I'm not sure Reddit truly qualifies as a "passion hire" environment anymore to be perfectly honest. They've been subtly undermining the original promise of the

I'm not sure Reddit truly qualifies as a "passion hire" environment anymore to be perfectly honest. They've been subtly undermining the original promise of the site in various ways. /r/Undelete is a good example of one symptom of the problem. They need to figure out a different way of structuring Reddit's moderation and stop trying to sugar coat things that are clearly financial decisions. The timing of the announcement seems more angled to cash in on sympathy for Ellen Pao than it is an honest desire to "solve" the salary negotiation gap. She has been working with Reddit since 2013, after all. If it was born from honest desire, they'd have done it sooner and they'd do it like Buffer does [with a transparent salary position list]. The way they've done it they can still pretend there is no negotiation even when they've created a clear loophole for them to make "exceptions". This isn't so much to attack the way this was handled but more to point out Reddit now engages in the kind of corporate doublespeak that people who are passionate seek to avoid.