An American worker for software giant Atlassian claims she was fired after discussing legitimate work issues, while the company says it’s because she called its Australian tech billionaire CEO a ‘rich jerk’.

Denise Unterwurzacher, who was a software engineer at Atlassian, was fired in June 2023 just days after she messaged her colleagues about the company’s ‘re-levelling’ plans, which amounted to job losses.

Ms Unterwurzacher contacted her peers on the company’s Slack channel during an ‘Ask Me Anything’ video call where Mike Cannon-Brookes, who was then co-CEO with Scott Farquhar, was responding to questions about the plan.

Cannon-Brookes, who became the solitary CEO when Farquhar left in late 2024, had dialled into the meeting from the headquarters of the Utah Jazz basketball team, which he owns a large stake in.

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

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.’

Ms Unterwurzacher, who has taken her former employer to the US National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), claims she was ‘illegally fired’ after speaking her mind about workplace issues.

However Atlassian maintains it didn’t break US workplace laws when it sacked Ms Unterwurzacher, telling the court it was a ‘gratuitous personal attack’ and it should dismiss her complaint ‘in its entirety.’

Former Atlassian software engineer, Denise Unterwurzacher, said she was illegally fired after talking about workplace issues (pictured on Atlassian’s YouTube channel)

She messaged her colleagues about Atlassian’s co-CEO Mike Cannon-Brookes after he spoke about plans to ‘re-level’ the company in a video call (pictutred)

Cannon-Brookes fired more than 1,600 Atlassian workers via email this month, 30 per cent of which are based in Australia (pictured is the Atlassian’s Sydney office)

‘Denise Unterwurzacher … was not terminated in retaliation for engaging in protected concerted activity – 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 seen by The Australian read.

‘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 also argues Ms Unterwurzacher violated the company’s community guidelines’ requirement that employees treat others respectfully.

If the board finds Ms Unterwurzacher was illegally fired, Atlassian could be forced to reinstate her. 

While the NLRB judge considers the case, footage of Ms Unterwurzacher talking proudly about being a woman in tech remains on Atlassian’s social media pages.

A quick glance at the company’s online presence reveals Ms Unterwurzacher has been regularly championed in their marketing blogs and videos.

In a blog post, Atlassian described her as a ‘developer at heart’, after joining the company in 2012 as a technical support engineer.

In two 20-minute videos posted on Atlassian Tech TV’s YouTube channel, Ms Unterwurzacher was interviewed about her experience working at Atlassian and how tech companies can make women feel more included.

Cannon-Brookes (right) with Atlassian co-founder Scott Farquhar (left) and Qualtrics founder Ryan Smith (centre) who owns the Utah Jazz with him

‘I think the more that we can make technology an inviting place for women, the more women we’ll actually have in technology and the better things we’ll get,’ she said.

‘At Atlassian, we’re making software to advance humanity and we can’t do that if we’re represented by, you know, thirty-something white male gamers.’

Last month, Cannon-Brookes fired more than 1,600 Atlassian workers via email.

He said artificial intelligence had affected ‘the mix of skills we need’ and ‘the number of roles required in certain areas’.

About 30 per cent of the sacked employees are based in Australia.

Workers hit by the cuts received emails within 20 minutes of Cannon-Brookes outlining the decision in a video message to staff.

‘This is an example of what ‘build with heart and balance’ looks like in practice, doing the right thing for Atlassian while acting with humanity and doing the right thing for everyone affected by these decisions,’ he said.

Atlassian’s stock has tumbled 50 per cent since the start of 2026 and is now down 66 per cent year-on-year as investors fear AI could shrink corporate workforces – and demand for workplace software.