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Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

techcrunch.com

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Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#71

Post by NicoJuicy »

user90131313 wrote: post #31
Maro wrote: post #23

8.4% or 159 employees is a lot of people, this will be long-remember at this company. On the other hand, most companies easily have at least 20% headcount overhead, so it'll be okay.

twitter fired a lot more % and it's still working

Yeah. It works

- Scrolling after a while, the sound of a video doesn't stop anymore => force close

- A lot of violence, literally. I keep on blocking them ( recently logged in with another account due to a new phone and I had to do it again). It's nuts how much violence it promotes recently.

I'm pretty sure a lot of people who got fired did censorship and I miss it.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#72

Post by KptMarchewa »

kelnos wrote: post #62
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is actually quite remarkable that Twitter has kept functioning at a technical level. A lot of people expected the massive loss of engineering talent to doom them, but it seemingly hasn't. However, the site is going through a serious cultural (maybe you could say spiritual) death, and that might have something to do with the lost institutional knowledge of what made Twitter tick at a level deeper than just the code…

I'm skeptical, honestly. Within the first few months of the acquisition, it seemed pretty clear to my tech-friend group that Twitter was on its way out and was going to fail. But it's been 2 years, and many of those same people still use Twitter quite a lot. Maybe it'll still fail, of course... it'll just take longer than anyone expected. I was never a big fan of it, and never used it much, so I can't judge any loss…

I don't expect it to "fail" in a financial way because Elon Musk can just bankroll his political addiction.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#73

Post by CaptainFever »

fire_lake wrote: post #46
user90131313 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

twitter fired a lot more % and it's still working

Twitter was profitable just before Elon purchased it and gutted it. So far his plan is not working.

I was curious if this is true or not. Found this: https://www.investing.com/academy/statistics/twitter-facts-s... which came from before Twitter went private. It's technically correct that they did make a profit (e.g. 2022 Q1), but also made a lot of loss (e.g. 2022 Q2).

Comparatively, it's hard to find information about Twitter now. Most news articles mocks the revenue, but has no information about profit. However, given that Elon said Twitter "will be" profitable in 2024, I think it's safe to assume it isn't profitable yet?

This surprises me, I thought it became profitable from cutting expenses, but the truth is complicated. It used to be both profitable and not profitable at the same time (see the first link), but now it's mostly not profitable.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#74

Post by oxfordmale »

kelnos wrote: post #62
TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is actually quite remarkable that Twitter has kept functioning at a technical level. A lot of people expected the massive loss of engineering talent to doom them, but it seemingly hasn't. However, the site is going through a serious cultural (maybe you could say spiritual) death, and that might have something to do with the lost institutional knowledge of what made Twitter tick at a level deeper than just the code…

I'm skeptical, honestly. Within the first few months of the acquisition, it seemed pretty clear to my tech-friend group that Twitter was on its way out and was going to fail. But it's been 2 years, and many of those same people still use Twitter quite a lot. Maybe it'll still fail, of course... it'll just take longer than anyone expected. I was never a big fan of it, and never used it much, so I can't judge any loss…

Software can work for a very long time with minimal maintenance. A different question is if it can keep making revenue without investing.

Quality content has disappeared on Twitter and there is a proliferation of Only Fans tweets. However if you love Musk and right wing conspiracies it is still a fine platform to use.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#75

Post by kelnos »

mdrzn wrote: post #40

[flagged]

Or they rely on continued employment for their health insurance (like most working-age people in the US), and even though it's a very good deal, they don't want to have to pay $1k-$4k/mo (depending on the size of their family) out of that severance package in order to pay for COBRA.

They might also be worried about finding a new job, and would prefer to make their exit when they already have another signed offer in hand, even if it means losing out on the extra cash.

People make decisions based on a multitude of factors, and your statement is shallow and ignores much of reality.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#76

Post by rnweiher »

tyingq wrote: post #68

> In a blog post, Mullenweg said the package offered $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, but the employees who took it would not be eligible to be re-hired by Automattic. Like never eligible? That seems kind of petty. I would understand some timeframe, like "not eligible for 3/4/5 years", but a permanent ban seems weird.

Serious question: What is the percentage of people intending to get re-hired at a previous place? Or at least definitely not rejecting that idea?

Personally, i have never done so, be it because was always leaving by a "voluntary" "termination agreement", and the employers involved being either not attractive, not existent, or plainly incompetent. If you are residing in a major city, there are always other options.

And given 100% remote seems to be a must for many people, even more so.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#77

Post by Aeolun »

tyingq wrote: post #68

> In a blog post, Mullenweg said the package offered $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, but the employees who took it would not be eligible to be re-hired by Automattic. Like never eligible? That seems kind of petty. I would understand some timeframe, like "not eligible for 3/4/5 years", but a permanent ban seems weird.

Why would you want to go back there anyway?

The whole reason you are leaving is because you think the CEO is worse at adulting than a grade-schooler.

I completely agree it’s petty, but it’s entirely in line with their behavior over the past few weeks.

I guess at least it’s better than Musk?

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#79

Post by [deleted] »

tyingq wrote: post #68

> In a blog post, Mullenweg said the package offered $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, but the employees who took it would not be eligible to be re-hired by Automattic. Like never eligible? That seems kind of petty. I would understand some timeframe, like "not eligible for 3/4/5 years", but a permanent ban seems weird.

[deleted]

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#80

Post by pavlov »

tyingq wrote: post #68

> In a blog post, Mullenweg said the package offered $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher, but the employees who took it would not be eligible to be re-hired by Automattic. Like never eligible? That seems kind of petty. I would understand some timeframe, like "not eligible for 3/4/5 years", but a permanent ban seems weird.

AFAIK this kind of permanent shitlist is common practice in American tech companies, including the MAANG.

They may call it “non-regretted attrition” or something similar, but the purpose is the same.

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