Automattic’s Chief Executive Officer, Matt Mullenweg, has disclosed that the company is “very short-staffed” amid the growing demand for its popular content management platform, WordPress.com, which hosts websites built using WordPress. The WordPress co-founder took to the stage on Wednesday evening.
Mullenweg sparked controversy when he branded WP Engine “cancer” to WordPress. He criticized the company for not contributing enough to the open-source project, asserting that their adoption of the “WP” moniker had misled customers into assuming they were an integral part of WordPress.
Tensions surrounding the disagreement have prompted resistance from engineers and, indeed, Automattic employees themselves. On October 3, Mike Little, who did not align with Mullenweg’s vision for Automattic and WordPress, accepted a severance package and parted ways with the company.
Following a successful buyout by approximately 159 Automattic employees, who accepted the initial offer including six months’ severance pay, Matt Mullenweg subsequently published another proposal on the Automattic Slack channel on October 17. Workers had only four hours to respond to this second offer.
“With our initial agreement, we expedite onboarding, ensuring a seamless integration from day one,” Mullenweg said. The second deal has a total of 159 remaining. Companies have experienced a significant surge in growth, prompting us to expedite our hiring process. If you are identified as the source of the leak, all access will be terminated immediately. As circumstances dictate, we would naturally expect other applicants to commit to a subsequent year, given our pressing need for continuity due to severe staffing shortages; accordingly, we are forced to consider alternative solutions.
Automattic’s efforts to track down the whistleblower, revealed through Mullenweg’s comments, aimed to address the leaks of confidential information to the media amidst ongoing turmoil within the organization.
Matt Mullenweg has revealed that before the tumult began, Automattic’s workforce stood at approximately 1,900 employees; subsequently, the company’s headcount has stabilized around 1,700.
The co-founder of WordPress revealed that Automattic had taken on 26 new employees by October, amidst the turmoil surrounding the company’s growth and management issues.
