EllisLab Postmortem

In 2011 I accepted an offer from a company that I thought would be my last job in Design. I believed I’d retire from EllisLab.

On May 31st 2019, after 8 years of loyal service to the company and its flagship product ExpressionEngine I was laid off. Apparently, the investors that bought EllisLab in October 2018 changed their mind about giving the team a year to get profitable.

We found out in a group email with the subject line “Layoffs” on May 3rd.

Lots of emotions filled me; Fear, anger, disappointment, relief.

But most of all, sadness.

Looking back, I saw the signs of this coming long before it did. But, I lied to myself so I could continue working on the thing that I, along with my co-workers, had been reinventing and rebuilding for the last 6 years.

This is the end of a very long chapter in an even longer book. It was more bitter than sweet, but with this ending comes the start of a new chapter, a happier chapter, this time with more character development.