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 your office stuff and work laptop; you will lose access to Automattic and W.org (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.
You had a 4-hour window. Automattic is a global company, so it's likely that many missed this opportunity. You had to also personally message him on Slack.
9 months is generous, but keep in mind you're essentially banned from ever working with WordPress. Not having an account on WordPress.org means you can no longer contribute, maintain any plugins/themes you may have, attend any WordCamps (since you need an account now), or be part of the WordPress Slack. If the majority of your professional career has been with WordPress, it would mean a significant career change for you. Depending on your role, it may be difficult to find another job related to WordPress as a result of this ban. I don't know if any of this is legally enforceable.
It would be an interesting legal test case for contract law. Does a Slack message constitute a legally binding contract? I think the ONE good thing that may come out of a lot of this mess is that there’s going to be some interesting case law developed here around trademarks and open source, among other things.
> You have my word this deal will be honored.
oh gee willikers, mister, you gave your word? I’m totally going to risk my livelihood on that. Not like you could just go back on it and leave me facing a year’s worth of lawyers fees vs all your resources if I want to compel you to honor this deal.
This is not how you run a business.