Let’s look at this from a different angle. If the board had wanted to push this through, it could have drafted something itself almost a year ago now, ask input from various quarters and sought legal advice. And then be done; in maybe about 5% of the time and a similar amount of effort. Completed in early '23.
Even more, the board could have done this 3+ years ago, in stead of asking (tasking?) the ED.
When picking this up again, the choice was to give everyone a chance to participate. After all, that is what people generally value. IMO it is fair when it comes to people’s work or role to give a fair amount of confidence.
Now looking at the offer made in the resolution, to have an open process, and the numerous additional steps taken, and then the balance between the constructive feedback that came on that and ‘the rest’, it seems we were too optimistic.
With that experience, it really isn’t logic or wise to promise in advance that ‘agreeing on that consent is needed’ or anything like that. I think the board has shown a fair amount of faith, and I think it is fair to expect some trust in response.
That is at its best a perception, based on short term expectation. Looking at the history of this task, and the problems piling up all those years, the damage of not solving this now should be considered huge.
A good approach seems to be to gather all that would be put into such a policy, or could be put into that, and make sure that all people are allowed to contribute.
The next step then could be to look at that together with all interested, and if desired find external support to make sure that is done in a fair and balanced way.
Or?
this thread was created to collect input on how such a policy could be made to improve the situation. Valid responses to that are:
suggestions on what how to set up such a policy
concrete alternatives to a policy on how to address the problems raised by Cor
Those were rare sights in this thread.
Much of the meta discussion on the process like suggesting the board collecting feedback on a proposal for three month now would be in some nefarious attempt of power play, slight of hand or “pushing through” something nasty is downright ridiculous.
If anything, the 80% of responses in this thread – including from some members of the board and the staff – that both actively try to sabotage the board from being operational with no constructive input whatsoever are quite a shameful testament to the dysfunction of this community now. Note this is mostly independent from the topic discussed: even the best and most beneficial attempt at change would have been broken by what a few active in this thread have done.
actually that’s what “the board” tried to do more than a year ago with what at the time someone called “staff neutrality policy” by contracting the same law firm that has been brought back, despite serious concerns and objections about that contract, to write the draft of this policy.
There is no chance that a similar policy would have passed 3 years ago as it would have been clearly seen as a retaliatory action against the team by those that have been inconvenienced by their questions.
The majority of the board at the time supported the team, despite the infamous “on-boarding” call new members of the board had to endure, and found their feedback an extremely valuable asset.
It is a shame that the majority of this board failed to pretend to address the actual causes of the issues instead of supporting a process that exacerbated those issues.
Let me give another perspective here, and underline some things
Thorsten wrote (hopefully without unbalancing his thoughtful E-mail)
which I quote.
Please note - as a TDF director for ten years, and someone who is
unlikely to stand for election again; I’m convinced there is indeed a
significant problem here, and a significant improvement would be a clear
staff policy to communicate expectations between the board and at least
the executive staff of TDF.
I’m convinced that we need to professionalize the organization, and
that this involves having clear policies for everyone involved: not just
the board, and MC - but the staff too. I don’t believe that having a
staff handbook, or staff policy manual or somesuch is at all unusual -
almost all organizations have them.
*But* (before any switches off)
I’m also convinced that this policy will have -almost-zero-
practical impact on the majority of the staff who not only do excellent
work every day, but who also wisely avoid getting politicized. Such
documents are written only for the most problematic corners.
I would go so far as to suggest a change here: that if even the
idea of an (apparently yet to be written) staff policy is too
frightening to the majority of the staff - then much of the policy
should be applied only to executive TDF staff: ie. applicable only to
the ED, counsel, and those with access to legal matters - which I expect
is some very small subset of the staff. Let me call those “Executive
Staff” below
As an ex. board member - I cannot tell you how demoralizing it is
to spend -months- as a volunteer trying to build consensus, getting
elected, bringing a topic, getting it too pass a vote - and then to see
the topic frustrated through inaction from Executive Staff. You can see
one aspect of this reflected in Kendy’s resignation mail.
I believe that one reason TDF seems to go in circles is this
inaction. It subjects board decisions to what seems to be an effective
Executive Staff inaction veto. If we don’t have a policy here then -
future boards will need to start to micro-managing their vote texts: to
provide a clear timeline and set of actions that must be taken to effect
their decisions. That would really suck - and would be far less useful
than simply setting clear but general and flexible expectations of
Executive Staff’s roles.
