Atlassian says it had right to fire engineer for suggesting billionaire CEO was a ‘rich jerk’
Josh Eidelson
US labor board prosecutors allege Atlassian illegally fired an employee for criticizing its CEO over workplace changes and the way he spoke to staff.
At a March 3 hearing in Austin, an attorney for the National Labor Relations Board said fired software engineer Denise Unterwurzacher was acting in the spirit of Atlassian’s self-proclaimed “Open Company, No Nonsense” philosophy when she repeatedly spoke her mind about workplace issues, including changes to employees’ titles.
NLRB lawyer Colton Puckett told a circuit judge that allowing Atlassian to fire him would “subvert well-established principles” under U.S. law, according to a transcript obtained by Bloomberg through a Freedom of Information Act request.
Employees are allowed to collectively discuss and protest working conditions, Puckett said, “and they’re allowed to do so in ways their bosses may not like.”
Atlassian has denied wrongdoing. A company spokesman declined to comment further, saying the Australia-based firm does not discuss individual employment disputes.
U.S. labor law protects the right of employees, whether they have a union or not, to speak out about workplace issues and take collective action. Unterwurzacher’s case could end up testing how President Donald Trump’s recently confirmed appointees to the NLRB interpret the scope of that legal protection. The new members secured a quorum in January, allowing the board to decide cases again nearly a year after Trump fired agency leaders who he said were not confident they would treat employers fairly.
According to the government, Unterwurzacher was fired in June 2023 following a showdown over a controversial “relevelling” plan that saw many staff demoted and others cost their jobs. During an “Ask Me Anything” video call with employees, including CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes (who was co-CEO at the time), Atlassian’s chief technology officer told staff that only a small number of employees would lose their jobs during the releveling.
“Employees disagreed in the conversation, which led Cannon-Brookes to angrily intervene with the people who complained,” Puckett said in his opening statement to the hearing. In the company’s internal “Rage Reporting” Slack channel (a play on the “outage notifications” staff receive about technology issues), employees including Unterwurzacher mocked and condemned the comments from Cannon-Brookes, the company’s billionaire co-founder, who attended the meeting from the headquarters of the Utah Jazz, the basketball team he co-owns.
“What’s up Outragers, I’m calling from my NBA team’s headquarters to yell at the people whose careers I’ve ruined,” Unterwurzacher wrote. Atlassian fired him a few days later, saying he “engaged in harsh communications and ad hominem attacks against teammates and colleagues.”
At the hearing this month, Atlassian argued that Unterwurzacher’s comments were not legally protected and that it therefore had the right to fire him. “While employees are encouraged to speak out about workplace issues, they must do so in a professional and respectful manner, as the law does not protect abusive or unnecessarily derogatory behavior,” said company attorney Troy Valdez.
“Just because he is CEO does not excuse this behavior,” Valdez told the NLRB judge who heard the case. “This was an unrelated personal attack and insult against a colleague, essentially calling him a ‘rich jerk’.”
“If you were discussing wages, compensation, or working conditions, did you feel like you had to be able to engage in an ad hominem attack in order to do so fully, openly, and freely?” asked Unterwurzacher, Atlassian’s lawyer.
Unterwurzacher replied: “I think it’s difficult to point out the power imbalance in a way that wouldn’t be described by someone as potentially an ad hominem attack.”
NLRB Judge Susannah Merritt, who reviewed the case, said at the hearing that the parties were negotiating a settlement. Absent a ruling, any decision the judge makes could be appealed to members of the NLRB in Washington, D.C., and then to the federal court. The agency can order companies to rehire fired employees with back pay, but it does not have the authority to seek punitive damages or hold executives personally liable.
Atlassian, which makes office tools such as Jira and Trello, announced last week that it would lay off 1,600 workers, or 10 percent of its staff, to direct more spending on artificial intelligence and enterprise sales.
Bloomberg
The Business Briefing newsletter delivers big stories, exclusive news and expert insights. Sign up to receive it every weekday morning.
