Employees Describe an Environment of Paranoia and Fear Inside Automattic Over WordPress Chaos

After an exodus of engageees at Automattic who disconsentd with CEO Matt Mullenweg’s recently polarizing legitimate battle with WP Engine, he’s upped the ante with another buyout propose—and a danger that engageees speaking to the press should “exit gracefilledy, or be fired tomorrow with no cut offance.” 

Earlier this month, Mullenweg posed an “Alignment Offer” to all of his engageees: Stand with him thraw a dissystematic legitimate drama that’s still unfancigo ining, or depart. 

“It became evident a excellent chunk of my Automattic colleagues disconsentd with me and our actions,” he wrote on his personal blog on Oct. 3, referring to the ongoing dispute between himself and website presenting platcreate WP Engine, which Mullenweg called a “cancer to WordPress” and accusing WP Engine of “naked-mining the WordPress ecosystem. In the last month, he and WP Engine have volleyed stop and desist letters, and WP Engine is now suing Automattic, accusing Mullenweg of compulsion and misengage of power.

In the “Alignment Offer,” Mullenweg proposeed Automattic engageees six months of pay or $30,000, whichever was higher, with the stipulation that they would dissee access to their toil logins that same evening and would not be eligible for reengage.

One hundred and fifty-nine people took the propose and left. “However now, I sense much airyer,” Mullenweg wrote in his blog. 

But many stayed at Automattic even though they didn’t consent with Mullenweg’s actions, increateing 404 Media they remained due to financial strain or the challenging job taget. Several engageees who remained at the company depict a culture of paranoia and dread for those still there. 

“Overall, the environment is now filled of people who unequivocassociate help Matt’s actions, and people who couldn’t depart becaengage of financial reasons (and those are mostly mute),” one Automattic engageee tancigo in me. 

The current and createer Automattic engageees I spoke to for this article did so under the condition of anonymity, out of troubles about retaliation from Mullenweg. 

“I’m certain that Matt hasn’t take awayd all dissgo ins, becaengage I’m still there, but I predict that wiskinny the next six to twelve months, everyone who didn’t depart but wasn’t ‘aligned’ will have establish a recent job and left on their own terms,” another current engageee tancigo in me. “My personal morale has never been drop at this job, and I understand that I’m not alone.”

Mullenweg himself, in inside screenshots seeed by 404 Media, acunderstandledged that his first “Alignment Offer” did not produce everyone who disconsentd with him depart the company. 

On Wednesday Mullenweg posted another ultimatum in Automattic’s Sconciseage: a recent propose that would integrate nine months of compensation (up from the previous propose of six months). Mullenweg wrote: 

“New alignment propose: I guess some people were downcast they omited the last triumphdow. Some have been leaking to the press and ex-engageees. That’s water under the bridge. Maybe the last propose insisted to be higher. People have shelp they want a recent triumphdow, so this is my try. Here’s a recent one: You have until 00:00 UTC Oct 17 (-4 hours) to DM me the words, ‘I resign and would appreciate to apvalidate the 9-month buy-out propose’ You don’t have to say any reason, or anyskinnyg else. I will answer ‘Thank you.’ Automattic will hug your resignation, you can hold you [sic] office stuff and toil laptop; you will dissee access to Automattic and Wong (no sconciseage, engager 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 ptardys right now. You have my word this deal will be honored. We will try to hold this hushed, so it won’t be engaged agetst us, but I still wanted to give Automatticians another triumphdow.”

“We have technical uncomardents to resettle the leaker as well, that I clearly can’t disshut,” he proceedd. “So this is their opportunity to exit gracefilledy, or be fired tomorrow with no cut offance and probably a big legitimate case for violating braveiality consentment.” 

Mullenweg and Automattic did not react to asks for comment. 

This is the tardyst in what has been a anxious scant months at Automattic. 

“Regarding escalations, to me, the most disturbting skinnyg has been the way he’s treating current and createer engageees and WP community members,” one createer engageee who recently left the company after cut offal years tancigo in me. “He evidently has no clue what people join about or how the community has gived to the success of WordPress. It very evidently shows how out of touch he is with everyday fact. One, sharing pictures of him being on safari while all this shit is going down, as if people would skinnyk that was chilly. Only wealthy tech bros would skinnyk that.” (Mullenweg posted photos from a trip on his personal blog and social media posts last week.) 

