Next time I’ll phone you,” I said, “assuming you don’t keep an eye on E-mail.” I spent a long time basically advising someone because he was a friend of the CEO. Looking back (in retrospect), it was a waste of time as I was under no obligation to do so. But because I was receiving salaries (for something totally unrelated) I felt compelled to agree.

There should be very strict laws against this sort of thing. Paying someone a salary for job X does not make one a “butler” for job Y. From what my wife has told me, in some occupations and with some agencies there are official avenues for reporting this. Apparently this sort of misuse or workforce became such a big problem that confidential helplines/lifelines were thrown at workers, offering resolution without retribution/reprisal from the employers (threatening/blackmailing workers who report the practice/abuse).

New:

Video notes:

Investigating cause of excess deaths

In 1965, English statistician Sir Austin Bradford Hill

Causal relationships

Strength

The larger the association, the more likely that it is causal

Consistency, (reproducibility)

Consistent findings, different persons in different places

Specificity

No other likely explanation

Temporality

The effect has to occur after the cause (often with a delay)

Biological gradient, (dose response relationship)

Greater exposure should lead to greater incidence of the effect

(or indeed lower incident of effect)

Plausibility

A plausible mechanism between cause and effect

Coherence

Between epidemiological and laboratory findings

Experiment

Occasionally it is possible to appeal to experimental evidence

Analogy

Analogies or similarities between the observed association and any other associations

Reversibility

May work if there is no permanent damage

Video download link | md5sum e07915de3d9b82d54ea7b3b66fd312a9
A Sirius Relationship and Couple
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0

Summary: It’s hardly a scandal that a married couple was running the company from around 2010 until almost 2018; but that may have been a poor role model, as in later years one manager would bring in a spouse and two girlfriends into the company in spite of unsuitable background; the video above ends the series of articles about nepotism inside Sirius ‘Open Source’

THE company Sirius ‘Open Source’ was owned and controlled by a husband and wife when I joined almost 12 years ago. It still had plenty of geeks, including a former Debian Developer. It had a large building, it had staff specialising in different facets of operation (e.g. finance/accounting), and nepotism — if that counts at all — was limited to the CEO. In all fairness, it’s quite common for a couple to run a business. The only other example of nepotism (prior to me joining) that I’m aware of is one colleague who joined because of his boyfriend, who then became a colleague. He later left both him and the company, but again, in all fairness his (ex)boyfriend was technical and a GNU/Linux user. He looked after almost everything in the office, he was polite, and generally amicable. It was devastating to the company when he left several years ago. His certificates and his KDE desktop were still left there in the office when I last visited (even a year after he had left).

Looking back at the whole thing (21 years in combined duration for my wife and I), the CEO’s wife did a much better job than anything that came later and it seems safe to attribute the collapse of the company to the deterioration of that marriage (the CEO’s second marriage, ending around 2018 or 2019). It didn’t take long for him to sell out to Bill Gates (2019) and only weeks later the new manager was bullying both myself and my wife. They were never held accountable for it; not even an apology was offered.

The video above tells stories almost a decade old, corresponding to the text published last night.