Märpel learned that a staff member committed suicide in The Hague earlier this week. That person worked in formalities.
Everybody knows that examiners are under high pressure, but people always forget about formalities, while they are under even greater pressure:
-they are downstream from the examiners and got the same increase in files
-their number decreased as old, experienced staff is not replaced when leaving: the EPO believes software will do their job automatically
-far from being automatic, the software often makes their job more complex as workarounds are needed when the data entered automatically is wrong
-the ergonomy of their tools is badly lacking
-they experienced a brutal reorganisation lately with drastically increased requirements on their job.
Management simply wants to get rid of formalities, expecting computers to replace them, while we have several incompatible procedures (EPC, PCT...) and any mistake bears legal consequences. It is a disaster in the making.
Friday, 12 October 2018
Thursday, 11 October 2018
Travels cancelled
Märpel learned that President Campinos cancelled all travels yesterday, even travels already booked with applicants waiting at the other end. People were called back yesterday morning on their way to the airport.
The reasons behind that decision are not entirely clear. What is entirely clear, however, is that cancelling appointments at such short notice screams of lack of professionalism. When travels are arranged, the other end normally has invested time and efforts in arranging a meeting. Expenses need to be charged, authorizations need to be organized. Not coming at the latest moment is simply not done.
But President Campinos apparently does not care about manners. Reportedly, he had a fit about the budget and required everything to be re-authorized by him personally.
It appears that the Office managed to elect ANOTHER President capable of throwing a tantrum for the smalest of reasons.
The reasons behind that decision are not entirely clear. What is entirely clear, however, is that cancelling appointments at such short notice screams of lack of professionalism. When travels are arranged, the other end normally has invested time and efforts in arranging a meeting. Expenses need to be charged, authorizations need to be organized. Not coming at the latest moment is simply not done.
But President Campinos apparently does not care about manners. Reportedly, he had a fit about the budget and required everything to be re-authorized by him personally.
It appears that the Office managed to elect ANOTHER President capable of throwing a tantrum for the smalest of reasons.
Thursday, 30 August 2018
Early certainty.
The announcement that the EPO shall have less examining staff in 2019 caused some concern amongst examiners. The official discourse is that recruitment is halted and the number shall decrease because many examiners reach the age of pension in 2018-2019.
Märpel finds that surprising, as large numbers of staff took early retirement in the past years, but she could not see the statistics.
But Märpel could find an excel program called "Early Certainty Timeliness Simulator". Do not ask for a download: it only works within the EPO intranet. It was not designed that way for security: more simply it keeps itself up to date on statistics by downloading new ones from the internal databases: new patents filed, patents already searched, grants and withdrawals, etc…
The "Early Certainty Timeliness Simulator" computes future workload per directorate, draws a set of nice curves, etc… Märpel took some time to play with it. In most directorates, stock will reach zero within one or 2 years.
Märpel can only hope for a serious bug in that software. But if the software is right, Märpel knows why President Campinos is not too worried about difficulties in recruiting. And he is not: projections distributed to managers show no recruitment until 2024: 6 years!
Märpel finds that surprising, as large numbers of staff took early retirement in the past years, but she could not see the statistics.
But Märpel could find an excel program called "Early Certainty Timeliness Simulator". Do not ask for a download: it only works within the EPO intranet. It was not designed that way for security: more simply it keeps itself up to date on statistics by downloading new ones from the internal databases: new patents filed, patents already searched, grants and withdrawals, etc…
The "Early Certainty Timeliness Simulator" computes future workload per directorate, draws a set of nice curves, etc… Märpel took some time to play with it. In most directorates, stock will reach zero within one or 2 years.
Märpel can only hope for a serious bug in that software. But if the software is right, Märpel knows why President Campinos is not too worried about difficulties in recruiting. And he is not: projections distributed to managers show no recruitment until 2024: 6 years!
Thursday, 16 August 2018
Ion Brumme
Ion Brumme sent a letter to suepo members to announce that he was reintegrated. You may read more about it here: http://www.ippropatents.com/ippropatentsnews/article.php?article_id=6008
Welcome back, Ion!
Welcome back, Ion!
Wednesday, 15 August 2018
Mariae Himmelfahrt
Märpel would like to wish all citizen of Bavaria a pleasant day today: perfect Biergarten weather, not too hot... Enjoy your free day!
Tuesday, 14 August 2018
Closing shop.
As discussed in the last post, the EPO experiences difficulties in finding candidates. Recruitment is stopped.
The tipping point was last spring, when President Battistelli had a project to move all staff to 5-years contracts. That project shocked the staff, especially staff from Germany. They spread the news to their friends and relatives, far beyond the borders of the Office: in Munich, even the lay person on the street knows that there is a problem at the big building near the Isar. Märpel was actually surprised to hear that message from distant relatives, even her doctor!
