On the afternoon of Wednesday October 16 Matt Mullenweg, CEO posted a follow up buy-out offer to his staff:
“New alignment offer: I guess some people were sad they missed the last window. Some have been leaking to the press and ex-employees. That’s water under the bridge. Maybe the last offer needed to be higher. People have said they want a new window, so this is my attempt. Here’s a new one: You have until 00:00 UTC Oct 17 (-4 hours) to DM me the words, ‘I resign and would like to take the 9-month buy-out offer’ You don’t have to say any reason, or anything else. I will reply ‘Thank you.’ Automattic will accept your resignation, you can keep you [sic] office stuff and work laptop; you will lose access to Automattic and W.org (no slack, user accounts, etc). HR will be in touch to wrap up details in the coming days, including your 9 months of compensation, they have a lot on their plates right now. You have my word this deal will be honored. We will try to keep this quiet, so it won’t be used against us, but I still wanted to give Automatticians another window.”
He added that this about the offer:
“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.”
Within the hour he announced that he had just spoken to the leaker and accepted their resignation. Within minutes a post to the Access-Checklist P2 would reveal the identity to the entire company.
When asked if the offer was still valid he confirmed that it was. Shortly after he would board a flight to Hawaii.
Other Automatticians had messaged him to accept. A single additional name would be added to the Access-Checklist P2. With no further updates many assumed that only two people accepted this offer.
Slowly through calls, texts, and rumors word began to swirl that several other people had messaged him to accept the offer but the promised acknowledged response never came. The previous offer came the day ofter Mullenweg announced that going forward all resignations would be effective and have their access removed the same day.
The purgatory of limbo would stretch over two days before a question was posited about the status of the offer. Mullenweg replied:
“I’ll work on an official statement. Probably after we do the hiring offer for WPE employees. We’re really short staffed at the moment!
That may be awkward for someone who DM’d and will have a later last day (could be next year, even), but my priority is people staying, not people leaving. I’m hearing from people staying that they’re stretched thin right now, so we need to hire and ease that overload.
It’s not a time for a bunch of people to leave at once.
So, I ask people to continue fulfilling their confidentiality and work contracts.”
As a response to a question it’s unclear how many Automatticians are aware of this reply and of this ongoing limbo or what it means for their employment. The stress of having been put into a situation where they had to make a life changing decision about their future within hours, in many cases after having only been made aware of it from friendly colleagues who contacted them to let them know another window of opportunity has opened must be significant.
Aside from the tortuous human impact of such a switcheroo what he’s done may not be legal in California according to section 12964.5(b)(4) of the CA Gov Code which stipulates that employees are to receive a reasonable time of not less than five business days to consult an attorney when receiving an offer of separation.
And don’t forget that he’s also planning to make offers to WP Engine staffers. Prioritizing his petty vendetta over the well-being of his current staff.
Barbaric.