Hi All

Why?¶

Many reasons.

Some of you know more than others.

It was sad decision; one against my will/desire.

But it was a necessary decision -- a self-preserving one.

Context¶

To try and provide a minimum:

I re-joined Askia in late September 2015.

I needed a job.

Askia needed a new Vista Product Champion (aka. PO), but was cash-strapped.

So we came to a verbal agreement, that I would work part-time (~2.5 <> 3 days/week) from BCN and charge the same day-rate we had used back in ~2003, for ~6months, and after which we'd discuss improving compensation & work situation.

FFWD to recent past.

March 2019: I was asked to increase my work, ie. from ~3/5 time to fulltime.

After having having lived a rough & stressfull early 2019, this demand served as the occasion to finally force improving my financial compensation.

In the end we agreed to +34.3% raise, and in counterpart comitted to working 4/5 time.

Though it sounds a lot, it's a case of "looks are deceiving".

The reason for 34% was basically that it, at a minimum, accounted for the EUR inflation rate between 2003 to 2019¹.

So, now June 2020... well, for last ~12 months, I've been invoicing the same, inflation-adjusted, rate as back when I was 20+yr old.

At that same time, I feel like saying knahT doG at least got that..

To be fair, that spring 2019 compensation adjustment was temporary.. We were meant to finally review+improve it after the "Ipsos deal" went through.

But then, nothing happened..

Ipsos Acquisition¶

What to say.

Mergers & Acquistions range from the sucess-story types, to shades of mixed-results, to the disaster-story types.

Suffice it to say that the course taken by Ipsos since irrupted into Askia's daily life, from my perspective/IMO, are not headed towards the success story type.

Maybe I talk too fast/soon.

Maybe.

But the train of sketchy, messy, arbitrary, sub.thought.out, un-debated, un-conciliated (and of all those, many also: un-necessary) decisions from Management.. These added to other unanswered questions & complaints..

All this just led me to:

• lose energy,
• lose enjoyment from work,
• lose drive/motivation ...because the direction taken sucks.

Now... Am I saying: "It would have been better if Ipsos hadn't aquired Askia" ?

No.

That's a topic on its own. But if I limit the view to recent past (~12 months) then I'm more of the opinion that an Ipsos+Askia deal should (have been) be beneficial to Askia.

But -- and it's the crux of the critique -- the currently still unfolding & erratic integration of Askia within Ipsos does not --AT ALL-- line up with (old) Management's explanations on what the Ipsos+Askia deal would be.

2019 Management¶

To summarize 2019 Management's messages & calls.. I had understood:

• Ipsos is ready & has the capacity/financial-strength, to inject 1+ million EUR into Askia
• Askia's bosses, JS & PG, are demanding during this "due diligence/courtship-process" that they stay in charge of Askia, for at least ~4/5yrs, and thereby ensure they'd remain/be in a position make sure:
  • Askia keeps developing its products according to its decision(s) - ie. ensure existing clients' demands + Ipsos' are "best met"
  • Askia remains an "independant/distinct" entity within Ipsos, whilst having a vantage point to push&sell its software solutions within Ipsos.
  • Ipsos will train a first-level support team to offload work from Askia Team, as a matter of Top priority (within the whole 24months macro-Ipsos+Askia-plan; aka. Dimensions.has.died_Long.live.QE(S|W)X!)
  • Ipsos/Askia will double Askia Staff within ~12/24 months.
• The above discussions/feedbacks also pointed towards a 51%/49% split between Askia historical shareholders and Ipsos -- or something that seriously enshrined the preceding points with effective & functioning mechanisms to exert their power/decisions.

2020 Management¶

It turns out²:

• Ipsos will loan money to Askia, but right now can't.
  • When?.. well, I'll leave you figure that one out.. maybe it finally came through -- last I heard was Ipsos' n-1 was announcing end of May 2020.
• I was surprized, but it only actually confirmed something I'd felt over those long COVID19 confinement weeks, that JS & PG have basically lost control.
  • I don't mean to say their voice has no weight or import, just that they no longer call the shots.
  • Confirmation for me was recent, when receiving an email telling me that negotiation/discussion/&decision on my ongoing/future collaboration with Askia was to be exclusively handled by our CFO, Pascal Baudier.
• Askia Dev priorities, even our methodologies, rythm, manière-de-faire/savoir-faire, are mostly roughshoded by Ipsos -- and its (natural, yet disappointing) narrow-sightedness & belly-button-world-view.
• Askia's company tools, internal tools, are being swapped. Slack RIP. Teams VOMIT. (this is feedback from anon friends, though I concur) -- and GDocs/Gmail/et.al for Office365/Redmond's.latest.and.lamest.

Crappy Tools == Crappy Times¶

I took the time³ to explain my opposition to them, due to the way I am, as well as an erroneous understanding of mine about the meaning of Management's Ground control strategy.

Anyways, alongside critiquing the crappyness of these tools, I raised issues of: "collaboration, debate, choice, co-deciding/voting, consensus building.."

