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Restructuring Announcement

(automattic.com)
261 points markx2 | 1 comments | 02 Apr 25 18:34 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source
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gregoryl ◴[02 Apr 25 22:01 UTC] No.43562178[source]▶
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...

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snitty ◴[03 Apr 25 00:03 UTC] No.43563275[source]▶
It's not uncommon for companies to be in a hiring mode until they're very much not in a hiring mode any more.
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nostrademons ◴[03 Apr 25 00:12 UTC] No.43563333[source]▶
Yeah. I was made a manager in Feb 2022 with 5 directs and 9 headcount to fill. Hired 5, and then by June 2022 all remaining headcount was cut. In January 2023 we had our first-ever layoffs in the company's 25-year history.
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IG_Semmelweiss ◴[03 Apr 25 02:14 UTC] No.43563972[source]▶
It is so hard to fathom that a leader trusted with millions of dollars of other people's money can be so disengaged from recruiting as to not see a hard wall of cash crunch, months if not years ahead.

You can't assume fundraising will always go swimmingly. You have to always be in survival mode, and if that means not hiring aggressively, then you put on the breaks until the money comes in .

Either as a leader you are clueless about your business cash needs, you are clueless about risk management, or you are clueless about the market, all of which make you not a suitable leader for a long-term company.

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1. mathattack ◴[03 Apr 25 14:23 UTC] No.43570138{3}[source]▶
I’ve seen many companies have this problem. They base hiring against planned revenue instead of current revenue. In a sense you have to - if you’re planning on growing 100% for several years on the back of new products and a big sales team you must hire in advance. It’s what the VC model is founded on. The downside is when you miss the revenue, you have to cut deep. And it’s usually worse because your hiring standards dropped in hyper growth.