Internal quote:
“In May 2020, we piloted the outsourcing of a temporary team of 29 part-time freelancers to offer English language email support for a subset of support topics.”
In that same post, Happiness Operations mentions plans to consider several different outsourcing firms.
Internal quote:
“bring our cost as a percentage of revenue down to 13%.”
There is a 3 year plan to reduce Support costs.
THEORY:
The fastest way to achieve a drop in support cost is to reduce the cost of labor.
Automattic is hiring new Happiness Engineers because it is less costly than continuing to pay for long time Happiness Engineers and their raises/benefits ex: sabbaticals.
THEORY:
Automattic’s Legal team is not prepared to allow Happiness to outsource sensitive support topics ex: billing and PII.
DEFINITION:
A long time Happiness Engineer would be eligible for a sabbatical in 2020 or Q1 2021.
QUESTION:
Have any Long Time Happiness Engineers been asked to leave this year when they’re due for a sabbatical prior to taking it?
ANSWER:
YES.