As well as just the actual importance/priority-level of changing a chat app that works perfectly fine,

Or an email system that also works perfectly fine,

..ibid ad nauseam...

2020 Management Progress Report:

• 0 new Staff hire onto the AskiaTeam
• 2 oldschool staff down (1 Myforce-old-school & 1 Askia-old-school)
• n TONS of work/new-projects/priorities/p.r.o.c.e.s.s.e.s/and.bullshit|innefficient.confcalls
• Ipsos 1st level support: a cool x^* would have been ~50-100 (like, Awesome!); currently it's more like we're stuck at x^:(, which sorta == 0 Ipsos-Level-1-Support.4.All.Thingz.Askia. ⁴
• Unless I misunderstood Management's communication:
  • Ipsos owns (51% of) "us".
  • Historical shareholders now have a direct, and unique (as in: no one else on the Askia Team partakes in that), interest in (whatever the contractual obligations may be -- IDK them) Ipsos completing its acquisition to 100% of Askia shares, within ~40+months.

Disappointed. Disillusioned. Saddened.¶

So, yeah. I am/was disappointed. Disillusioned. Saddened.

I tried to explain to Management that it doesn't help me, in my daily work, to use crappy tools.

It doesn't help me to be asked/told/pressured to use two similar tools in //.

Like, having to use two different chat applications and/or two dev trackers⁵.

To be fair to Ipsos, some of these un-planned (and their corollary borked+cluster-f.ckd execution) changes on AskiaTeam's internal-software-tools were inhouse decisions.. The Redmine/Jira being at the topmost of my mind.

Making Videos¶

So I made videos.

First to cover/explain/debate the Jira/Redmine.

Took me a long time to make, because covid, because workload.. and I only had with me little earphones, as my good "headset+mic" was at my office

To cut it short, I spent n hours making an ~30' video, but the sound quality sucked (works/drills nearby; static fan noise⁶ etc.)

So I decided to remake it, deconfinement finnally arrive, got my good headsets back -- and managed to redo 10' video, with clean sound.

But as work condition/situation kept worsening fast, I left that Redmine/Jira aside, and switched focus to (also) redo+finish a different video for Patrick & Jerome: to raise/discuss everything that was wrong for me in Askia, and try to expose what I sought.

On Sunday June 7th, I spent all afternoon working to finish this video, and circa ~10 PM I nailed a 1hr 6' video, within which I managed to discuss, or at least touch upon, the main issues & dissatisfactions I had.

After a final check, circa ~11PM, I shared ben_can't_breathe.mp4 on Slack with Patrick & Jerome.

Those of you who've seen the video understand it wasn't easy to make.

Anyways.. chalk that up to more unbilled time 4 Askia.

Re: Ipsos Integration¶

Re: the "Ipsos Integration", I actually have/had a counter-proposal, a plan, a vision, a dream.

To give a metaphor, instead of "Ipsos integrating Askia, and destroying its nature/DNA in the process", "We, Askia & Ipsos, cross-pollinate & grow + flourish together".

IDK that the above is still within the realm of possible futures.

It would be cool. I'd love to be a part of that; to make it happen.

But I've been "shown the door".

FTR -- it's funny, cuz I'm the one who stopped & said: "¡Ya basta!" ...anyways.

Askia is dead.¶

Realism.

And friends...

Some old friends told me, weeks ago already:

I understood the pain & position from which that opinion was expressed.

And I overall share(d) it.

Though the ever hopeful side of me wished to nuance with a:

And I've been both wanting to do something about this borked merger process,

and disheartened when taking a break/breath,

because I'd catch myself facing reality,

and pondering:

Music, CFO's "offer", Over&Out¶

And that's it.

I dropped a lot of music on #random.

My apologies for the "noise".

For those who liked, there's a few more tracks on 20^20 playlist/summer_hits.

Why all that music?

Well, being succinct: I was waiting for Patrick & Jerome to begin answering the questions I raised in that 1hr 6' video.

I'd transcribed these & slacked them on Monday 8th for quicker/easier response.

Time went by.. music dropped.. and those tracks helped me pull through..

Days went by..more music dropped.. but basically I got no answer..

Shortly following Zack de la Roca, came an invitation, Wednesday June 10th PM, to listen/negotiate an offer from Askia/Ipsos CFO.

To which I politely explained that before considering any offer, I was first needing/wanting some reponses to my questions.

More time went by, and still no answer..

So then, by Monday June 15th PM, I pinged Pascal to send me his offer.

We discussed the Askia/Ipsos "offer" on Tuesday 16th, end of PM, over two calls made between work calls.

Suffice it to say the "offer" was not only empty (zero effort for me, whether on financial compensation or any other aspect) but it was also an insult to basic intelligence, as it solely sought to improve Askia/Ipsos' situation to further exploit me as a resource. Zilch. Squat. Nada mas.

So I answered Pascal that, as he fully understood, I was not interested one bit in this Ipsos/Askia "offer".

And that was basically the end.