Do not believe the hype. - Happiness Engineer Automattic Employee Review

4.0
26 Jan 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I was the first Support person. For the first few years it was great.

Cons

Zero openness about anyone's salary. There is a salary scale here on Glassdoor which gives $132k as the salary. I was there for 14 years and my salary was well below that. So where that $132k comes from..... no idea. Team Leads - who had no salary increase - had immense power which at times was used badly with zero impact on the lead. No-one at any level can negotiate salary. You get a "Take it or Leave it" NDA's are used against staff who leave.

Explore other reviews about Automattic

5.0
26 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Remote only, provides work machines without issue, and company software.

Cons

Sometimes they don't follow their policies regarding a performance improvement plan and will fire you on the spot.

2.0
5 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I had the opportunity to work alongside incredibly smart, talented, and kind colleagues who were always willing to share their knowledge. The role offered diverse and engaging technical challenges working with a wide range of customers, most of whom were pleasant to collaborate with. The company provided excellent health insurance and 401k benefits, which I genuinely appreciated. The yearly travel for team meetups was a highlight. It created valuable opportunities for team building and strengthened relationships across the distributed team.

Cons

While unlimited PTO sounds attractive on paper, in practice it required careful coordination with team capacity and management, making it less flexible than expected. The culture inadvertently encouraged overworking, as people often forgot to actually take time off. Weekend on-call shifts, combined with a small team rotation, created real burnout risk. The most significant issue was the unexpected layoffs, which were extremely disruptive to team morale and productivity. The instability created by constant turnover ultimately became unsustainable and led to my decision to leave the company.

12
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All