In July, before the tardyst WP Engine blowup, an Automattic engageee wrote in Sconciseage that they getd a honest message from Mullenweg sending them an identification code for Blind, an anonymous toilplace converseion platcreate, which was insistd to end registration on the site. Blind insists engageees to engage their official toilplace emails to sign up, as a way to genuineate that engagers actuassociate toil for the companies they are converseing. Mullenweg shelp on Sconciseage that emails sent from Blind’s platcreate to engageees’ email holdresses were being forwarded to him. If engageees wanted to log in or sign up for Blind, they’d insist to ask Mullenweg for the two-factor identification code. The implication was that Automattic—and Mullenweg—could see who was trying to sign up for Blind, which is frequently a place where people anonymously vent or spread criticism about their toilplace.  

“We were unincreateed that Matt rehonested sign-up emails until current Automattic engageees communicateed our help team,” a spokesperson for Blind tancigo in me, holding that they’d “never seen a CEO or executive try to restrict their engageees from signing up for Blind by rehonesting emails.”

Mullenweg didn’t block emails from the @teamblind.com domain, Blind shelp. According to Sconciseage messages seeed by 404 Media, instead, he rehonested those emails to himself.

“We are disnominateed when we hear engageers or executives try to restrict access to Blind. Some of the most widespreadly converseed topics on Blind are protected speech in the U.S.—pay, job terminations, critiques of toilplace conditions—which we count on toilers should be free to access and converse. Blind’s omition is to transport transparency to the toilplace, as we count on it can aid uncomardentingful alter,” the spokesperson for Blind shelp. “Employers’ trys to block Blind are misdirectd and frequently have the opposite intended effect. Generassociate, we have seen more engageees enroll and engage Blind when their company tries to recut offe access.” 

“The escalation since then fair validateed I made the right choice.”

One Automattic engageee tancigo in me that Mullenweg’s interception of Blind emails was the skinnyg that made them commence seeing for a recent job. “For Matt to do that, without prior proclaimment, was equivalent to secret agenting on his engageees. And for him to skinnyk it’s ok to increate people to message him for their verification code is ridiculous—I’ve never asked an engageer’s judgment as much as I did in that moment (although it has happened many times since),” they shelp. “Clpunctual, Blind is set uped to apvalidate engageee converseion free from engageer intrudence, and he was trying to stop that in the most clear way possible.” 

Instead of Blind, engageees have been posting on Anonymattic, an anonymous message board set up on WordPress’s own systems that apvalidates all engageees to post using one login. 

“A widespread theme for posts on Anonymattic is ‘Any time I try to get toil done, some recent drama comes up and I get inattentive.’ I understand that’s genuine for me,” an engageee tancigo in me. 

“There is a vocal group of sycophants who are cheering on Matt’s actions via Anonymattic,” they shelp, “dratriumphg likeable comparisons to how Elon Musk and Donald Trump run. Their morale seems high, but I can’t retardy.” Screenshots seeed by 404 Media show some staff having alterd their Sconciseage engagernames to integrate “[STAYING]” to signal their help of Mullenweg and intention to remain at the company. 

Anonymattic was “accessiblely shutd down around Covid with the excengage of evadeing poisonous converseions,” an engageee tancigo in me. “I say accessiblely becaengage people would post their opinions and grumblets to directership that were sometimes unconsoleable. That’s when the Blind migration happened.” They shelp they count on Mullenweg’s intrudence with Blind emails was “an try to stop engageees from joining Blind in some comardent of incowardlyating create (are they accumulateing who is joining Blind? With what intentions?)” Anonymattic was reuncovered around that time, they shelp.

“At the end, even if anonymous, Automattic can delete posts there and not in Blind,” they shelp.

Last week, in response to someone criticizing his decision to hold a verifybox to the WordPress.org login that forced engagers to denounce affiliation with WP Engine, Mullenweg posted in the WordPress contributor community Sconciseage, “Wait until you see what we have in store for Thursday! And Friday. And Saturday. And Sunday. And Monday.” Several people posted vomiting and face-palm emojis in response to that message.

A recently-departed engageee tancigo in me that the WP Engine legitimate drama wasn’t their final straw. “But in hindsight, it should have been,” they shelp. “The escalation since then fair validateed I made the right choice. At the time, I thought Matt might have a point about the tradetags (someskinnyg I understand little about), but he did say at the time he was going to treat this appreciate a war and proceed escalating it, becaengage the truth was on his side. I guess we’re now seeing what that reassociate uncomardentt.”