I’ve been through layoffs before, but never through buyouts. I gotta say, it hits different.

Remember when I said Automattic is peak job? It is. Nevertheless, this week 159 people left, all at once, following Matt’s idea of ensuring alignment – briefly put: “here is a strong safety net, take the jump if you must” – aka a buyout.

Buyouts generate a mix of feelings, ranging from betrayal to impostor syndrome. The proud and smug “how could they leave!?” is quickly squashed by the avalanche of paranoia, mixed with imposter syndrome: “what if they knew something I don’t!?” or “maybe I am not good enough to leave!”. All this gives a sense of unexplainable urgency to get it over with.

I am happy it’s done.

Paying people to leave is not unheard of in terms of procedure but this one was more generous than other, comparable, mass buyouts to make the news. For instance, Basecamp differentiated on tenure, Automattic did not: same deal whether you worked here for 2 days or 15 years. Matt’s offer even paid for planned sabbaticals!

In my actions, I am motivated by impact and people. I am also motivated by money. Money is the medicine one needs to survive in a world that has literal owners. It’s not complicated. It’s a fact of life. Those who have money to give will obscure this fact and shape it into a lack of character or passion. But I am in the “fuck you, pay me” camp as a reply to whenever I hear explanations that aim for lowering the owner’s exposure. Suddenly “the market forces”, don’t apply ’cause “passion, dedication and commitment”, yeah right …

Nevertheless, I didn’t take the offer.

Despite the offer being human scale – yes a human should get six to nine months of support for such a change in their life – the buyout didn’t convince me.

I think the alignment Matt wants is hard to prove as malevolent. I mean, the end goal is to design a sustainable, open and accessible, common resource, to build a ramp to success and an ever-giving opportunity to a huge number of humans. To achieve this we need to convince huge, highly profitable corporations to give back money or time – which are both guaranteed via stuffy legal process to go into the shared resource we all use. It really doesn’t sound like a plan to take over the world. Or, it’s so genius evil that I don’t get it.

I did go through mixed feelings.

I am admiring some departures – which I know were made out of principle – particularly in a harsh reality. I am amazed at the luck some people have – those which just happened to have another gig lined up. I completely understand, due to experiencing financial difficulty first hand, why some other folks just grabbed the offer on the table while it was there.

I am also very sorry for some departures. Colleagues are somewhere between friends and acquaintances. They’re not exactly friends because you’re professionally collaborating and hence there is a limit to how familiar you can get to them. They’re not mere acquaintances either, since such a huge chunk of any day or week is spent with these people. So one forms a comfy attachment on top of a bubble of “potential future”, particularly around colleagues that you vibe with. Them leaving bursts this bubble with a splash of disappointment and feelings of forever alone.

Nevertheless, for now, it remains Peak Job.

I don’t like singing company odes. Because companies are not people, hence they can’t feel the soul poured into the ode. I don’t see Automattic as “generous”, or “offering” me flexibility or opportunity for growth. I do get all these things, but as benefits which are part of the contract I signed up for and for which I offer work in exchange. It is an equitable exchange. I feel very awkward when someone is grateful for getting what they negotiated (money, paid vacation) or got lured with (perks) when they were hired.

But I would like to sing some praise to those who remained at Automattic – in a week of tension and accumulated panic and stress so, so, many of these folks were still engaging, willing to help, people oriented and caring for others. And, when I say others, I mean their colleagues, staying or leaving, and also the whole WordPress community.

It’s heart warming, while the org chart is on fire, to see so many of my colleagues fret less about the fire and more about how the changes impact the community and their trust in us as major contributors, and how to regroup and learn as much as possible from the aftermath.

It’s also great to see, I would say, the general sentiment that Automattic’s investments in the WordPress ecosystem and community is something good and worth fighting for. This attitude is pervasive and extremely energising – yet at the same time vividly debated, in form not in essence, and confronted with the realities shaped by the business confrontation in which Automattic is – despite only asking for lawful participation.

About the business confrontation … there is a Romanian myth with the two embodiments of good and evil: the Brotherly and the Unbrotherly.

It is said that in the beginning the world was covered with water except for a small island of land drifting away. On this island the Brotherly was taking a nap. The Unbrotherly decided to play a prank and to pull the ground from under the Brotherly, so this one would fall in the water and wake up.

So he did. The Unbrotherly started to pull on the small island. But. behold!, the more the Unbrotherly pulled the small island on one side, the more land appeared on the other side. Seeing that, the Unbrotherly wrestled even more to pull the small island from under the Brotherly, but the struggle made even more land appear, there and elsewhere above the waters of the world. Exhausted, the Unbrotherly gave up, with a loud sigh. The Brotherly awaken by the sound of the sigh looked around. Seeing the new continents spanning the Earth he immediately figured out what the Unbrotherly tried to do and he started laughing. His laugh shook the land and made the mountains appear.

Nice story.

Yet, looking at the glacial growth of WordPress, I think maybe our community was indeed taking a nap, for a while, on our floating island of success. Maybe we needed something to try and pull the “business as usual” from under us. Everything needs an Unbrotherly of sorts to get to the next level. According to legend, this pull will create more business, more opportunity, more WordPress ecosystem, one that spans wider and in new and different shapes.

I hope at the end of the Unbrotherly’s struggle we all wake up and laugh at how well it turned out. And from our laugh the WordPress ecosystem shakes to make mountains of viable and better alternatives to commercial walled gardens in the land of the open and free web.