Longtime SUSE staff asked if they'd opt for 'voluntary separation'

Other changes also afoot as employees unionize and the distro itself sees modifications

SUSE has offered "voluntary separation" to eligible employees as the veteran Linux vendor reshapes its business, The Register can confirm.

One source said People, Strategy and Transformation Executive Lisa Sherwell contacted them with the offer after an online company meeting broadcast from Singapore, during which executives joked about being past their own sell-by dates.

Asked about the program, a SUSE representative told us: "As part of our ongoing efforts to align our business structure with long-term strategic priorities, SUSE has introduced a voluntary separation and early retirement option for eligible team members. Participation is completely voluntary for both employees and the organization, with no predefined targets. Our people remain our key differentiator, supported by industry-leading staff retention globally of 6 percent in core operational areas and an overall rate of 12 percent."

REG AD

The separation program follows another staffing development at SUSE's Czech operation, although there is no evidence that the two are connected. Employees in Prague unionized earlier this year, forming the SUSE Workers Union. The new union is part of the Czech ICT Union, which also organizes a group of Microsoft staff in the country.

REG AD

The ICT Union represents workers in the IT and call-center industries, an important part of the Czech economy. International technology companies with substantial operations in the country include IBM and Red Hat – even before the former acquired the latter – Oracle and its subsidiary NetSuite, Amazon, and Motorola.

Indeed, that is why this vulture moved to Czechia just over a decade ago and went on to work for several such companies. The Reg FOSS desk is a former SUSE Prague staffer who thoroughly enjoyed his time there. Until he joined The Register full time in 2021, SUSE was the longest-serving employer of his career.

We are not implying any sort of cause or effect here, but a month after learning about the union from one former colleague, this writer heard about the separation program from another. Multiple sources confirmed that SUSE had approached long-serving employees, particularly some with more than ten years at the company, about voluntary separation. One said they were contacted shortly after the Singapore meeting.

Toward the end of this writer's stint at SUSE, the company acquired container-wrangler Rancher. Several Rancher executives later took senior positions within SUSE, accompanying a broader change in the company's direction.

When we examined the release candidate of openSUSE Leap 16, we found that several longstanding SUSE tools had disappeared. Some were replaced by alternatives associated with Red Hat, including the Cockpit web management interface.

Leap 16 may be the most legacy-free release of a traditional Linux distribution we have yet encountered: no X.org, no 32-bit compatibility libraries, no YaST, and an entirely new installer. SUSE is now asking at least some of its longest-serving employees whether they too are ready for a change. ®