The controversy with WordPress continues. In fact, it’s escalating as WP Engine has filed a lawsuit against Automattic, and even some employees inside Automattic are frustrated with Matt Mullenweg’s leadership. Matt blogged about offering Automattic employees a chance to leave if they disagreed with his actions against WP Engine:
So we decided to design the most generous buy-out package possible, we called it an Alignment Offer: if you resigned before 20:00 UTC on Thursday, October 3, 2024, you would receive $30,000 or six months of salary, whichever is higher.
This is indeed very generous. It’s not often you get a chance to leave a job and walk away with six months of salary. For many people that might be a down payment on a new house, or enough money to pay off debt, or time to travel before figuring out what to do next.
Ultimately 8% of employees took the offer. For the rest, I expect what Jeffrey Zeldman blogged about will resonate:
…when I chose to move in-house, I knew there was only one house that would suit me. In nearly six years at Automattic, I’ve been able to do work that mattered to me and helped others, and I know that the best is yet to come.
A few years ago, when there was drama at 37signals over the policy to no longer discuss politics at work, the founders offered a similar incentive to leave the company. Jason Fried originally announced the decision about politics in a blog post this way:
Today’s social and political waters are especially choppy. Sensitivities are at 11, and every discussion remotely related to politics, advocacy, or society at large quickly spins away from pleasant. You shouldn’t have to wonder if staying out of it means you’re complicit, or wading into it means you’re a target. These are difficult enough waters to navigate in life, but significantly more so at work. It’s become too much. It’s a major distraction. It saps our energy, and redirects our dialog towards dark places. It’s not healthy, it hasn’t served us well.
After the issues spiraled inside the company, David Heinemeier Hansson blogged about the severance offer to employees:
Yesterday, we offered everyone at Basecamp an option of a severance package worth up to six months salary for those who’ve been with the company over three years, and three months salary for those at the company less than that. No hard feelings, no questions asked. For those who cannot see a future at Basecamp under this new direction, we’ll help them in every which way we can to land somewhere else.
At the time, some folks thought this was the end of Basecamp / 37signals. More people would surely resign, the founders' reputation wouldn’t recover, and they’d have trouble hiring. Three years later, it’s clear that hasn’t happened. The company is larger than it was before, and the founders have said in hindsight it was one of the best decisions they’ve made.
Nevertheless, for many people the event has left a bad taste in their mouth. I still hear from Micro.blog customers who don’t like when I link to Jason Fried’s blog, or when I mention that we use Basecamp internally. As Jane Austen fans will know: “My good opinion once lost is lost forever.” This is understandable. I feel the same way about some companies.
Why do I bring all this old 37signals news up? I think there are parallels with Matt Mullenweg today. For many people in the WordPress community, they won’t quickly forget how he blew everything up, wrecking what seemed to be a friendly competitive spirit inside the WordPress ecosystem, with bloggers, developers, volunteers, and hosting companies all working toward furthering WordPress’s mission to democratize publishing.
How it plays out from here may largely hinge on whether Automattic or WP Engine is successful in the lawsuit. Automattic has brought on a big-time lawyer: Neal Katyal, who was Acting Solicitor General during the Obama administration, and who admittedly I mostly know from his guest appearances on MSNBC. In a post from Automattic, Neal is quoted:
I stayed up last night reading WP Engine’s Complaint, trying to find any merit anywhere to it. The whole thing is meritless, and we look forward to the federal court’s consideration of their lawsuit.
I think trademark law may be on Matt’s side. The private texts from Matt to WP Engine look quite damning, though. I also wonder how the case will be influenced by Automattic letting most companies freely use the WordPress mark with few restrictions for years.
If Automattic wins, or they can settle the lawsuit, the community will recover. Calls for Matt to resign are unwarranted. WordPress exists at its current level of success in large part because of him. His vision has also provided a good home for Tumblr and Day One. I’m not going to toss all that aside because he picked a fight with a private equity firm that charges a lot for hosting.
As I discussed with Daniel on Core Intuition last week, one good thing to come out of this is that it clarifies how Automattic, the WordPress Foundation, and the wordpress.org website all fit together. Perhaps in the future the WordPress Foundation will have more direct control over all the non-profit pieces of the ecosystem.
Get out the popcorn as we watch this drama unfold! But also let’s remember there are real people here, trying to do what they think is right. Matt has been blogging more than ever. He’s been sitting for interviews. While I’m sure the lawyers discourage it, I’d like to see the same human face on the WP Engine side. I don’t think we’ve had that since Jason Cohen handed over his company to new owners.
