Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic 48
404 Media journalist and Slashdot contributor samleecole shares a report: After an exodus of employees at Automattic who disagreed with CEO Matt Mullenweg's recently divisive legal battle with WP Engine, he's upped the ante with another buyout offer -- and a threat that employees speaking to the press should "exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance." Earlier this month, Mullenweg posed an "Alignment Offer" to all of his employees: Stand with him through a messy legal drama that's still unfolding, or leave. "It became clear a good chunk of my Automattic colleagues disagreed with me and our actions," he wrote on his personal blog on Oct. 3, referring to the ongoing dispute between himself and website hosting platform WP Engine, which Mullenweg called a "cancer to WordPress" and accusing WP Engine of "strip-mining the WordPress ecosystem. In the last month, he and WP Engine have volleyed cease and desist letters, and WP Engine is now suing Automattic, accusing Mullenweg of extortion and abuse of power.
"I'm certain that Matt hasn't eliminated all dissenters, because I'm still there, but I expect that within the next six to twelve months, everyone who didn't leave but wasn't 'aligned' will have found a new job and left on their own terms," a current employee told 404 Media. "My personal morale has never been lower at this job, and I know that I'm not alone." Mullenweg himself, in internal screenshots viewed by 404 Media, acknowledged that his first "Alignment Offer" did not make everyone who disagreed with him leave the company. On Wednesday Mullenweg posted another ultimatum in Automattic's Slack: a new offer that would include nine months of compensation (up from the previous offer of six months). "We have technical means to identify the leaker as well, that I obviously can't disclose," he continued. "So this is their opportunity to exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance and probably a big legal case for violating confidentiality agreement."
"I'm certain that Matt hasn't eliminated all dissenters, because I'm still there, but I expect that within the next six to twelve months, everyone who didn't leave but wasn't 'aligned' will have found a new job and left on their own terms," a current employee told 404 Media. "My personal morale has never been lower at this job, and I know that I'm not alone." Mullenweg himself, in internal screenshots viewed by 404 Media, acknowledged that his first "Alignment Offer" did not make everyone who disagreed with him leave the company. On Wednesday Mullenweg posted another ultimatum in Automattic's Slack: a new offer that would include nine months of compensation (up from the previous offer of six months). "We have technical means to identify the leaker as well, that I obviously can't disclose," he continued. "So this is their opportunity to exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance and probably a big legal case for violating confidentiality agreement."
Uh huh (Score:5, Insightful)
"Even though I COULD fire you with cause, and give you nothing, I'd rather give you 9 months severance and let you leave gracefully."
Said nobody who could actually fire someone with cause, ever.
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Automattic does not need cause to fire employees. Nearly all of them work in San Francisco. He could just send you a text message saying you're fired which will beep at you at the same time security grabs you by the collar and throws you out.
It's called employee protection laws - American style. (It's actually called "at-will employment")
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Automattic does not need cause to fire employees. Nearly all of them work in San Francisco. He could just send you a text message saying you're fired which will beep at you at the same time security grabs you by the collar and throws you out.
It's called employee protection laws - American style. (It's actually called "at-will employment")
Every time I read the old "security escort" it reminds me of the absolute worst job I ever worked. The henchmen would show up, hover around the periphery chattering amongst themselves, then one of them would go get two security people, they'd walk up to a desk with a box in hand, tap you on the shoulder, hand you the box, then tell security you had fifteen minutes. And you'd best have that desk clean in fifteen minutes or security would unceremoniously dump the rest of your shit in the parking lot as they t
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It's cheaper than defending a baseless wrongful termination suit.
Paying to make problems go away can be quite smart even when it's not just.
I bristle at such ideas myself but this guy's job is to protect the bottom line.
I say BS (Score:5, Insightful)
"We have technical means to identify the leaker as well, that I obviously can't disclose," he continued. "So this is their opportunity to exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance and probably a big legal case for violating confidentiality agreement."
If he has technical means to identify someone who has breached their confidentiality agreement and caused PR damage to the company, then just find out who this is and take any necessary action. Sending emails to everybody means these are just vague threats hoping for the culprit to reveal themselves by taking the offer.
Re:I say BS (Score:5, Interesting)
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In practice, it falls back to the same: he does not have the means. And that would be extremely stupid to send the email. If he had means to find out by breaking the law, a reasonable course of action would be to attempt that without telling anyone, then shortlist the person into the next lay-off opportunity. By publicly mentioning it, he's calling attention onto himself, which will cause more scrutiny (and serious accusations) in case he implements his plan of firing the person and a lawsuit. Obviously law
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And that would be extremely stupid to send the email.
On the other hand, extremely stupid would fit his established pattern of behavior.
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Unless of course the technical means in question violate the law.
This is America we're talking about. There are few laws that protect employees against this kind of thing. You are being watched.
Re:I say BS (Score:4, Interesting)
This sounds like a great time to poach people from that company. You can make them an offer and know that they can accept it while also double dipping by taking that severance offer on top.
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You mean from WordPress? You know it's like the most hacked framework of all fucking time, right? The whole ecosystem is a blight on the internet, coding culture, and society as a whole. I hope the earth opens up and swallows both Automattic and WP Engine whole along with every line of code they've written, and good riddance to the lot of them.
