WordPress Executive Director Josepha Haden Chomphosy has left Automattic, along with 159 other employees who accepted a severance package offered to those who disagreed with CEO Matt Mullenweg’s handling of the ongoing WP Engine feud.
In a blog post yesterday, Mullenweg said Automattic employees were offered $30,000 or six months salary, whichever was higher, but they had to accept before 8pm UTC on October 3. Those who took the offer had their access to Automattic cut off that evening and can’t be rehired by the company.
After a couple of days of intense speculation, Haden Chomphosy announced her departure earlier today, posting to her blog:
This week marks my last as the Executive Director of the WordPress project. My time with WordPress has transformed me, both as a leader and an advocate. There’s still more to do in our shared quest to secure a self-sustaining future of the open source project that we all love, and my belief in our global community of contributors remains unchanged. I have spent nine years working shoulder to shoulder with you, and I didn’t want to leave without saying goodbye.
She said while her next steps weren’t yet clear, she hoped to “never be too far from this community that taught me so much.”
Haden Chomphosy has been a much-loved figure in the WordPress community since taking on the executive director role in 2019. Her resignation announcement on X was met with an outpouring of support and praise for her positive and inspiring leadership. Her departure marks a significant blow to WordPress leadership.
Nearly 80% of the people who left Automattic worked for the company’s Ecosystem / WordPress areas (Dotorg) compared to 18.2% from Cosmos, the division that oversees apps like Pocket Cast, Day One, Tumblr and Cloudup.
Long-time community organizer and polyglot Naoka Takano posted on her blog that after 14 years with Automattic, she decided to leave on her way home from WordCamp US. Reyes Martínez, who was leading the WordPress Media Corps, has also left, leaving the experiment in doubt.
Their resignations come after community organizer Angela Jin stepped down from her role as Head of Programs & Contributor Experience for WordPress.org at Automattic last month.
In a post earlier today, Automattic said it had undertaken a “strategic realignment to better pursue our core values and operational goals.”
“While 159 people chose to accept the offer, 91.6% of employees chose to stay—and we’re excited for what we can all accomplish together. We remain deeply grateful to all our employees, past and present. For those who have chosen new paths, we sincerely wish them the best, and thank them for helping make Automattic what it is today,” the company said.
While, many former Automatticians have started changing their status to “Looking for work” on LinkedIn, others who decided to stay have posted messages in support of the company and Mullenweg:
Not all Automatticians who accepted the offer disagreed with Mullenweg and Automattic’s actions over the conflict with WP Engine. Daniel Bachhuber, who ran WordPress.com while Mullenweg was on sabbatical, posted on LinkedIn that he believed in Mullenweg and was leaving Automattic for other reasons.
Over the past few days, several folks in the WordPress community posted about rumours of a severance offer at Automattic. Former Automattician Kellie Peterson, who was Head of Domains for six years up until 2023, has also claimed Mullenweg threatened her in DMs and accused her of attacking him and Automattic.
Image credit: Atsushi Ando.