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Restructuring Announcement

automattic.com

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Re: Restructuring Announcement

#161

Post by DannyBee »

chris_wot wrote: post #26

This might not have happened if Mullenweg hadn’t sued his competitor, then went off the deep end and hurt everyone .

I think this is a bit unfair.

Who among us can really say they haven't gone off the deep end, burned every drop of good will that ever existed towards them and their projects, sued a competitor and got hilariously burned by the judge, all while burning hundreds of millions of your companies value (blackrock marked them down 10%, which is 750 million)

This is just a normal thing that happens. It could have happened to anyone.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#162

Post by leosarev »

ted_dunning wrote: post #130
mathgeek wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> So in your world, the people running the business should fire themselves first? If they are needed to continue leading, they should consider cutting their own salary until the problems are fixed. Let them take their entire compensation in just their equity for a time. However we all know this won’t be the norm, and that’s OK. Not great, just OK.

Been there and done that. One startup I was at instituted a 50% pay cut for senior execs, 25% for the level below that and no cut below that. The CEO took a 100% pay cut. This let us get through a short rough patch without layoffs.

I worked at middle-sized company that instituted a pay cuts, cutting all bonuses and stopping raises. After year, company lost almost every person in tech managenent and most of team leaders, their clients actively executing forking rights and no one believes in company future now.

I once heard wise words from some CEO. In harsh times, clients do not want cheaper and worse services from us. They want less services. So we are moving out headcount down, while keeping pay and even execute raises for those who stay.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#163

Post by reshlo »

mgdev wrote: post #83
refuser wrote: post #2

Not especially surprising, but there’s an awfully large elephant in the room that likely directly contributed to this necessity that goes completely unmentioned.

Matt's only real problem is not owning his ambition openly. Trying to publicly argue the moral high ground was a stupid, unforced error. It didn't need to be moralized at all. Just make the changes you want to make, piss off a vocal minority, then get back to winning and making boatloads of money by executing exceptionally. The problem, I suspect, is that Matt values how certain people perceive him more than he value…

If more people valued how others perceive them more than they valued winning, the world would be a better place.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#164

Post by stefanfisk »

hinkley wrote: post #153
dccoolgai wrote: post #125

So if you took the deal last year you would have gotten 9 months, now the severance is 9 weeks. Way to reward "loyalty". Good thing we're so smart and better than everyone else and we don't need unions.

Financially your best bet is to be in the 1st round of layoffs. Ego-wise, it's best to be in the second round. First round there's still some money and a lot of guilt, so the severance tends to be good. By the time they lay off truly essential people, you're burnt out, and you're lucky if you don't have to sue to get what you're owed by law, let alone whatever policy they had for paying out vacation time or what have…

Your also competing with fewer people when looking for a new job.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#165

Post by nightpool »

IG_Semmelweiss wrote: post #134
nightpool wrote: post #113

Haven't seen any public reporting on this yet, but from internal conversations this seems to include a 60% workforce reduction at Tumblr, which now only has a few remaining engineers.

i dont mean to kick a dead horse, but a "few remaining engineers" for what is effectively an outdated clone of a microblogging site, a few engineers, seems like a lot still

what microblogging site do you think Tumblr is a clone of? and outdated compared to what, exactly?

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#166

Post by dylan604 »

oblio wrote: post #142
dylan604 wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Writing off equipment through depreciation is a time honored thing for corps. If they sell them, they are no longer a write off. That's now more work for the bean counters.

Then donate them.

Isn't that essentially what they are doing when the let the employees keep them?

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#168

Post by animuchan »

facile3232 wrote: post #114
solardev wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If only we had real leaders...

You can trust me, facile3232, instead. I will improve upon all things the leader of automattic.com failed to improve upon.

This messaging is compelling. Are you also perchance against all bad things, and in favor of all good things?

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#169

Post by oblio »

dylan604 wrote: post #166
oblio wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Then donate them.

Isn't that essentially what they are doing when the let the employees keep them?

My original comment in the thread:

> 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.

It's good that Automattic is doing it, I was wishing it was an industry standard procedure, for all past-end-of-life hardware, not just layoffs and not just laptops.

Right now FAANG, for example, which you'd expect to have the very best of everything, as far as I know don't give old laptops (and other old hardware) to employees, they don't even sell them. They send them to be recycled or whatever, but the best action is to reduce and reuse, recycle should be the last option.

Plus an employee is likely to be willing to accept their old device since they know it's performance and general behavior.

Re: Restructuring Announcement

#170

Post by bravetraveler »

mgdev wrote: post #83
refuser wrote: post #2

Not especially surprising, but there’s an awfully large elephant in the room that likely directly contributed to this necessity that goes completely unmentioned.

Matt's only real problem is not owning his ambition openly. Trying to publicly argue the moral high ground was a stupid, unforced error. It didn't need to be moralized at all. Just make the changes you want to make, piss off a vocal minority, then get back to winning and making boatloads of money by executing exceptionally. The problem, I suspect, is that Matt values how certain people perceive him more than he value…

Ignore the financial valuations, man is a worm. I'd call him a 'hack' but that might imply talents given where we are.

Through his shitshow, he tried - and failed - to curry favor with an OSS puppet. Not any particular software... like one might think, but the whole "thing".

There was never any moment where WPEngine was beholden for offering WordPress services. Everything was strained to the point he was trying to redefine OSS.

He got in his way, ours as members of the public, and that of WPEngine. Repeatedly... and I don't see enough reflection/reason from Matt to believe this will change. Personally, I'd hesitate to promote his strategies or skills.

Hamfisted is a better message. Or none, take the wind away. We don't want his ambition or to hear about it. It's demonstrably shit.

Edit: just in case this needs saying, I've never been affiliated with either company. Don't waste your limited time looking for me, Matt.

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