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You mean from WordPress? You know it's like the most hacked framework of all fucking time, right? The whole ecosystem is a blight on the internet, coding culture, and society as a whole. I hope the earth opens up and swallows both Automattic and WP Engine whole along with every line of code they've written, and good riddance to the lot of them.
I'm out of mod points, so please accept this internet standing ovation instead.
Re: I say BS (Score:2)
You assume they have a skill set other employers want, that may not be the case...
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This story was brought to you by WP Engine,inc.
Or (Score:2)
He's playing classic control-freak mind games, ramping up paranoia and reducing trust.
I have no inside info, and don't pay much attention to this software ecosystem. But I've worked in startups for a long time and have worked for my share of scared, insecure weirdos.
I'm getting the distinct impression that Mr. Big Matt has reason to believe his company is in trouble, and like every CEO suffers from Leon-envy. So he's trying to pull a Xitter, shrinking headcount and shaping the what remains into a stable of
Yet another stable genius (Score:3, Insightful)
Where do we keep finding these guys, and why are we letting them attain positions of authority again?
Re:Yet another stable genius (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Yet another stable genius (Score:4, Interesting)
Exactly. Just look at the story of the other co-founder of WordPress. He's like the Woz to Mullenweg's Jobs. Although that might be an insult to Jobs who, for all of his faults, had taste.
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Because charismatic psychopaths want the jobs and will do whatever it takes to get them.
There is a documentary called The Corporation [thecorporation.com] which assesses modern corporations against internationally recognized standard markers of Psychopathic behaviors. It's no surprise that they hit every one, so it is also true to say that psychopaths fit the role requirements perfectly.
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Back in 2005 he pitched the idea for WordPress.com to his bosses at CNET and they turned him down, so he started it himself. He wasn't "let into" the position but rather built it and the company.
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If you come out of the vagina of a guy that
Has not and will never happen, no matter how much bullshit you anti-human, trans perverts want to pretend otherwise.
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Where do we keep finding these guys, and why are we letting them attain positions of authority again?
He used to be normal. The crazy is something recent that came long after he became CEO. As for positions of authority - he is the original co-founder. It's his project. The question would be why people use the project if the leader is a nutjob, and the answer to that would be that most people don't care - or rather don't even know.
That said these bumper stickers are now a thing for Teslas... so:
https://m.media-amazon.com/ima... [media-amazon.com]
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Probably just fine. There are plenty of Tesla employees who think Musk is a nutjob, and it's not like they can deny you the repair.
Childish CEO (Score:3, Insightful)
Sounds like a 10 year old in his threats. Or like Elon Musk.
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It's the same picture.
Mental health crisis (Score:2)
Dude is literally losing his mind and destroying his own company.
I honestly can't wait. Wordpress is a cancer on the internet.
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Wordpress is a cancer on the internet.
WordPress the open source platform is quite nice to use and develop for.
wordpress.com the hosting kinda sucks, gives you a weird, non-standard wordpress setup, and literally uses deathly slow email for support (I imagine they must have an internal ticketing system, but they don't even tell you your ticket number).
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So a run of the Mill modern American job right? (Score:4, Insightful)
Who needs solidarity when you've got survivor bias.
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In some sense, it's better because he's more out of the way, but again-- it's a staff member that will NEVER be fired and can't really do his job well.
Instead of asking "why isn't he working harder" (Score:1)
The answer: Because you've absorb anti-Union propaganda from billionaires.
What if a Union prevents someone (Score:2)
I mean, if we're making up false hypotheticals to smear unions why stop there? Why not go with something more fun like my Gundam reference.
Bad workers still can and do get fired. That's not what this is about. This is about constant layoffs for short term stock bumps done by CEOs who claim to be the one and only geniuses who can save us. Those layoffs *cost* because hiring isn't cheap, but the costs are born by the company, the CEO still gets his bon
"404 media" pushes a specific kind of story. (Score:2)
Skills? (Score:2)
Don't these people have marketable skills? Can't they find a position with a company that doesn't have "an environment of paranoia and fear" like their current employer?
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The market for tech jobs right now is absolute shite.
If Only.... (Score:3)
We have technical means to identify the leaker as well, that I obviously can't disclose,
If only he had evidence, he'd fire them now.
If only he had a suspicion, he'd fire them this evening.
If he only had a single clue, he'd stop being a jut nob.
There are lots and lots of ways to "align" your workforce to your imperatives that don't involve being a gaping ass hole or attacking your ecosystem. That, however, requires thought, planning, winning over others, skill, and effort. Sanity is optional only if the kookaide is free.
Insane (Score:2)
At first it was just a bit nutty. Ok, a lot nutty. I mean sure, you own the wordpress.org servers, so you can cut off auto updates to sites on a host you don't like ... it's really stupid, but thanks for reminding us of the situation, so we can plan better.
Lately it's just become totally insane. He forked a super popular plugin, which just happens to be owned by wp engine.
I have clients on both of their hosting - not through my choice - and neither one impresses at all, to say the least (though wp engine
No Blind? (Score:2)
Interesting no mention that Matt is forwarding all registration mails from Blind (where people can anonymously vent gripes about their company) to himself, requiring anyone to ask him for the MFA key if they want to continue to register.
Money problems (Score:2)
Based on this behavior, Automattic clearly has some financial issues whether operating capital or revenue. This looks a lot like a last-ditch survival thrash. It won't work, WP Engine will just fork and that will be the end of Automattic as the lead of WordPress. Not that I'd want that title either.