The CEO of a tech company has recently addressed what he describes as an ’emotional rollercoaster of a week’ following his offer to employees of ‘$30,000 or six months of salary’ to leave the company.
Automattic, a San Francisco-based tech firm, found itself entangled in a dispute with another company, sparking a ‘parallel debate’ amongst its staff.
When it became evident that a significant number of employees disagreed with CEO Matt Mullenweg’s decisions, he presented them with an exit option, which many chose to accept.
In a blog post dated October 3, Mullenweg referenced Winston Churchill, stating: “Never let a good crisis go to waste.”
The CEO explained that once it was clear not all employees supported Automattic’s handling of a lawsuit with fellow tech company WP Engine, they opted to create an exceptionally generous buy-out package.
Named the ‘Alignment Offer,’ this deal specified that if employees ‘resigned before 20:00 UTC on Thursday, October 3, 2024, [they] would receive $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher.’
“But [they’d] lose access to Automattic that evening, and [they] wouldn’t be eligible to boomerang (what we call re-hires).”
There were also additional incentives from HR to make the offer more appealing, as Mullenweg noted: “We wanted to make it as enticing as possible.”
The offer proved to be very attractive to some, leading to surprising outcomes and a challenging week for the CEO.
Mullenweg disclosed that a substantial total of 159 employees accepted the offer, with ‘63.5 percent being male’ and ’53 percent located in the US,’ representing nearly 10 percent of the entire workforce (8.4 percent to be precise).
Further analyzing the impact, the CEO mentioned: “By division it impacted our Ecosystem / WordPress areas the most: 79.2 percent of the people who took it were in our Ecosystem businesses, compared to 18.2 percent from Cosmos (our apps like Pocket Casts, Day One, Tumblr, Cloudup).
“18 people made over 200k/yr! One person started two days before the deadline. Four people took it then changed their minds.”
Mullenweg remarked that ‘every resignation stings a bit,’ as ‘the day you hire someone you aren’t expecting them to resign or be fired, you’re hoping for a long and mutually beneficial relationship.’
However, he feels ‘much lighter’ now that the 8.4 percent have departed, adding, “I’m grateful and thankful for all the people who took the offer, and even more excited to work with those who turned down $126M to stay.”
“As the kids say, LFG!”
Well, that’s one perspective on the situation.
UNILAD has reached out to Mullenweg for further comments.