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Restructuring Announcement

automattic.com

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Re: Restructuring Announcement

#71

Post by sgerenser »

viraptor wrote: post #49
slt2021 wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

companies that collect their laptops from laid off => where do these laptops go? how they recycle them?

It's a huge "depends". Different areas have different recycling opportunities. Some hardware providers have their own buyback/replacement programs. Also some companies may want to reimage and reuse the returned hardware. Finally you want some stock of temporary laptops available for people who are waiting for repairs so some functioning used ones are great for that.

Yeah at the BigCorps I was at, old laptops (as long as they weren’t more than 3-4 years old) were usually reimaged and kept on hand as spares or for interns, etc. But I imagine after a large layoff they ended up with way more than they’d ever actually need.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#72

Post by stevage »

xd1936 wrote: post #43
uoaei wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is the elephant in the room with us now? (Mind filling in?)

https://mullenweg.wtf/ https://web.archive.org/web/20241026031947/https://bullenweg...

Holy moly.

I never heard of this drama before.

This was crazy:

https://www.reddit.com/r/WPDrama/comments/1hlp08d/what_drama...

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#73

Post by johannes1234321 »

oblio wrote: post #31
jelder wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A company which is even moderately "OK" at IT will already have the means to instantly lock and securely wipe devices of any employee at a moments notice. Doing this during a RIF is a hell of a lot better than making the mail room deal with a bunch of filthy laptops.

A large bunch of big companies, including some of the biggest on the planet don't even sell past-end-of-life laptops to their current employees. Let that sink in. They're not even willing to > old laptops, they would rather scrap them and contribute to pollution and overall waste.

If they sell to (ex-)employees they sell to consumers. This then includes consumer warranties etc.

However what large companies do is to get an agreement with a refurbishing company, which will collect and refurbish them and and pay the corporation some share.

This works in some mix calculation - the well treated machines can be sold well, some machines can be used to reuse some parts and some machines are nothing but cost for disposal.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#74

Post by oblio »

preinheimer wrote: post #55
oblio wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A large bunch of big companies, including some of the biggest on the planet don't even sell past-end-of-life laptops to their current employees. Let that sink in. They're not even willing to > old laptops, they would rather scrap them and contribute to pollution and overall waste.

If you scrap a laptop you get a nice, auditable, chain of custody from the end user to the company that will certify it's been destroyed. If you sell someone their old laptop you need to ensure that it's actually been wiped, not just "I copied my files over and started using the new one". I've seen a few IT departments be not great at "Sam got their new laptop two weeks ago, someone should follow up now to see if the…

I'm talking about some companies that should have the best IT departments on the planet.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#75

Post by ValentineC »

dangrossman wrote: post #44
lenerdenator wrote: post #32

Given what I know of the situation (which admittedly isn't much), wouldn't the best course of action be to shitcan the CEO?

From Reddit discussions, if they can be trusted, there is nobody who can remove Matt from any position. It's a private company and the investors were given non-voting shares.

> It's a private company and the investors were given non-voting shares.

My understanding is that the investors signed proxy voting rights over to Matt. They are mostly ordinary shares, and may be revocable. [1]

[1] https://ma.tt/2021/08/funding-buyback-hiring/

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#76

Post by AlotOfReading »

kstrauser wrote: post #66
AlotOfReading wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One former employer had this policy, and also refused to provide a way to ship said equipment back. No one was happy with my alternative solution: leaving it at the police station instead.

Is that what you proposed or what you actually did? I want a story!

I actually did it. This was back in the times when you could get a job the next day, and my new employer didn't want me keeping anything from the old employer by the time I started. Old employer was dragging their feet on the shipping label and made it clear that failure to return the equipment would be considered theft. I gave them a week of daily reminder emails with an approaching deadline (no response), then handed it to the cops as abandoned property. Got a few HR calls immediately afterwards asking how to pick it up, and an annoyed police call asking me not to do it again.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#77

Post by munificent »

tylerrobinson wrote: post #61
munificent wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I know this really bugs some people but every tech company these days has a demonym for its employees. It doesn't mean that employees have some cultlike adoration for the company. It's just very convenient inside the company to have a single short word to refer to all employees of the business.

> a single short word > “Automattician” The word you’re looking for is employee.

I checked my list, and the fact that employees of Automattic are called "Automatticians" did not make my list of things to be outraged about. Maybe next week.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#78

Post by kstrauser »

AlotOfReading wrote: post #76
kstrauser wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that what you proposed or what you actually did? I want a story!

I actually did it. This was back in the times when you could get a job the next day, and my new employer didn't want me keeping anything from the old employer by the time I started. Old employer was dragging their feet on the shipping label and made it clear that failure to return the equipment would be considered theft. I gave them a week of daily reminder emails with an approaching deadline (no response), then hand…

I love this. Bravo.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#80

Post by SJC_Hacker »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #56
lenerdenator wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let this be a lesson to anyone investing in a startup: don't give any cash unless there's real corporate governance.

Same with trading your time for stock options (that you hope are eventually negotiable shares); trust is earned in drops and lost in buckets.

Dilution is a real problem. If they want you to act like a Founder, you should have protected equity like one.
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