"Unprofessional, inefficient, overpaid and malingering"

This is the view that some members of the Administrative Council have of EPO staff, according to an internal report drawn up by the outgoing EPO president, Alain Pompidou. The report (also noted elsewhere here and here), titled "Governance of the EPO: a Staff Perspective", summarises an office-wide survey of EPO staff carried out in 2006, and gives the appearance of the EPO as being not an altogether happy and harmonious place.

Some pertinent quotes from the report:

"Only 4% of all staff expressed trust in the Administrative Council, closely followed by the MAC [management committee] at 6% and the President at just 7%"

"Particularly in the last two meetings of the Council, members of certain delegations have made comments implying, or even explicitly stating, that they consider EPO staff to be, among other things, unprofessional, inefficient, overpaid and malingering. Such comments are not conducive to improving the relationship between the EPO's body of highly professional and educated staff, and the Administrative Council. It has not gone unnoticed by these staff that certain of these comments even appeared to have the implicit support of the Chairman of the Council"

"An opinion which is widely shared by the EPO staff: 'I am convinced that the way the EPO is managed today (by the Administrative Council) is such that it will mean either the death of the EPO or its transformation into a cash machine'".

The IPKat sincerely hopes that the new president Alison Brimelow, who is due to start her job at the end of this month, can help in bringing some harmony back to the EPO and bring an end to this bickering. It certainly doesn't look good to the outside world that such a large and important organisation as the EPO is apparently riven with conflict between the ordinary workers and the higher levels of the organisation.

Merpel points out that it's all about money really. The EPO is now such a cash cow that everyone is complaining, from the basis of pure self interest, that they don't get their fair share.