Let me give an example. The idea of a staff policy to clarify this
problematic relationship is (as I recall) several years old, and the
task of building an initial draft was given to Florian. IIRC at the time
he made it very clear he didn’t want such any such policy (that might
constrain his or other staff’s perceived freedom of action to do what
they believe is right independent of the board’s view).
Roll forward some years now, seemingly no action on this has been
taken. However the need for this seems obvious and growing. Now there is
a panic that there is some preconceived draft policy that will be
imposed (if that is so I’m not aware of it). So - problems today are
caused by inaction of the past. That’s frustrating as a previous board
member. This should have been solved long ago.
To focus this - particularly decisions that the personal staff
member is politically opposed to - should be executed promptly in such a
way as to remove any suspicion of partiality.
There has been open input collected on internal lists for some time - and
as the archetypal cut-out cartoon villain for some - I wanted to
publish my suggestions here. They failed to get much feedback when
posted internally - hopefully because they are so sensible - but perhaps
re-posting here would get some specific feedback that somehow could get
included:
A. I think that staff must use their stewardship of the resources of
TDF in an impartial, non-partisan fashion during ongoing board
discussions. Impartial advice and support should be provided to all
board members in an equal way so that they can best fulfill their
voluntary roles - in particular ensuring timely and non-directive
legal counsel is provided to all perspectives represented on the board.
… + Is anyone really arguing that staff members should use
the resources of TDF against parts (perhaps the majority)
on the board ? or that they should not help minorities
on the board too formulate policy ?
B. I’m also convinced that staff should be able to provide their
personal views on a matter under discussion as community members,
without fear of retaliation. However - in such discussions they must
not claim to speak on behalf of, or to represent the wider community,
or TDF: this is the purpose, perogative and role of the board. One way
to help here may be to use private mail addresses.
… + Is anyone arguing that TDF staff should have a political
role to claim to speak for the community that contradicts
or nullifies the elected representatives ?
C. I also expect that once the board have voted on a topic, staff have
a duty of loyalty to TDF to be either supportive or silent on a
specific TDF policy in public; however frank private feedback to the
board should always be encouraged. I wouldn’t want any staff member to
be required to publicly support something they fundamentally disagree
with.
… + Is anyone arguing that what we need is more open-ended,
never-ending discussion and power struggle / noise
on topics that have already been decided and voted on ?
My pipe-dream suggestion above was built in about 10 minutes of
thought. I expect that those who work on the draft policy will come up
with something markedly clearer and more helpful.
Where is the dreadful thing there ?
Lets imagine my pipe-dream policy above is in-place, and let me
apply it to a couple of scenarios:
… If the board has voted to have a process to refresh the staff
policy (something every organization should have up-to-date), and the
board asks for input on the details of the policy itself - then:
It would be inappropriate after this was voted, in the run up to an
election, for Executive Staff to publicly criticize the board vote
itself, or board members voting for it, for Executive Staff to demand
that there should be no staff policy, for them to use their influence in
the community to try to frustrate that board’s decision, for Executive
Staff to try to stall the policy implementation until a more opportune
political time etc. - and more particularly so since (arguably) not
having a policy is in their own interest.
However - it -would- be entirely appropriate to share concerns such
as “I worry I won’t be able to engage in public debates on topics”, “I
fear being required to do something I believe is wrong”, “There should
be a clear escalation path when there are conflicts”, etc. etc. such
that these concerns can be addressed in the text. That seems totally
appropriate.
I was encouraged here to see Florian bring some useful concerns and
more complex situations to incorporate. I hope and expect they will be
taken seriously - and I would encourage more concrete staff input not of
the form: “I hate a policy” but - “I have this concern to address in the
policy” - of course, when there is a real text to discuss that will be
easier for everyone.
… Lets take another example: if a board decision has legal
implications, and many do (at least tangentially) - it would be entirely
inappropriate for Executive Staff to provide timely advice to only one
position in the board, it would be entirely inappropriate for that
advice to make political rather than legal demands, it would be entirely
inappropriate to end up in a situation where board members felt
compelled to fund their own timely legal advice.
