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Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

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Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#141

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…

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 i…

That might be true about the traffic, but twitter wasn’t open before the musk purchase either, it would stop you from seeing posts if you weren’t logged in if you tried to scroll more than a few times. Its current behavior of showing just a few posts sorta, uh, randomly selected might be easier on the server, idk.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#142
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Getting remote jobs in general is tricky if you're not from certain countries. I'm from Algeria, Automattic was one of the few companies that hired there. Every other country would ask you to be in the US, or US timezone, or in a certain European country. Not all remote is built equal.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#143

I can think of very few jobs where I wouldn’t take this offer immediately and have a few month sabbatical.

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.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#144

I can think of very few jobs where I wouldn’t take this offer immediately and have a few month sabbatical.

A university in Pennsylvania made a similar offer this summer. 40% of the employees accepted it, including the president.

May I ask which university?

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#145
post #35

> So we decided to design the most generous buy-out package possible, we called it an Alignment Offer: if you resigned before 20:00 UTC on Thursday, October 3, 2024, you would receive $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher. But you’d lose access to Automattic that evening, and you wouldn’t be eligible to boomerang (what we call re-hires). HR added some extra details to sweeten the deal; we wanted to mak…

The offer had no limits (someone who was at the company for 2 days took it). Matt was also willing to continue sponsoring visa for the 6 months for whoever is on an work visa.

This was a very distracting 4 days, I'm glad it ended quickly, the dust is settling now, and we're slowly going back to work.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#146
post #29

So now we know the lawyers on both sides. To recap, in the lawsuit post, someone said about the law firm WP Engine got: > Quinn Emanuel is one of the premier (and most expensive) litigation firms in the US. Partners in their litigation department run $2000/hour or more. Associates cost almost $1000/hour. And I noted the team is lead by Rachel Kassabian who was lead counsel for Google which in Perfect 10 v Amazon (ori…

[flagged]

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A university in Pennsylvania made a similar offer this summer. 40% of the employees accepted it, including the president.

May I ask which university?

Penn State.

https://www.psu.edu/news/administration/story/penn-state-off...

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#149
post #35

> So we decided to design the most generous buy-out package possible, we called it an Alignment Offer: if you resigned before 20:00 UTC on Thursday, October 3, 2024, you would receive $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher. But you’d lose access to Automattic that evening, and you wouldn’t be eligible to boomerang (what we call re-hires). HR added some extra details to sweeten the deal; we wanted to mak…

This was more generous than both the Basecamp and Coinbase buyout offers, I'm curious why you say I'm a petty tyrant. I can be a little ASD so sometimes my written communication doesn't come through the best.

My guy, I know lots of autistic people. You're not coming across as autistic, you're giving straight up Napoleon marching into Russia with this one.
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