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wobo fired


dexter11
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What contractor, after over six years with the same company, expresses his astonishment and resentment when the contract isn't renewed? Sounds weird, he talks of being "fired" - a contract never comes with a lifetime guarantee.

 

Contractors immediately stopping work "in the middle of a text" as soon as they find out their contracts are not being renewed is also pretty amazing, imho.

 

I don't know wobo and I don't know his work but his reaction is a bit puzzling, at least the way it comes across in that post.

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It is sad that his contract wasn't renewed. He did a lot of work for the german community. But then, it is Mandrivas decision to renew contracts or not to do so. Some people fail to realise that Mandriva makes it decisions based on "business strategies", not sympathy. If these moves (not renewing contracts with wobo, karlson, erikson and duval) will backfire in the future or if they will strengthen the company remains to be seen. My take: It will hurt them on the short run but won't harm them on the long run.

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My one concern is that they're going to attempt to lean too much on the community to fill in some of the holes left by these people who have recently...erm...left. Specifically in the area of translations. I hope they don't overestimate the willingness of the community to help out, especially when they're track record with the community hasn't always been the best.

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They've already said they're going to need translators for their wiki. I used to be a contractor for a .com that was out of California. For the most part I worked out of my house on the internet. I did do a 2 1/2 month job in Miami. It was nice cause I got paid California wages. I was really sad when they closed down that division and I lost my contract.

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What contractor, after over six years with the same company, expresses his astonishment and resentment when the contract isn't renewed? Sounds weird, he talks of being "fired" - a contract never comes with a lifetime guarantee.

 

Contractors immediately stopping work "in the middle of a text" as soon as they find out their contracts are not being renewed is also pretty amazing, imho.

 

I don't know wobo and I don't know his work but his reaction is a bit puzzling, at least the way it comes across in that post.

Well he didn't start as a contractor. He started as a fan who made mandrivauser.de. If you want to see what he\they have done just take a look at that site. They have a support forum of course, their own wiki, they are translating the Mandriva wiki, they have their own repo and their own Mandriva magazine not to mention about smart-urpmi which they created. Do you think paying one man doesn't worth all this?

Some people fail to realise that Mandriva makes it decisions based on "business strategies", not sympathy.
What kind of business strategy can make you hurt your fan base? Or maybe even loose it? And IMHO firing Duval and firing (not renewing contract of) wobo is different. Although Duval was a founder but "he wasn't visible", meaning one could have barely met his presence on the forum, wiki etc. Wobo was always there, even on the English club forum. He was\is a true community leader. People like him are worth a thousand times more than what they get in pay. Am I the only one who thinks this was a stupid thing to do?
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Am I the only one who thinks this was a stupid thing to do?
From the outside looking in it's hard to make that call, as there may be much more to it than is being said (which is pretty standard when it comes to business decisions like this).
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Am I the only one who thinks this was a stupid thing to do?
No. It was a rather unlucky move IMO but, as I said, it probably won't hurt them in the long run - IF they get valuable (or even better) replacements. It will hurt them on the short run (maybe two years).
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I'd have to agree. We don't know the ins and out of the situation. From wobo's point of view, it's a shame, and considering the amount of effort and work he has done from what dexter11 says.

 

However, business is business, and these things happen. I've almost been through it myself before, but survived. I'm sure I will go through it again, and not survive. These things happen, it's life.

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From the outside looking in it's hard to make that call, as there may be much more to it than is being said (which is pretty standard when it comes to business decisions like this).

I have to agree....

Like why was he a contractor? Did Mandriva give him some excuse about how "we would make you staff but its the same" ...A lot of companies do this especially in France because of the extra costs of employing someone on top of their salary ...

If they told him "We'll treat you like staff but since your German and <whatever> we will pay you as a contractor" it is different to "We are keeping you as a contractor in case we want to downsize"...

 

Ive been in the unfortunate position of hiring and firing under both of these ... and even worse been put in ther position of being told to lie to the "contractor" about it... when the real reason is not the reason they are being told... and I have also been on the "other side" where I'm told ti lie to the "employees" when a contractor is taken on an essentially permanent position...

 

I/we don't know the "implied contract" and or history of this so its pretty hard to say...but I wouldn't dismiss it as easily as

 

What contractor, after over six years with the same company, expresses his astonishment and resentment when the contract isn't renewed? Sounds weird, he talks of being "fired" - a contract never comes with a lifetime guarantee.
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What kind of business strategy can make you hurt your fan base?

I share the same concerns, I believe that a significant proportion of Mandriva's revenue is secured by their loyal following, and they depend on their experienced fans to prop up their poor (IMHO) support channels (like I have said before, I value this place as a better means of support than their official forum). I do wonder why wobo was picked though, he has made some harsh criticisms of the company in the last year (IIRC), I can not help but wonder if that had anything to do with it. Another concern is after the recent announcement concerning Adamw taking on additional responsibilities, is this the scope of their cost cutting, to cut staff and place increasing burdens on those that stay? Given that Mandriva as a company has a reputation for bad customer service/communication, is this likely to make things worse by over working their staff? I accept that we may not be furnished with all the facts, but unless Mandriva radically changes it's communication practices and explains fully where they are going and how they are going to get there, then we can only speculate.

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I have to say from recent communications that I've had with Remi, they do seem to be communicating better. I'm still waiting for a solution to my problem, but I do get emails from Remi letting me know I haven't been forgotten.

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I have to say from recent communications that I've had with Remi, they do seem to be communicating better. I'm still waiting for a solution to my problem, but I do get emails from Remi letting me know I haven't been forgotten.

Yeah, credit where it's due, Remi has been doing a good job with respect to communication, and Adam Williamson can not be faulted, he does an excellent job. However it is in other key areas where I feel Mandriva is lacking, these two guys are only 2 of the key members, others should be doing more. Too often do I hear tales of customers who have tried to contact accounts/billing through official channels, wait for weeks with no reply, and only whe they nag on the forum to guys like Remi and Adam Williamson do they get some where, the consumer has to go to extra effort to be heard, that's wrong IMO.

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