Diversity is essential to Automattic’s culture. As a company with employees from over 100 countries, we believe that embracing different perspectives and backgrounds is key to being creative and productive. Through our different perspectives, we create a happy and safe environment for employees and users. For this reason (and also because it’s right), we strive to build an inclusive environment where everyone feels respected and greeted… the way they prefer it. 😉
We relish celebrating differences by acknowledging the 121 languages we speak at Automattic at this moment. Some of the most commonly spoken languages include English, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Japanese. But we also have 37 one-speaker languages: Akan, Armenian, Balinese, Basque, Chadian Arabic, Dhivehi, Esperanto, Estonian, Faroese, Frisian, Hmong, Hokkien, Iloko, Irish, Kabyle, Kannada, Kashmiri, Kazakh, Kikuyu, Konkani, Latgalian, Lingala, Maithili, Nepali, Norwegian (Nynorsk), Odia, Piedmontese, Sanskrit, Somali, South Ndebele, Sundanese, Thai, Tibetan, Toki Pona, Tunisian Arabic, Turkmen, and Twi. We believe that having a multilingual team helps us better serve our global users and create products that are accessible to everyone.
Diversity of languages comes with diversity of stories. Some of our most popular books, as we say in our internal directory (or Matticspace, as we call it), fall in the sci-fi and fantasy genres, but Joyce’s Ulysses, One Hundred Years of Solitude, and Don Quixote are also in vogue among us.
Automattic culture is distributed and asynchronous; therefore, Automatticians can travel and work from anywhere—which is pretty awesome. According to our pictures in Office Today, some of the most popular countries where we have been working lately include Spain, the United States, Greece, Australia, and South Africa. Interestingly, the countries we call home are quite diverse as well, with many team members living in countries such as India, Brazil, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Nigeria, and Poland.
Despite our geographic diversity—or perhaps because of it— we also strive to spend time together, placing a high value on in-person interactions such as our treasured Meetups (where teams, divisions, or business units converge on a single location to work together) and WordCamps (where we connect with the WordPress community). And what do we drink when we get together? Glad you asked! (Yes, we collect all kinds of data—the silly as well as the serious.)
Feeling included is key to participation and happiness in a group. We take this basic human need seriously! And to support and expand our efforts, we have a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee and various Employee Resource Groups (or, as we call them, ARGs … which stands for Automattician Resource Groups).
We relish this variety because we think creativity and fun are in the boundaries of what is standard. We wear suits, djellabas, and saris… even thoughthe most popular item of clothing you’ll spot in our meetings is the t-shirt, many of them from our very own secret swag store. Diversity is also acknowledged and valued in our conversations, and it’s visible through our 5,000+ internal communication channels: we have spaces for everyone to connect and engage with their peers. We believe that providing a variety of channels in which our team members can share their interests helps foster a sense of community and belonging. Do you want a taste of our Slack channels? See this t-shirt 😛 chart:
We know that Automattic is a special place to be, and we feel grateful about it—so grateful that we frequently express it in the form of public kudos. Praise and recognition bring joy and more gratitude, so once you put the kudos machine to work it gets momentum and —hopefully—cannot be stopped.
We invite you to join us on our journey towards ever-increasing diversity, equity, and inclusion. Whether you’re a current or prospective employee, partner, or user of our software, we welcome you to be a part of our diverse and inclusive community.
Data for Breakfast 