On Wednesday I, along with 16% of the company, was suddenly and unexpectedly laid off from Automattic. Traditionally, folks departing Automattic are given an opportunity to make a farewell post to acknowledge and thank those a person had worked with during their tenure. This time, however, people that asked if we’d be given that opportunity were told no. So in lieu of that post, I’m sharing my farewell here.

If I tried to name all the amazing people who were part of my 7-1/2-year journey I know I’d miss someone, so I’ll just talk about it in groups. Some of you have reached out individually and I got to thank you individually. For the rest, consider yourself thanked. In one of the articles about the layoffs, one of my fellow ex-Automatticians was quoted as saying:

“We love each other. Even though the culture changed at Automattic, the people never did.”

The amazing people I worked with were what made it one of the best jobs I’ve ever had.

Asgardians (especially the founding members and those that joined in the first year): We started out as a new, bright-eyed group of Happiness Engineers and built an amazing team. We all went on to do great things, and I couldn’t be prouder to have started my time with you all. Asgard forever!

Space Noodle and Synchrony peeps: What great times we had on Woo! We all had each other’s backs, and I never felt alone as I learned the ins and outs of Woo support. I rotated to Woo because I had to learn it, and then fell in love with it and was thrilled to come back to it “permanently”. You all taught me so much, not just about the complexities of WooCommerce, but about how wonderful a group of teammates can be.

Team Fire and the rest of Alpha: You all gave me the best Developer Apprenticeship I could ever have imagined. With your support, training, and encouragement I was able to grow from a decent programmer to a proven enterprise web developer. We all gave our absolute best at all times, and we have the website to prove it!

Team 51 (aka Automattic Special Projects Team): What an extraordinary journey! I was honored to work with such an amazing group of professionals on some of the best WordPress sites on the internet! Every TAM, designer, and engineer brought amazing talent to the team, and somehow, through all the crazy changes, requests, bugs, and weirdness, we always came out ahead with amazing results. I was so happy to rekindle some friendships from before and gain new ones. Every 51er has a special place in my heart.

And HappOps: Our time was so short. I was excited to have the opportunity to “boomerang” back to Happiness and use my new knowledge and expertise to make Happiness’s ability to give premier support to our customers. In the short time I was on the team, I got to implement a couple things that I hope made life a little better. I’m sad I won’t get to do more. It was strange and wonderful to join a team where I pretty much knew and had worked with everyone already. I couldn’t have picked a better group of people to work with and if my time had to end, at least I ended it with you — in the place where my heart never really left: Happiness.

The rest of this won’t be so positive and kind, so if you need to stop here, that’s fine.

Yesterday was the first time I didn’t have a full-time job since October 13, 1988 — the day before I shipped out for Air Force Basic Training. I thought Automattic would be the last place I worked as I looked forward to my eventual full retirement in around 10 years. I stuck with Automattic through changes, growth, and pain. I saw the company grow and evolve, and was always proud of the fact that I could speak up when I didn’t agree. Whether the outcome was what I wanted or not, I always felt heard and valued.

Even when things went very wrong, I always felt heard and valued. I believed Automattic was driven to give me what I needed to be the absolute best contributor I could be. I was given the tools, training, and support I needed and had so much growth.

I felt all of that until around 1:30 PM on Wednesday when a coworker shared a link to an internal version of the post that was eventually shared on Automattic.com. As I started reading it, my accesses suddenly disappeared and I suddenly realized that I was no longer considered valuable to Automattic, at all.

I’m devastated, but also believe this could be a good thing, as I’m not sure how the future of Automattic will go.