Australian tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes has been ordered to rehire a staff member after she was fired for suggesting he was a ‘rich jerk.’

Denise Unterwurzacher, who was a software engineer at Atlassian in the United States, was fired in June 2023.

She was fired just days after she messaged her colleagues about the company’s changes to managerial roles and the potential for job cuts during an all-staff Zoom meeting with Cannon-Brookes.

Cannon-Brookes had dialled into the meeting from the headquarters of the Utah Jazz basketball team, which he co-owns.

As the meeting unfolded, employees took to an internal Atlassian message board called ‘Outrage Notifications’, where Ms Unterwurzacher shared a satirical post pretending to be Cannon-Brookes.

‘What’s up Outragers, just dialling in from my NBA team’s headquarters to yell at the people whose careers I’ve just pummelled,’ Ms Unterwurzacher wrote.

During the Zoom meeting, Cannon-Brookes told employees questioning the layoffs that he had a ‘gutful’ and said anyone who wanted to ‘nark’ was free to leave.   

Atlassian, which has a publicly stated philosophy of ‘open company, no bulls***’, fired Ms Unterwurzacher a few days later, stating she had ‘engaged in acrimonious communications and ad hominem attacks against teammates and colleagues.’

A US labour board has ruled Atlassian illegally fired employee Denise Unterwurzacher, who posted a satirical message about Mike Cannon-Brookes after layoffs, ordering the company to reinstate her with back pay 

During the Zoom meeting, Cannon-Brookes told employees questioning the layoffs that he had a ‘gutful’ and said anyone who wanted to ‘nark’ was free to leave

Ms Unterwurzacher took her former employer to the US National Labor Relations Board, claiming she had been illegally fired for speaking out about workplace issues, including changes to Atlassian’s performance review system.

She had previously been ‘coached’, but not formally disciplined, after raising concerns about performance review changes because those comments were protected under US labour law.

However, Atlassian argued her later comments about Cannon-Brookes were different.

The company told the court they amounted to a ‘gratuitous personal attack’ rather than protected workplace speech and asked that her complaint be dismissed in its entirety.

‘It constructed a satirical persona of a company founder to mock him personally and accuse him of deliberately harming careers. Her comment was nothing more than personal ridicule of an executive’s private life,’ Atlassian’s court documents read.

Atlassian argued that, while employees are ‘encouraged to speak up about workplace issues’, Ms Unterwurzacher’s comments were not legally protected.

‘Just because it was a CEO doesn’t excuse the conduct,’ Atlassian’s attorney, Troy Valdez, said.

‘It was an irrelevant personal attack and insult directed at a colleague, essentially calling him a rich jerk.’

The decision comes as Atlassian battles a 60 per cent collapse in its share price, with investors increasingly worried AI could replace products such as Jira and Confluence

‘She was terminated for a gratuitous personal attack on Atlassian’s co-founder that had nothing to do with workplace conditions or seeking mutual aid or protection,’ court documents said.

But the US National Labor Relations Board disagreed, ruling Atlassian had unlawfully terminated Ms Unterwurzacher because of her protected workplace activity, not just the comments about Cannon-Brookes and ordered that she be reinstated with back pay.

The board found Atlassian had failed to provide evidence that other employees who made similar comments in the internal chat were disciplined or fired.

‘Given Atlassian’s email and comments to Unterwurzacher at the time of her discharge – telling her that she had been terminated for her pattern of acrimonious communications for which she had been coached – I find that respondent [Atlassian] terminated Unterwurzacher for her protected concerted activity,’ Administrative Law Judge Susannah Merritt said.

Atlassian responded to the decision on Friday.

‘We believe in upholding our company values and community guidelines to ensure our workplace is safe and respectful for all. As the matter remains ongoing, it would be inappropriate to comment further,’ a company spokeswoman said.

The decision comes as Atlassian battles a 60 per cent collapse in its share price, with investors increasingly worried AI could replace products such as Jira and Confluence. 

As his company faces growing market pressure, Cannon-Brookes is also navigating a complex divorce from his ex-wife Annie after they split in July 2023.