Automattic offered employees another chance to quit over WordPress drama

Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg offered a second buyout round to employees who don’t agree with his actions, according to a report from 404 Media. In a message to employees seen by the outlet, Mullenweg gave employees until October 17th to decide whether they would resign in exchange for nine months of pay.

“New alignment offer: I guess some people were sad they missed the last window. Some have been leaking to the press and ex-employees,” Mullenweg wrote in the message seen by 404 Media. “You have until 00:00 UTC Oct 17 (-4 hours) to DM me the words, ‘I resign and would like to take the 9-month buy-out offer’ You don’t have to say any reason, or anything else. I will reply ‘Thank you.’ Automattic will accept your resignation.”

Earlier this month, Mullenweg offered Automattic employees the greater of $30,000 or six months of salary if they didn’t support his fight against WP Engine, a third-party WordPress hosting platform. Around 8.4 percent of the company left as a result of the offer. In Mullenweg’s new offer, he reportedly told employees leaking information to the press to “exit gracefully, or be fired tomorrow with no severance.” You can read Mullenweg’s message in full at the end of this post.

Additionally, 404 Media reports that in July, Mullenweg redirected incoming emails from Blind, a site where workers can anonymously discuss their workplace, to his own inbox. Employees signing up for or logging into the platform using their company email (which the site requires) reportedly had to ask Mullenweg for the authentication codes.

The Verge reached out to Automattic with a request for comment but didn’t immediately hear back.

Mullenweg ignited a dispute last month after calling WP Engine a “cancer” to the WordPress community and accusing the company of infringing on WordPress trademarks. The CEO has since waged a public campaign against WP Engine, leading the company to file a lawsuit that accuses Automattic and Mullenweg of “abuse of power, extortion, and greed.”

Automattic is the Mullenweg-owned company that controls WordPress.com, the commercial arm of the WordPress open source project. Mullenweg is also one of three board members on WordPress.org and said in an interview with The Verge that the project “belongs to me.”

Here’s Mullenweg’s full message to employees, as first reproduced by 404 Media:

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. Here’s a new one: You have until 00:00 UTC Oct 17 (-4 hours) to DM me the words, ‘I resign and would like to take the 9-month buy-out offer’ You don’t have to say any reason, or anything else. I will reply ‘Thank you.’ Automattic will accept your resignation, you can keep you [sic] office stuff and work laptop; you will lose access to Automattic and Wong (no slack, user 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 plates right now. You have my word this deal will be honored. We will try to keep this quiet, so it won’t be used against us, but I still wanted to give Automatticians another window.