Impartiality clause A. ensures this will not happen. What would be
appropriate would be to ensure that -all- different perspectives on the
board can have confidence that they have access to impartial advice and
information focused on improving (and ideally reconciling) their
different approaches in a watertight fashion. This would also avoid the
“my plan has legal sign-off, yours does not” political football. You
will notice this is not a partisan requirement to benefit one side or
another of any debate - but to benefit both (or many) sides.
There is much more to say here; but let me tie up.
In summary - it should be a privilege to have your day job funded
by the collective work of the whole community. Staff should have a
pleasant place to work with clearly defined responsibilities - so that
they can not only excel (as they do), but be confident that they are
doing so. Being on-staff comes with some responsibilities in return to
respect and support the institution that is TDF - to nurture and cherish
positive debate and interaction; and when the debate is done - to
execute promptly on the decisions of the community’s elected
representatives.
To be abundantly clear - this works well in some vast majority of
cases, and every day staff do excellent work that drives TDF forward.
I am confident that the board can have a group that comes up with a
staff policy that works and is minimally disruptive. I hope that this
can deliver an even more effective TDF that serves its Trustees and
delivers decisively, and even more effectively on its mission. Ideally
with less noise and aggravation in these forums.
It would be good to see the enthusiastic and constructive support
of everyone towards that goal.
The proper way to tell what happened, is that the board investigates possibilities and then decides what approach it thinks is best. Of course, any decision that does not fit your idea is wrecked, malicious etc, but we know that by now
According to all your contributions here, similar would apply now. So there is no difference really. But of course, the use of your statement was just to feed your frame of directors that would be going after staff. Shame on you!
You must have been sleeping: there is no ground to paint as if the current board would not support the team; this of course apart from your statements that we know are not based on facts, but on out of context quotes, twisted words, etc. (read here for some examples).
The only ‘proof’ for all ‘the actual causes of the issues’ are your whispering, framing, lies, etc. Not appreciated really.
But heh thanks to this board, and directors that resist your fighting, TDF publishes LibreOffice in the app stores for a reasonable ‘convenience remuneration’, is making progress on improved and new procurement procedures (the ESC Ranking Procedure, whistleblowing, shield&protect team&tendering …), started working on the legal back log, hires extra people for QA and webdev, is hiring developers, is working on strategic goals, and started working on getting over old grievances and is working on improving other board procedures.
And do expect more to come
As a former member of the BoD I find it necessary to state that the
conflicting members of the BoD are only there to represent purely
commercial interests.
This statement is not only untrue & actionable, but seems to fall far
short of the standards we expect in community discourse.
That is why the objective behind the imposition of this policy is
none other than to pave the way for total control (of the money)
of the foundation (echoes TDC).
But let me try to rescue something out of this. Let me echo back your
concern and see if it matches what you think:
Is this the essence of what you’re saying ?
"The main thing standing between the Board and their control
of the foundation is the lack of a TDF staff policy" ?
I can see that if you believe the elected board is corrupt, that you
could believe that (hypothetically) the (executive) staff having
ultimate control of TDF’s resources without any effective oversight
could be a good thing.
For my part I don’t believe the board is corrupt, and I do believe that
effective community oversight is a huge positive.
Then again - as I mentioned Collabora Productivity has earned sub 2.5%
of its income over a decade from what looks like sub 2.5% of TDF’s
income[1] through a transparent process. Sub 2.5% is (last I looked)
less than the average staff member costs. I also currently see only a
single board member affiliated with Collabora.
If that’s all you got out of 160+ comments here, many years of complaints from members of staff, the community and even negative comments from members of the Advisory Board then it’s just a confirmation that we all have wasted our time and you’ll carry on regardless as it was expected by many.
As I wrote before, my personal perception in the current situation is that it would have been helpful to have mediation first or have some additional check in place for the process to ensure nothing can be “pushed through” to build more acceptance for the process itself.
If that’s not an option and the decision is that the policy process must move on now, your suggestion sounds reasonable to me, in particular with the earlier promise in mind that alternative solutions to a policy are considered as well.
I think it might be helpful to have third party moderation/mediation in place as early as possible.
We all always act for a personal interest, no matter what it is, being in general the main one the economic. And IMHO there is no exception to this.
