Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer • Hacker News Board

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#261

Post by rideontime » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:34 PM UTC

solarkraft wrote: post #247

finnthehuman wrote: post #208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They raised $588m across rounds in 2019 and 2021. For a company founded in 2005. They’ve started doing something that’s burning A LOT of cash and I didn’t find public product direction that explains it (in only 20 minutes of googling tbf). Dwindling runway as a theory to explain squeezing WPE and Matt’s public communications is getting harder to ignore.

Matt has stated in a recent Slack conversation that Automattic is doing great financially.

Has anybody credible made that claim though?

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#262

Post by randomdata » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:37 PM UTC

mtlynch wrote: post #259

randomdata wrote: post #224

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So what you're saying is that Matt is a tyrant because he isn't as an effective communicator as DHH is? That's quite an unusual take on tyranny. Or perhaps that's not what you are saying at all, but are just a poor communicator yourself? If that's the case, I am surprised you are not more sympathetic to the folly of interpreting such statements without other context. Dunning-Krueger effect strikes again, I suppose.

I said that Mullenweg's explanation of the buyout makes him come across as a petty tyrant. I didn't say that poor communication is what qualifies someone as a tyrant.

There is no objective measure of what makes a tyrant. If one comes across as a tyrant, they are a tyrant!

You did say, as interpreted by the reader, that his poor communication skills makes him come across as a tyrant, and therefore that is what makes him a tyrant.

That may not be what you meant, but in that case we're right back to you and the poor communication skills of your own.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#263

Post by shuri » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:39 PM UTC

WP engine should raise and hire these people.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#264

Post by keiferski » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:40 PM UTC

righthand wrote: post #256

keiferski wrote: post #243

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably not too many. The average WordPress site is run by a small business that doesn’t care the slightest bit about tech industry drama, or what open source even means.

That may be enough, the average Wordpress site probably is subsidized by the larger sites that may leave. I don’t see the amount of employees exiting as a small amount even though it’s not even 20%.

Pretty unlikely. In my experience, WordPress is basically the go-to solution for people that need a cheap website and don't want to think about it too much. Especially for non-technical people running a law firm, consultancy, etc. The technical folks that care about recent events most likely left WP years ago.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#265

Post by 0cf8612b2e1e » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:40 PM UTC

jasonvorhe wrote: post #49

closewith wrote: post #37

TIL Pocket Casts is an Automattic product. Anyone have recommendations to switch (and not to the disaster that is Overcast)?

A competing product would have to at least be on par in terms of quality, licensing, UI/UX, app availability, sync, web interface. They'd have to start sacrificing living animals before I'd consider switching. They're even still honoring lifelong premium access for first purchases of their apps.

We have such different experiences. Pocket Casts works, but I find nothing about it amazing. Too much Apple-like simplification in managing my queue.

I found Podcast Addict to be significantly superior.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#266

Post by Topgamer7 » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:40 PM UTC

keiferski wrote: post #243

righthand wrote: post #241

It will be interesting how many customers start flying the coop. Wordpress can be entrenching software but I have also found that a lot of the plugin heavy sites are just using plugins/customizations for trivial things you could easily eclipse. Migrating off of it is easier done than said in that case. We will be leaving WP Engine and Wordpress behind after we spend 2 months rebuilding on sensible software on a sensi…

Probably not too many. The average WordPress site is run by a small business that doesn’t care the slightest bit about tech industry drama, or what open source even means.

I think these days, the average WordPress site runner is trying to find a cheap/free. Non-technical solution.

I help out with a sports league who run a couple wordpress sites.

- One, its totally the wrong CMS for how they use it.

- Two, they have almost no ability to diagnose and debug issues themselves. Honestly 80% of the issues that get raised to me are even just solved by clicking "keep plugin automatically updated"

They really just want a CMS that allows them to share announcements, post schedules and where to show up to play.

But it gets the job done, for cheap, and there is a decent community on plugins and themes.

Wordpress was originally popular because of its openness and community right? I wonder if that's still the platform it is.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#267

Post by legitster » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:41 PM UTC

senadir wrote: post #145

mtlynch wrote: 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.

I think it's incredibly naïve to think that it's over now. The legal ramifications of what Automattic has done have not even started to set in motion.

Also, as a longtime WP user, my understanding of the product is... pretty different now to say the least.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#268

Post by hluska » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:46 PM UTC

lazide wrote: post #203

arethuza wrote: post #161

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe that's why they are hiring an "Associate General Counsel"?

That’s really not the right way to hire a lawyer you need right now . Probably not the right way to hire a lawyer at all, frankly. How does he expect a junior attorney to help him at all, especially one who is depending on him for his paycheck?

The job specifically asks for a JD with 8+ years of experience. The position will lead corporate, securities and governance work. This is not a junior attorney.

Here’s the job ad:

https://automattic.com/work-with-us/job/associate-general-co...

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#269

Post by legitster » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:47 PM UTC

righthand wrote: post #241

It will be interesting how many customers start flying the coop. Wordpress can be entrenching software but I have also found that a lot of the plugin heavy sites are just using plugins/customizations for trivial things you could easily eclipse. Migrating off of it is easier done than said in that case. We will be leaving WP Engine and Wordpress behind after we spend 2 months rebuilding on sensible software on a sensi…

Matt himself suggested the exodus: fork Wordpress, call it something else, host the plugin directory yourself.

And it's not like Wordpress is known for it's phenomenal code quality or anything. This is your chance to ditch some of the bad ideas (cough Gutenberg cough) or legacy code.

Re: Some Automattic employees accept severance package offer

#270

Post by solarkraft » Fri, Oct 04, 2024, 3:47 PM UTC

As entertaining as it can be to follow a public meltdown for 5 minutes, this hurts because Automattic was a company I used to look up to. I had the idea that some day I might work for them. Not sure this will still be possible. Maybe on a business unrelated to Wordpress.

> 159 people took the offer, 8.4% of the company, the other 91.6% gave up $126M of potential severance to stay!

That is an interesting (meritful, imo) way of putting it.