Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic
- Reference: 0175274059
- News link: https://slashdot.org/story/24/10/17/219225/employees-describe-an-environment-of-paranoia-and-fear-inside-automattic
- Source link:
> After an exodus of employees at Automattic who disagreed with CEO Matt Mullenweg's recently [2]divisive legal battle with WP Engine, he's [3]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 " [4]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.
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> "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."
[1] https://slashdot.org/~samleecole
[2] https://yro.slashdot.org/story/24/10/03/1354214/wp-engine-sues-wordpress-for-libel-extortion
[3] https://www.404media.co/automattic-buyout-offer-wordpress-matt-mullenweg/
[4] https://tech.slashdot.org/story/24/09/23/1348226/wordpress-founder-calls-wp-engine-a-cancer-to-wordpress-and-urges-community-to-switch-providers
I say BS (Score:4, 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: (Score:3)
Unless of course the technical means in question violate the law.
Re: (Score:3)
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
Re: (Score:2)
> And that would be extremely stupid to send the email.
On the other hand, extremely stupid would fit his established pattern of behavior.
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.
Re: (Score:1)
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.
Yet another stable genius (Score:2, 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)
Because charismatic psychopaths want the jobs and will do whatever it takes to get them.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
> Because charismatic psychopaths want the jobs and will do whatever it takes to get them.
There is a documentary called [1]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.
[1] https://thecorporation.com/
Re: (Score:3)
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.
Childish CEO (Score:2, Troll)
Sounds like a 10 year old in his threats. Or like Elon Musk.
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.
So a run of the Mill modern American job right? (Score:3, Insightful)
I ever so glad we destroyed unions. I just love always wondering when some random suit is going to decide I could be replaced by a random teenager in India and then that teenager can't actually do my job but somebody else in the company gets stuck working an extra 40 hours a week on top of their 40 to make up for that fact because they're terrified of losing their job.
Who needs solidarity when you've got survivor bias.
"404 media" pushes a specific kind of story. (Score:2)
Not saying they're sus on a factual level, but something is off.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
It's still better than the next offer he's going to mail out to his employees, which consists of a picture of an open seventh-story window and the text "Boris and Ivan are standing by to escort you out if you don't leave voluntarily".