Atlassian is the latest tech firm to axe jobs
Online collaboration (opens in new tab) developer Atlassian, the company behind Trello (opens in new tab)the popular ones project management tool (opens in new tab), is the latest company to announce job cuts amid ongoing global economic pressures.
In a letter to shareholders (opens in new tab) in February, the company said, “Despite the current macroeconomic headwinds, the tremendous opportunities ahead have not changed, and we are poised to execute in 2023 with unwavering focus.”
That headwind is the cause of the company’s march announcement (opens in new tab) that 5% of the workforce will leave the company.
Atlassian layoffs
The workforce reduction amounts to about 500 employees, and is a fairly modest step compared to other tech companies that have resorted to laying off between 5% and 15% of their employees.
“As a company, we have tremendous growth opportunities ahead of us,” said co-CEOs Scott Farquhar and Mike Cannon-Brookes, adding that the priority of roles has changed.
Cloud Migrations, ITSM (opens in new tab), and serving business customers in the cloud were identified as key growth areas. Atlassian “will reinvest in roles that provide better support [its] priorities.” It is unclear whether the 5% figure takes into account any relocations. High-risk workers will be considered for new positions, with the company confirming that it will “offer the ability to apply internally for vacancies through our internal mobility process.”
Affected employees will receive 15 weeks of pay plus one week of pay per year they work at the company, in addition to paid time off that is not taken. Redundant employees also receive six months of health care for themselves and their families and continue to have access to the company’s EAP. Laptops also remain the property of ex-employees, once they’ve been remotely wiped, which is a trend we’ve seen with other tech companies in recent months.
In keeping with the “Open Company, No BS” theme, Atlassian shared other details with employees and offered a webinar (opens in new tab) at the time of announcement for affected employees to ask any questions.