Automattic

Almost all Automatticians are smart, friendly, and helpful. The culture among and across teams is good. The tangible and intangible benefits are great.

Matt is extremely difficult and demoralizing to work with. He gives vague and terse directives, won't answer clarifying questions, and then micromanages you retroactively.

There's even a long-standing and widespread term for when he notices something he doesn't like -- and often doesn't understand -- and then drops in to criticize everyone involved: it's called a "mattbomb". He'll demand unrealistic and counterproductive changes, then disappear again.

He'll make rude and unprofessional comments about people on internal blogs that are available to everyone in the company, while simultaneously preaching "good intent". He seems to have no empathy, and refuses to change his negative behaviors. We did an engagement survey twice a year, and he always got very negative feedback from a large part of the company. The closer you work with him, the more you saw the real him.

In the past few years, he seems to be going off the rails more and more.

There's nobody who has the power to hold Matt accountable, so nothing can change unless he steps down -- which will never happen -- or he makes drastic changes to his behavior. For the sake of all the great people still working there, I sincerely hope that he does. Until then, though, I can't recommend that anybody join the company.