Therefore, it seems to me, to say the least, inappropriate that some interests are claimed to be more valid than others.
The board has the responsibility to assume its obligations. Being ultimately responsible for the actions in and by TDF.
I believe that the main defect in the actions of the board is not really assuming its duties and allowing its agreements not to be carried out as they should be.
It is normal for the board to listen to proposals and comments from the executives (that goes with the charge) and through them from the staff, as well as from TDF members, when it is relevant to their decision, but it cannot be asking for every comma.
In the case of the policy, which I consider mandatory, not doing so is like a shot in the foot. It is clear that it must follow the listening process, but adopting it’s a board decision. Hard to believe it has not been taken yet.
It is not possible to make decisions that please everyone.
To the board, please go ahead and take your decisions, keeping the delay to a minimum.
It is the only way to end this useless nonsense.
Those who disagree with board decisions, run in the next election, and if successful, make your decisions.
(I’ll first apologize for not taking the time to offer a comprehensive opinion on this entire subject and only nit-pickingly refer to a few points. And having said that:)
Staff veto-by-stalling? Different example please…
Michael, I want to ask you to give (at least) another example of veto-by-inaction. The reasons for this are:
The example you give regards the very policy that we are discussing right now, which, at the very least, sees significant disagreement inside and outside the board. Plus, if this is the single significant example, then, without the proposition of this policy, the problem is minor, which is not the argument you’re making
@floeffgave reasons early on why he believes there are timing problems with the choice of date; and the reasons he gave seem to make sense, at least in a cursory reading of someone who’s not deep within routine TDF business. Then @cornouws replied to him, mostly accepting what Florian had written and indicating that a discussion would indeed come later.
So, I do not consider this claim as being established by the example. No less importantly, if the main discomfort with the current situation regards interaction with @floeff , it’s not clear that appropriate course of action is a general policy rather something focused on the role of the Executive Director structurally, or some kind of interpersonal conflict resolution/mediation. So, I would hope you could buttress your claim with an example regarding more than one person/position (or two examples for two people each). I realize that airing such grievances in public is unpleasant, but we are discussing potentially-somewhat-harsh measures here, so this is probably merited.
The demand of silent loyalty
I am. I am arguing for that.
I am against the kind of loyalty you suggested, Michael. It is a feature of authoritarian organizations - a reprehensible feature. Certainly, the staff and office holders should not use their position to hinder and confound majority decisions; but it is both immoral and detrimental to expect them to adopt an opinion they oppose or to shut up and censor themselves about their opposition.
I do realize that my position on this matter involves some risk: The risk of (to put it in extreme terms) entrenchment of an unelected bureaucracy, eventually exceeding the strength of the officials and bodies who appointed its key members. Such a bureaucracy may even be able to manipulate public opinion and get supportive or push-over candidates into governing/oversight bodies. But if you want to protect against that possibility, the way to do so is to educate and empower the body politic - in our case, at least the trustees - to be able to exercise meaningful control in such cases. And there are other more technical measures which… well… actually, I’d rather not be specific about right now since I think I might put my foot in my mouth more than I already have.
The concerns regarding this suggestion of yours deepen, for me, during times of factional divide within the board, or the organization as a whole. When a “coalition” beats the “opposition” in a vote - this tenet you propose forces the staff to fully take the coalition’s side. Maybe the coalition has it right - but maybe it’s the opposition; or at least, the opposition may be expressing sentiments and interests which have not been taken into account. I would not like coalitions to have such extra artificial strength in settling or suppressing factional disputes. On the contrary: I would like it for coalitions to be motivated to seek concensus in decision making, or to have to appeal to / engage with the body politic more.
The board has the responsibility to assume its obligations. Being ultimately responsible for the actions in and by TDF.
No, we - the trustees - are ultimately responsible, collectively. The board has authority, but they act - at least formally and in principle - as our representatives. For better or worse, we’re responsible, even if this responsibility is somewhat diffuse. That’s where our name comes from: We are the trustees; the foundation is in our trust.
Those who disagree with board decisions, run in the next election, and if successful, make your decisions.
