Brutal video tells workers they’ve lost their job

Staff at a tech giant learnt their fate through a prerecorded video before having their laptops blocked as 150 roles were made redundant.

An Australian tech company has brutally axed 150 jobs in an early morning recorded video.

Atlassian has announced it was cutting 150 jobs in the prerecorded video from billionaire chief executive and co-founder Mike Cannon-Brookes.

In a video titled “Restructuring the CSS Team: A Difficult Decision for Our Future”, Mr Cannon-Brookes didn’t officially announce who was leaving but instead made staff wait 15 minutes to receive an email about their future employment.

In a prerecorded video, Mike Cannon-Brookes informed workers they were going to lose their jobs. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Impacted staff members had their laptops immediately blocked.

Staff who have lost their jobs are expected to receive six months pay.

These roles were removed as Atlassian improves its cloud platform and tools, resulting in a significant reduction in support needs for customers.

Future queries will, in part, use AI to more efficiently route work to the right expert.

When asked about it at the National Press Club, co-founder Scott Farquhar said there would be job changes across the industry as a result of AI.

“Some jobs become more productive any less of them as some jobs become more productive any more of them,” he said.

“In these times or any time we should be helping our employees to make the transition bracket at company level but also at a national level.”

While one of Atlassian’s co-founders was axing roles, the other appeared on ABC Breakfast spruiking the benefits of AI, encouraging corporates and the government to embrace it as quickly as possible.

Mr Farquhar said: “AI is going to change Australia.

“Firstly, most people don’t think about where their water or power comes from and people don’t think about where AI comes from or where the AI they use on their phone comes from every day,” he told the ABC.

“There is a huge boom in creating data centres for the region and, beyond that, there is a huge boom in using AI for everyday life.”

Former Atlassian chief executive Scott Farquhar and Atlassian chief executive Mike Cannon-Brookes are embracing AI. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Mr Farquhar went on to tell the audience that every company should be embracing AI.

“Every person should be using AI daily for as many things as they can,” he said.

“Like any new technology, it will feel awkward to start with, but every business person, every business leader, every government leader and every bureaucrat should be using it.”

He also called for governments to more broadly use AI to deliver basic services.

Back in April 2024, Mr Farquhar announced his resignation as joint chief executive of Atlassian before officially stepping down in September 2024.

He said the reason behind the sudden culling of 150 roles was due to a situation in which Atlassian’s customer service team became a victim of the business’s broader success.

Larger clients had moved to the cloud, reducing the volume of complex support tasks required at Atlassian.

Future issues would be treated in part with AI.

Originally published as Brutal video tells workers they’ve lost their job