HN Reader

From an alternate universe:

I apologize for my erratic behavior which has tarnished our brand and created unnecessary turmoil within our organization. Regrettably, we will need to implement a 16% reduction in headcount to address the financial challenges we now face. I have decided to step aside and hand over control to my deputy, who I believe will provide the steady leadership needed to rebuild trust and restore our company's vision.

Huh.

>> There are no layoffs plans at Automattic, in fact we're hiring fairly aggressively and have done a number of acquisitions since this whole thing started, and have several more in the pipeline.

https://old.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1hxnh73/automatt...

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

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.

> This restructuring will result in an approximately 16% workforce reduction

Probably the most salient detail for non-Automattic employees. Everything else was generic fluff.

Mentioning "our revenue continues to grow" seems quite out of place in an announcement like this.

Executive behaves like a child, labor suffers the consequences.

I used to be a big admirer of Matt and Automattic, but after this whole WP Engine episode I've lost respect. I shut down my old wordpress blog, still working on importing the posts as org-mode files onto my new site, I no longer recommend WP to non-techies that ask me how to build a website.

I hope WordPress (and Automattic) turn the ship around but its not looking good at this point.

I wonder what this means for the future of Beeper.

> They also have our enduring gratitude for their time with the company.

I hope the RIF'd employees can pay rent with that gratitude.

If I were considering using Wordpress for anything, which I am not, this would end those plans. If they're laying off and keeping the CEO, they must be in dire financial straits. That message says "we're doing all the right things and have good leadership with a track record of making good decisions, but we have no alternative but to fire a sixth of our employees". That's not a good sign.

I wonder if the CEO throwing a tantrum that another company was using "their" open-source (thus, not theirs) code wasn't the real problem, but it made investors take a closer look, and they noticed that Automattic has less of a moat then they thought.

HR wranglers? Damn, that’s simultaneously hilarious and terrifying

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.

"Either I'm an idiot, or something is going on that you don't understand. Let's check back in a month. :)"

https://www.reddit.com/r/Wordpress/comments/1glejno/comment/...

...1 month later...

https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69221176/64/wpengine-in...

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

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

on the positive side, it's a small thing monetarily, but retention of company laptops is a nice goodwill gesture

This comment thread is just hilarious. When a CEO of a VC-backed startup that you admire does things you disagree with, you find ways to justify their actions. When a CEO that is running an actually successful business and wishes to defend that business legally, you trash him. Be better.

Judgement aside, I've gotta respect the humane way this org does layoffs. There's some slags in here about founder being "sociopath", but I'm just seeing a really humane founder with maybe some control issues.

Trump, who betrays everyone for personal benefit, there's a sociopath. Mullenwag's just got some personality vices that served him as underdog, and didn't adapt to when he gained power

Tough break for Matt Mullenweg, who unfortunately was caught up in this reduction in force. I am sure this unexpected change will afford him new opportunities. Wishing him the best!

AI is eating the world.

“While our revenue continues to grow,”

Hard to read further than that…

There's a parallel timeline where he admitted he messed up, stepped down, hired a real CEO, put someone else in charge of the nonprofit, and the downward slide he caused started to reverse.

>A comprehensive package covering severance pay and benefits.

What does this mean in term of monthly wages?

I was a technical lead for the Romanian branch of an US company. They fired me along with my team and other teams. The reason was they were profitable but they missed the ARR by a million or something. Last year they did the first firing round, this the second.

When they announced they will fire us, they also announced they will hire more sales people. The ratio of business people/tech people was already 7:1 before that. They also said a programmer should produce 5 times the money the company spent with him, and we were at 4 point something.

Now I have found a position at a local company which takes care of its people even in harder times.

This is well handled.