Hundreds of OpenAI employees signed a letter in November 2023 calling for the board to resign and Sam Altman to return. That was a workforce continuity threat, not merely a public-relations embarrassment. A research and product company cannot operate normally if most of the people building it plan to leave.
Microsoft had offered Altman and Greg Brockman a new team. That gave employees a plausible alternative, though it did not mean everyone would have moved. The threat mattered because losing even part of the staff would have disrupted the company.
OpenAI announced Altman’s return on November 29 and named a new initial board. I think the episode exposed a board that could make a dramatic decision but could not carry its staff and partner through it. The reversal solved the immediate staffing crisis. It did not, by itself, settle the harder question of how a powerful AI company should be governed.