According to various media reports, Atlassian co-founder and billionaire CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes told employees via pre-recorded video message last week that the firm would eliminate 150 employees from its workforce. According to a Sky News story, the message was delivered early on July 30 and showed the 45-year-old software tycoon speaking from what looked to be his home office while casually wearing a faded green hoodie.
Cannon-Brookes’ Video Message Raises Eyebrows
According to the story, Cannon-Brookes clarified in the video that the corporation was moving towards a new innovative business strategy, which included the elimination of some roles. However, other employees found the impersonal delivery to be more startling.
According to Sky News, affected employees were only notified via email of their fate and were apparently forced to wait an additional fifteen minutes after the video to find out if they were among those being let go. According to the report, impacted staff members were locked out of their laptops in the hours that followed.
Response from Atlassian
In an exclusive email interaction with Startuptalky, Atlassian spokesperson stated, “We have made the hard decision to let a small cohort of customer service and support (CSS) employees go. We made this decision after implementing improvements to the customer experience across our platform and tools, resulting in a significant reduction in support needs. While we’re proud of this momentum, it leaves us with more capacity than needed to deliver strong customer support. These improvements include reducing the time spent on support tickets with more efficient ways to route work to the right experts who can resolve issues more quickly, better identification and resolution of error codes and more.”
Further clearing the romours on replacing human workforce with AI, spkoesperson added, “The aforementioned roles are not being replaced by AI. For each impacted employee, we’re providing a generous severance package, healthcare benefits for them and their families, six months access to our EAP and mental health services, visa support if needed, internal mobility and outplacement services.”
Jet Purchase, Billionaire Status Draw Criticism
Reaction to Atlassian’s layoffs has come from both inside and outside the organisation, especially in light of Cannon-Brookes’ questionable investments and substantial personal wealth—estimated at $13.9 billion. The CEO has been actively investing in renewable energy projects, such as an underwater cable project connecting Darwin to Singapore to export solar energy, at the same time that the decision to eliminate jobs in favour of AI was made.
However, his recent purchase of a gas-guzzling private jet in March has drawn harsh criticism, according to a Sky News report. As per the report, Cannon-Brookes justified his contentious purchase of a $75 million long-range jet, the Bombardier 7500, back in March by claiming on LinkedIn that it enables him to be a “present dad” while managing a multinational company.
According to the report, he acknowledged that the action presented ethical concerns, saying, “I’m not denying I have a deep internal conflict on this.”
The CEO provided justification by stating, “I bought a jet for a few reasons. According to the Sky News story, “Personal security is the main reason (an unfortunate reality of my world), but I also want to be able to run a global business from Australia and still be a constantly present dad.”
Farquhar: AI is ‘Essential for the Future’
According to the media reports, the layoffs occurred right after Scott Farquhar, Atlassian’s other co-founder, spoke at the National Press Club of Australia and hailed artificial intelligence as crucial for the future.
First, according to Farquhar, most people don’t consider the source of their power or water, nor do they consider the origin of artificial intelligence (AI) or the AI they use on a daily basis on their phones. He went on to say that the construction of data centres for the area is booming, and that the use of AI in daily life is also booming.
He emphasised that everyone should use AI on a regular basis for as many purposes as possible. He stated that, similar to any new technology, it will be uncomfortable to use at first, but every businessperson, business leader, government leader, and bureaucrat should be utilising it.
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