Many trustees do not have the necessary skills and experience to assume the duties of a BoD member of the TDF (which is perfectly legitimate; the criterion for membership is contribution to LibreOffice, not FOSS NGO management capabilities). Moreover, most trustees definitely cannot devote sufficient time to carry out these duties. So, even in principle - your suggestion is invalid. But beyond that - come on. That line is a cop-out for deflecting criticism.
It may be due to my poor understanding of what the TDF statutes say.
§ 8 Tasks of the Board of Directors
(1) The Board of Directors decides on all fundamental matters on its own authority in accordance with the Articles and conducts the ongoing business of the foundation. The Executive Board has the status of a legal representative and represents the foundation in and out of court. The Board of Directors is limited in its power of representation by the purpose of the Foundation. The foundation shall be represented by two members of the Board of Directors, one of whom must be the chairman or vice-chairman. Individual empowerment may be granted for certain transactions in this way. The vice chairman will take action on internal matters only if the chairman is unavailable.
some other topics were mentioned in the meantime, but I would like to focus again on the staff policy. It was the start of this discussion.
The board had extended the feedback phase until October 7. It was said that the law firm “will get the input that the community has been given in the first phase”.
First question: Input for the law firm
Has a copy of the public discussion thread been provided to the law firm as input?
Second question: Direct managers of subordinates are also bidders
In my initial mail, I explained the following:
The situation at TDF is that subordinate employees have to estimate and evaluate tenders and handle the related payments. Bidders represented in the board participate in these tenders. At the same time, these bidders and board members are the bosses of the employees. The progress of tenders is also part of the annual employee performance review about me, where it is assessed how good or bad I do my job. Responsible for this review in the past were also board members who are bidders.
Can you please get explicit confirmation from the law firm that the above setup does not impose any problem?
Third question: Policy for lawyers
I read that the policy should also apply to lawyers. Does this mean the law firm writes their own policy?
Fourth question: Tensions between companies and TDF and employee subordination
As explained, I as executive director receive also formal communication to TDF from companies that are represented in the board, and with which there are tensions. Their representatives support this policy. The policy should also cover TDF’s lawyers, who consult TDF on tensions with these companies.
How can it be ensured that under such policy it will be possible for me and TDF’s lawyers to act in the best interest of TDF? I am employed by TDF, bound by the statutes and have to act in the best interest of TDF, and TDF only. This could put me in an entirely unresolvable situation. What is the law firm’s advise on this?
Fifth question: Loyalty
What is an employee supposed to do when they consider a decision detrimental to TDF or in violation of regulations?
Has the employee to be loyal to the individual board members, or to TDF as the employer, regulated by its statutes?
What is an employee supposed to do when there are fundamentally different opinions in the board?
Proposal: Continue with a facilitated discussion
As it was mentioned here, we have external consultancy for facilitated discussion involved. My strong suggestion to move forward, as “concrete alternatives to a policy on how to address the problems”, is to work within a facilitated discussion, to see how we can constructively solve the issues at hand. Until then, any work on a policy should be laid to rest.
In such a facilitated discussion, I am sure we can overcome fears like the team would be able “to exert quite some pressure on board members”, or that employees “can campaign in public & with their TDF trustee hat on”. Remembering the last elections, the team was not commenting a lot and I did not see any campaigning.
I have read your post now multiple times, but I am quite confused by what you write.
This seems to imply you as an employee assume to be asked to act against the best interest of TDF. Do you really want to imply that?
Those seems to be questions that a staff policy would formalize. Are you thus asking for one to be implemented? It did not appear so up to now to be honest. If you indeed want that you really need to help with the answers, not just the questions though.
(As a sidenote: That employees have to answer to people of flesh and blood isnt at all outragous. Those only bound by abstract ideas are never employees, but either owners or elected representatives.)
I find it quite irritating that feedback from employees of TDF here asks for outside moderation of some kind. Why? Because there has not been a constructive engagement so far with the original challenge presented by the board. There are very obviously deep problems with regards to execution and alignment of TDF staff, but there have been no proposals on how to improve on that by employees here.
If there:
were two (or more) competing proposals on how to try to improve things
there would be impasse on deciding on either of the proposals within the governance framework of the foundation
thus if there would be the need to amalgamate a new proposal from the existing ones to find broad support
such external moderation might be promising.
But none of those conditions are met: No constructive alternatives have been provided by staff. Instead, it seems staff seems to deny the very need to even improve anything.
