A Message To Current And Former Oxford Nanopore Employees
Hey!
How are you doing?
<makes continuous non-aggressive eye contact>
No, seriously. How are you doing?
I hope you’re doing ok. Some of you are probably not doing ok.
The modern work environment can be a stressful place. What with its violent chemical reactions, gender pay gaps, and increasing wage inequality with CEO pay ratios of 97:1.
But some of you do great work. Seriously, it’s an impressive achievement to have released the worlds first nanopore sequencer. Congratulations. I’m sorry for boiling one in acid.
Recently an Oxford Nanopore employee reached out to me. His name is Spike. You can read the full thread over on Discord but here’s what he said as an intro. Oh! Wait! I should probably introduce myself first though!
Hi!
My name is Nava. I used to work at Oxford Nanopore. I left about 10 years ago, before the MinION was released and not long after AGBT 2012. I like sequencing technology. Pretty much my entire career has been in sequencing, originally on Informatics side, but now looking at other aspects too. I enjoy pulling apart DNA sequencers, figuring out what’s in them and generally blogging about new approaches. I’ve also pitched my own sequencing approach which unfortunately means I can’t buy your products directly as the Nanopore Store agreement doesn’t allow it.
So when a MinION appeared on eBay I decided to buy it and take a look at what’s inside. Honestly it’s pretty obvious based on public information. But I thought it would be fun anyway. I remember a bunch were given away at conferences so figured it might be one of those. Anyway, it wasn’t marked with any terms and conditions. So I bought it and posted some pics of the PCB.
Spike didn’t like that:
Spike appears to be accusing me of:
Buying one, agreeing to the terms and conditions, then violating those terms.
Violating my NDA based on my employment 10 years ago.
Tortiously interfering with Oxford Nanopore’s customers contracts. That is intentional interference with contractual relations as wikipedia puts it. Based on contracts the specifics of which I’m unaware of…
This seems quite aggressive. But don’t blame Spike. Like you Spike is probably hurting. I guess I can’t comment on how Spike seemed when I was at ONT because that would violate my NDA or what he did because…
But like you. Spike may be suffering in silence. What I want to say is if you need to reach out. Don’t do so aggressively like Spike. Send me an email (new@sgenomics.org) or join the Discord and chat to others who might be in a similar situation.
And finally, a word of advice. It’s tough out there, every day give yourself a present.
If the smell from the local sewage works isn’t too bad, head down to the Sadler building, buy yourself a muffin and a coffee and take a moment, just for you.