Category: Automattic

My life at Automattic

  • Evri time – now I’ve had enough

    Evri time – now I’ve had enough

    This week, a toilet paper delivery from Who Gives a Crap went awry.

    Evri sent me a message to say my latest delivery (a not-small box of toilet rolls) had been delivered. It hadn’t. 5 minutes later, my doorbell rings and it’s Evri, who hand over a very tatty box – damaged in various places, including one who edge totally split. However, the toilet roll inside was fine.

    The delivery was every more odd – they provided me with a confirmation photo of the delivery, which was a very blurry image of someone else at a totally different house taking delivery of it.

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  • What’s on my desk? 2022 edition!

    What’s on my desk? 2022 edition!

    A year later and more desk changes! I took the opportunity of my sabbatical this year to move things around, particularly on the walls, whilst also removing a number of things from the desk itself. Add to that some new tech and it’s a different workspace for 2022.

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  • A Day in the Life of a VIP Support Lead

    A Day in the Life of a VIP Support Lead

    Many years ago I wrote a post about my life as a Support Engineer at WordPress VIP and it’s been very popular, particularly for those interesting in applying. I kept it up to date but, some time ago, I stopped doing so. Why? Because in January 2021 I became a Support Lead.

    I look after the EMEA Support Team (so, that’s people from Europe, Middle East and Africa. Right now, we don’t have anyone in the team from the Middle East). As I write this there are 8 people in the team (myself not included), consisting of 2 roles – Support Engineer (SE) and Customer Success Engineer (CSE), the latter being a developer role.

    So, it’s time to tell you what my day is now like.

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  • 5 things I learnt from my sabbatical

    5 things I learnt from my sabbatical

    During this year’s VIP GM, I did a 4 minute “flash talk”. It was about my sabbatical. A lot of the talks were thought-provoking and educational. But not this one.

    But, there are takeaways.

    Here it is, presented in a blog format, with added pictures and content.

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  • Putting the boot into Denver: the 2022 VIP DM

    Putting the boot into Denver: the 2022 VIP DM

    Yes, you read that correct – it’s the DM (DivisionMeetup) rather than a GM (Grand Meetup). Really, it’s just a rename. As Automattic gets larger the idea of getting everyone together in one place becomes less and less practical. VIP showed the way with their own GM but now as the idea of extending this further becomes a reality, making the name more representative is important.

    That was the idea, based on something that Matt said, although on the first day of the DM, he then suggested that, due to its size, it’s really a GM. So this may be the only VIP DM that we have. Who knows?

    But, that aside, this is the first all-VIP meetup since 2019. And we’re going to Denver, Colorado.

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