Moderation or “facilitated discussion” will never find a solution with a party that rejects to even commit on the goal.
Someone looking from a distance, will notice various elements in this topic: few posts with actual input and some interaction around that; various people asking for more time to give input, that they got; or expressing concerns, that are answered and for which extra checks are added; people understanding or supporting the rationale; others with questions on the process etc.
Some who speak up against having a policy, state that this topic is clearly supporting that. A neutral external will notice that all sides are represented, and likely wonders at the resistance.
Only a tiny portion of the content is relevant for the work on the draft policy. And while of course the link is shared with the people that help (as mentioned earlier too), I really wonder what could be an idea behind possibly not sharing this topic. Sensible people will be able to quickly distinct between what is relevant and what not. Foremost, if certain ideas would have been hold back in informing the law firm, these will obviously be brought forward while working on the draft.
The relation to the staff policy looks a bit far-fetched to me.
The only member of staff that has his review done by directors, is the ED. The involvement of the ED in individual tenders up until now only is administration tasks. It is easy to change that, and above all weird to assume that administrative tasks for tendering could have such an impact on executing separate tenders, that it can play any role in the judgement on the ED’s performance - since that is the suggestion that is hidden in the question asked…
Of course there are the insinuations that directors had undue influence on tendering - that’s is to be expected in this populist epoch. The only thing one may expect, is that the board points out the responsibility for executing tenders that are lined up, and for which the money is both available and must be spent, which is about managing the work (and doing the administration).
I think what (you think) you have read is a misunderstanding. In any case, the question only puzzles me.
So naturally this question similarly confuses me.
A policy covers staff and board. The CoC covers all trustees, including members of the team and the board. Someone in the role of lawyer, is not affected by this. The only distant but not related topic that I can think of, is the special position of a lawyer that is both advising TDF and also trustee.
Furthermore, I don’t expect a law firm to help with policy containing anything that limits the board in legal consultation. Apart from that: good and clear communication and relations, are of course important to all processes, with legal council, for board and staff, and among trustees.
By statues the board is representing TDF and works in the best interest of TDF. Of course, whatever the board decides, must be within the boundaries of charitable and overall civil law of Germany. So if the ED is doing his work, all should be fine.
Furthermore it helps to see a board staff policy in the context of all other rules relevant to TDF. E.g. in the extreme there might be a clear liable situation, each one with knowledge of that, is expected to report that. Therefore when new activities are explored, it is expected (and appreciated) that all involved (board, ED, possibly other team members) help to prepare decisions within the boundaries that apply. Nothing in any policy should be hindering that.
Someone working for the board is expected to execute what the board asks unless: see before.
TDF’s work contracts explicitly say, that the only authorized to direct staff, are the board (and the ED, for subordinate staff). The board is the only body able to (collectively) decide on the direction and execution of foundation matters.
In any case not starting cooperating closely with a director, who represents personal preferences, against the board.
Democratic decision-making means that, when there is no consensus, the majority decides. In the current board one director (who happens to almost never change his mind nor compromise) apparently considers it his privilege to fight board decisions and the execution thereof. Despite sweet talks and framing, this is clearly contrary to the foundations democratic and meritocratic principles.
The current context is the following: more time for input was asked, but with that given, there’s still no/hardly input. Where people that fiercely oppose even the idea of a policy, now ask for other steps, delaying the start. Therefore the rationale of following these suggestions, does not look great. There is for example no guarantee that constructive cooperation will start with facilitated meetings.
On the other hand, continuing the current process means: create a draft, make sure that people can engage, and then with all clearly spelled out, look if alternatives exist. The simplest, fastest and most inclusive way forward.
Finally: to me the questions handled above reflect clearly different thoughts and feelings on various topics and also on how roles are currently defined - but of course I may be wrong.
thanks to this board, and directors that resist your fighting, TDF publishes LibreOffice in the app stores for a reasonable ‘convenience remuneration’, is making progress on improved and new procurement procedures (the ESC Ranking Procedure, whistleblowing, shield&protect team&tendering …), started working on the legal back log, hires extra people for QA and webdev, is hiring developers, is working on strategic goals, and started working on getting over old grievances and is working on improving other board procedures.