Forbes and Businessweek both wrote inter­est­ing arti­cles about Automattic a cou­ple days ago. Forbes focused on the busi­ness of Automattic and Businessweek focused on our globally-distributed nature.

Matt wrote a bit about the Forbes piece specif­i­cally. About our dis­trib­uted “office” he writes:

For it to really work it has to be part of the DNA of the com­pany from day one. You have to be really com­mit­ted to keep the cre­ative cen­ter and soul of the orga­ni­za­tion on the inter­net, and not in an office.

After more than two years at Automattic I think it cre­ates the ideal “office” cul­ture and sit­u­a­tion. Sure, I don’t see my co-workers every­day but I do talk with them con­stantly. That com­mu­ni­ca­tion means that when we do meet up it feels like a gath­er­ing of friends, not work. There’s some­thing to be said for hav­ing most in-person inter­ac­tions with co-workers be social and per­sonal instead of work-oriented.

We’re all headed to San Diego tomor­row to spend a week together. We do this once a year as a com­pany and 3 or 4 times a year in our teams. We have small projects to work on and there are tons of activ­i­ties planned. These aren’t phony cor­po­rate trust exer­cises or ways of pla­cat­ing employ­ees who, as Forbes wrote, don’t get the perks of Google, Facebook, and Apple. These are activ­i­ties that nat­u­rally evolve from a group of friends gath­er­ing together.

Next week I’ll be going sky­div­ing and go-karting with co-workers from all over the world. Last month our lead sysad­min crashed on my couch while in town for the week­end. Last year I climbed a 12,000 foot peak with another co-worker. Two other Automatticians are tak­ing a road trip this week all the way from Portland to San Diego in a Dodge Viper.

If that all sounds like some­thing you want to be a part of, we’re hir­ing.