The project was put on hold, but this will not be sufficient to undo the damage done to the reputation of the EPO as an employer. Nowadays, prospective employees know that work contracts with the Office can be changed any moment to their disadvantage.
Readers of this blog know that the opposite is not true: employment contracts are binding for staff, even years after they quit the job.
Who in their right mind would want to work under those conditions? Obviously, there is a problem but that situation can only be changed by solving the fundamental governance problem of the organisation: redrafting staff regulations, redesigning the appeal system, redefining the functions of the President.
None of this is on the agenda.
Instead, one of the first announcements of President Campinos was that the target for 2019 shall be lower than the one for 2018 (that announcement is not public but was told in several meetings). Why that surprising announcement when each preceding year saw the target increase by stunning numbers? The official announcement is that target per examiner still increases, but the EPO shall have less examiners. Recruitment is halted abd retirement shall not compensated.
The tipping point was last spring, when President Battistelli had a project to move all staff to 5-years contracts. That project shocked the staff, especially staff from Germany. They spread the news to their friends and relatives, far beyond the borders of the Office: in Munich, even the lay person on the street knows that there is a problem at the big building near the Isar. Märpel was actually surprised to hear that message from distant relatives, even her doctor!
The project was put on hold, but this will not be sufficient to undo the damage done to the reputation of the EPO as an employer. Nowadays, prospective employees know that work contracts with the Office can be changed any moment to their disadvantage.
Readers of this blog know that the opposite is not true: employment contracts are binding for staff, even years after they quit the job.
Who in their right mind would want to work under those conditions? Obviously, there is a problem but that situation can only be changed by solving the fundamental governance problem of the organisation: redrafting staff regulations, redesigning the appeal system, redefining the functions of the President.
None of this is on the agenda.
Instead, one of the first announcements of President Campinos was that the target for 2019 shall be lower than the one for 2018 (that announcement is not public but was told in several meetings). Why that surprising announcement when each preceding year saw the target increase by stunning numbers? The official announcement is that target per examiner still increases, but the EPO shall have less examiners. Recruitment is halted abd retirement shall not compensated.
Sunday, 29 July 2018
Candidates
In a comment posted on the last article, "Seeking job" noted that the reviews about the EPO on glassdoor.com criticised that the EPO did not respect the rule of law. Glassdoor is only the tip of the iceberg. Märpel asked around. University graduates are organised in trade associations and these are not publicly accessible on the Internet. But they help spread the word.
It normally works as follows:
-trade associations keep lists of their members
-if you are a member and seek a job at the EPO, you look on the list for somebody already working at the EPO and contact them
-that person tells you his or her opinion of the place.
Märpel would however suggest to be cautious and not give a frank opinion on a work phone (which will soon all replaced by Skype / Lync anyway), but instead ask for a number and call back from a private phone. Not so long ago, a principal director went around and said that the EPO was looking for candidates and that it was each employee duty to tell their friends what a great employer the EPO was. As in "we are so desperate for candidates, that you must lie to your friends: tell them the EPO is great!".
Except that it is not. It is a place where not even your pension is secure years after you left it (Judgement 4052). It is a place where the appeal committee decides against the personal in more than 98% of the cases. It is a place which still plans to put employees on 5-years contracts: word is that President Campinos wants to restart that project.
It is also a place which invested billions in a dubious investment fund and committed to further invest hundreds of millions of earnings each year in the future.
Therefore, as could be expected, the EPO experiences great difficulties in finding candidates when recruiting. But this is fine, as will be shown in the following article: the first move of President Campinos shows how he will solve that problem.
It normally works as follows:
-trade associations keep lists of their members
-if you are a member and seek a job at the EPO, you look on the list for somebody already working at the EPO and contact them
-that person tells you his or her opinion of the place.
Märpel would however suggest to be cautious and not give a frank opinion on a work phone (which will soon all replaced by Skype / Lync anyway), but instead ask for a number and call back from a private phone. Not so long ago, a principal director went around and said that the EPO was looking for candidates and that it was each employee duty to tell their friends what a great employer the EPO was. As in "we are so desperate for candidates, that you must lie to your friends: tell them the EPO is great!".
Except that it is not. It is a place where not even your pension is secure years after you left it (Judgement 4052). It is a place where the appeal committee decides against the personal in more than 98% of the cases. It is a place which still plans to put employees on 5-years contracts: word is that President Campinos wants to restart that project.
It is also a place which invested billions in a dubious investment fund and committed to further invest hundreds of millions of earnings each year in the future.
Therefore, as could be expected, the EPO experiences great difficulties in finding candidates when recruiting. But this is fine, as will be shown in the following article: the first move of President Campinos shows how he will solve that problem.
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