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Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic

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199 points orangeteacups | 2 comments | 17 Oct 24 18:04 UTC | HN request time: 0.001s | source
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legitster ◴[17 Oct 24 19:05 UTC] No.41872756[source]▶
> “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.

It's kind a funny, the whole point of the last offer was that you rip off the band-aid once and for all. But giving people a 4-hour window before you spend a week doing increasingly crazy things didn't really give people enough of a taste of things to come.

I'm also not sure why the CEO is being so pernicious with these tiny windows. Why only give your people 4 hours with no advance notice?

People want to draw obvious comparisons to the offers at Twitter and 37 Signals, but at least with those employees were a) given enough notice to discuss things with friends/family and b) knew what they were signing up for. I'm not sure if the Automattic employees who missed the window last week knew they were going to be engaging in supply chain attacks against their own ecosystem a few days later.

replies(2): >>41873317 #>>41873985 #
1. ceejayoz ◴[17 Oct 24 20:16 UTC] No.41873317[source]▶
> Why only give your people 4 hours with no advance notice?

To be able to brag about how few took the offer.

replies(1): >>41873825 #
2. jantissler ◴[17 Oct 24 21:10 UTC] No.41873825[source]▶
He also seems to love the "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!" type of surprise tactic. Like when they cut access to plugin updates for all WP Engine customers from one moment to the next. He probably thinks it's a power move. To me personally it looks mean, weak, and pathetic. It's what a bully would do.