Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fun part, Automattic already gives you 3 months sabbatical every 5 years. For the people who were going to take sabbatical, they got those 3 months off.
Paid or unpaid sabbatical?
Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
191–200 of 416 posts
Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#192TBH, I'm surprised they had almost 2000. I would've thought they'd be around the 500 mark.
They made several acquisitions that have nothing to do with WP which probably inflated the headcount a good bit.
For example they own Pocket Casts, a podcast application on Android (bought from NPR - I really wish NPR had decided to keep it, I feel like they would have been much better stewards).
Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#193Earlier quoted context omitted.
Are you an employee? I’ve seen a bunch of comments like this on various forums. Is Matt telling his employees to spin the folks who left? Edit: it seems like he is. Wow.
What’s the problem here? This is a common scenario in every company out there. I was in the same exact position myself 3 years ago.
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Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#194I'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.
It’s a tough job market, so I’m not surprised. Demand for developers/other tech roles and overall economy isn’t great right now.
And if you think that AI is going to eat away at dev jobs around the margins going forward, maybe you're thinking that you can't find another job within 6 months and even if you do it's likely to face an even more uncertain future.
This is a great offer but "a bird in the hand" etc.
Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#195Earlier quoted context omitted.
My guess is WPEngine looked at the amount being asked from them (the lawsuit says "tens of millions of dollars" based on public posts indeed it seems above thirty million a year), divided it by the hourly rate of the best legal representation they thought they can get and decided it's cheaper. They wanted to take no risks. From the other side, after you are sued by Rachel Kassabian you really have no choice but get t…
I mean, presumably you can look at a history of wins in similar cases instead of hourly rate or reputation?
The case could go to trial but most cases are settled outside of court. You need to ensure the other side sees how much they have to lose should the case proceed to trial. In many ways this is a game of chicken.
Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#196I am a bit out of the loop does any one have a summary of what is happening with automattic and wpengine ?
We have no idea, really. Based on public posts only, Matt Mullenweg, CEO of Automattic, founder of Wodpress completely lost his mind and went into war against WPEngine for unclear reasons (many suspect it's money pressure perhaps from investors). He claims they don't contribute to Wordpress and WPEngine says while they don't contribute to the core product they contribute aplenty to plugins, sponsor camps and document…
Wow, blocking ACF is quite the move. All serious WP instances I know make heavy use of that.
Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#197Earlier quoted context omitted.
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What has the world gone to - lawyers trying to defend the interests of their customers.
Mullenweg tries hard -- actually too hard -- to portray himself as the good guy, it doesn't help when even posts striving hard to be neutral like https://gist.github.com/adrienne/aea9dd7ca19c8985157d9c42f7f... has this update
> Automattic releases a blog post in response to the lawsuit and announces that they have hired famous scumbag Neal Katyal
Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#198TBH, I'm surprised they had almost 2000. I would've thought they'd be around the 500 mark.
As of today we are 1,733. But that may go up soon, we are hiring aggressively to fill roles of some people who left and meet increased customer demand! https://automattic.com/work-with-us/
I support your approach here Matt. I have used WordPress forever and greatly appreciate the software.
Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#199Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems like a great deal at any company, if you're confident you can find a new job within six months. This plus the extortion makes me wonder if Automattic is strapped for cash?
The only rational reason to lay off 159 employees and demand millions of dollars from your competitors, ruining your reputation in the process and losing all your customers, is if not doing that results in an even worse outcome.
I think we're far past rational behavior
Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer
#200Earlier quoted context omitted.
It seems like a great deal at any company, if you're confident you can find a new job within six months. This plus the extortion makes me wonder if Automattic is strapped for cash?
If they were strapped for cash, they would’ve made the severance amount much lower.
Unless the lack of cash is expected to manifest 6 months in to a very costly and lengthy lawsuit.
All of Matt's discourse suggests that there will be no settlement because he sincerely believes (in the face of all released evidence) he's in the right, so this very well could be them preparing for the long haul.