Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 416 posts

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#82

Post by [deleted] »

Aeolun wrote: post #77
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?

[deleted]

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#85

Post by withinboredom »

netsharc wrote: post #17
bux93 wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dunno, some-one who started 2 days ago may take just as long, or longer, to find their next employer as some-one with years of employment/experience.

But they have a job, they're not being compensated for being let go, they're being compensated for voluntarily leaving.

Usually the only thing that can be done during job verification is:

- did they work there?

- can they be rehired?

If the second is a "no" it usually isn't good news (usually, that only happens when you're fired 'for cause', at least in the US).

So, it isn't as pretty as an offer as you'd think.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#86

Post by myspy »

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 get why whole developer circles didn't leave the platform yet. You can't ask people something via DMs without paying for the blue checkmark and it's totally unhelpful, plus it sends the message you care not enough about the right wing messaging that is send by the platform now. Or these people are just ok with that, I don't know.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#88

Post by hshshshsvsv »

senadir wrote: post #30
coalface wrote: post #22

I'm surprised more didn't take the offer. Maybe they have a better package of shares in the company that's worth the wait? Otherwise it seems like a great offer to take even if you've enjoyed working there and support Matt and his public meltdowns.

Automattic is a fully remote company, getting jobs in APAC, Africa, and europe is tricky, not a lot are going to throw that away and hunt for a job for 6 months.

Stupid question but where exactly in the world is getting a remote job not tricky?

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#89

Post by renegade-otter »

TazeTSchnitzel wrote: post #56
user90131313 wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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…

On a technical level, I tend to agree. Never underestimate the skill of the employees to save their boss from horrible decisions.

That said, Twitter is no longer "open" like it used to be - I bet it just won't handle the public traffic anymore. That is directly tied to cratering revenue but it's hard to untangle from the owner's self-destructive drug-induced behavior.

It's a testament to the quality of the codebase in general. Good code is hard to kill, but it WILL be eroded to the point where it can no longer grow and be better.

Post reply on HN