Software Engineer's Firing Ruled Illegal in a Rare Win for a Tech Worker(nytimes.com)
nytimes.com
Software Engineer's Firing Ruled Illegal in a Rare Win for a Tech Worker
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/07/10/business/atlassian-tech-worker-wrongful-termination.html
37 comments
> Atlassian said it planned to appeal the ruling, however.
I think it'd be cheaper to keep her at this point. I'd tell your lawyer's egos to take a chill pill.
I think it'd be cheaper to keep her at this point. I'd tell your lawyer's egos to take a chill pill.
I am not a lawyer, but if they don't appeal and win, it will set a precedent that they'd (and other companies) have to pay out on any other employees fired for this reason. That will cost them more in the long run.
It’s depressing how the tech ecosystem works as a self-reinforcing cartel against workers for statusquo preservation. Yes, it’s rational from the tech industry as a whole’s POV, there’s little to no chance a single individual can really stand against such machinery
Each side has incredible freedom. There are downsides to them.
Employees can take up a huge amount of resources and then leave before costs are recovered.
Employees can take up a huge amount of resources and then leave before costs are recovered.
I think this is a salient point people are missing. This incredible freedom is equal on both sides, just as how companies are able to spread that risk around with multiple employees, it is common these days to have multiple jobs just in case of a layoff or other notable event where your job is lost.
I don’t think multiple jobs is common for salaried full time employees.
Multiple jobs are common for people with hourly employers who are avoiding paying for healthcare benefits and refuse to schedule you for more than 30 hours a week.
Multiple jobs are common for people who are underemployed or for people whose rent has been raised at a faster rate than their pay rate.
Your comment and the parent to your comment are wildly pro-employer biased, in my opinion. The freedom is absolutely not equal on both sides.
If I stop working, my family doesn’t eat and my house gets foreclosed on.
If an employee slacks off for a year or sues their employer or steals from the break room, the employer loses a fraction of a percent of a massive pile of profit (at least, in the case of large employers like Atlassian). That loss is a calculated business risk on a spreadsheet, not an existential threat to the basic needs of the owners of the corporation.
An employer can fire an employee for almost any reason with no consequences. This case is one single time when that wasn’t the case, and the fact that it made national news tells you a lot about how rare an employee winning a judgement like this really is.
For example, I know someone who was fired shortly after the employer discovered she was pregnant. She did everything right: documented everything, hired a law firm, all that. The end result was a below-average severance package and the law firm ate half of it.
This “freedom” is highly asymmetrical.
Multiple jobs are common for people with hourly employers who are avoiding paying for healthcare benefits and refuse to schedule you for more than 30 hours a week.
Multiple jobs are common for people who are underemployed or for people whose rent has been raised at a faster rate than their pay rate.
Your comment and the parent to your comment are wildly pro-employer biased, in my opinion. The freedom is absolutely not equal on both sides.
If I stop working, my family doesn’t eat and my house gets foreclosed on.
If an employee slacks off for a year or sues their employer or steals from the break room, the employer loses a fraction of a percent of a massive pile of profit (at least, in the case of large employers like Atlassian). That loss is a calculated business risk on a spreadsheet, not an existential threat to the basic needs of the owners of the corporation.
An employer can fire an employee for almost any reason with no consequences. This case is one single time when that wasn’t the case, and the fact that it made national news tells you a lot about how rare an employee winning a judgement like this really is.
For example, I know someone who was fired shortly after the employer discovered she was pregnant. She did everything right: documented everything, hired a law firm, all that. The end result was a below-average severance package and the law firm ate half of it.
This “freedom” is highly asymmetrical.
I am doing a double take reading your comment and the parent comment of yours. They’re just so wildly corporate-biased.
I’m really not sure how we can conclude that the freedom is symmetrical.
The fact that this story made national news says everything about how rare it is for an employer to win a case like this. In most cases you just get fired for any reason with no notice or off-ramp. The employer is just always correct by default and you can easily be denied unemployment insurance because the company cooked up some official looking documents showing that you were fired with cause.
A corporation can spread risk by having 1,000 employees. I can’t have 1,000 jobs. It’s just not equal on both sides.
I mean, “freedom on both sides,” in a country where there’s zero guaranteed paid parental leave, that’s crazy.
I’m really not sure how we can conclude that the freedom is symmetrical.
The fact that this story made national news says everything about how rare it is for an employer to win a case like this. In most cases you just get fired for any reason with no notice or off-ramp. The employer is just always correct by default and you can easily be denied unemployment insurance because the company cooked up some official looking documents showing that you were fired with cause.
A corporation can spread risk by having 1,000 employees. I can’t have 1,000 jobs. It’s just not equal on both sides.
I mean, “freedom on both sides,” in a country where there’s zero guaranteed paid parental leave, that’s crazy.
Trial courts can't set precedents. Only appellate courts can.
Trust me, other companies are watching this case already and will adjust accordingly.
Of course, they won't stop firing employees who point out inconvenient truths, they'll just be more careful about the reasons they put in writing.
Of course, they won't stop firing employees who point out inconvenient truths, they'll just be more careful about the reasons they put in writing.
That's not really true at all. You just think that because you never hear about it. Stare decisis still applies at a trial level, but its scope is obviously much narrower. Moreover, most things really aren't that novel. Most importantly, its quite hard to research on this level and usually pointless because theres usually a higher level case anyway.
>That's not really true at all. You just think that because you never hear about it.
No, multiple sources confirm this:
>https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48320
>A district court's decision has no precedential value—that is, it binds only the parties to the case but not future decisions of other district courts
>https://law.justia.com/cases/
>Similarly, a decision by one district court in New York is not binding on another district court, but the original court's reasoning might help guide the second court in reaching its decision.
No, multiple sources confirm this:
>https://www.congress.gov/crs-product/R48320
>A district court's decision has no precedential value—that is, it binds only the parties to the case but not future decisions of other district courts
>https://law.justia.com/cases/
>Similarly, a decision by one district court in New York is not binding on another district court, but the original court's reasoning might help guide the second court in reaching its decision.
It is just persuasive precedent so any other court, or even the same court when dealing with case involving different parties, can ignore it.
> That will cost them more in the long run.
Only if customers don’t care about your labor practices. For me this story screams “Don’t Use or Recommend Atlassian - in fact, strongly advise against it.”
Only if customers don’t care about your labor practices. For me this story screams “Don’t Use or Recommend Atlassian - in fact, strongly advise against it.”
It's not the lawyer's decision, it's the client's
Atlassian almost certainly has their own legal department, which calls its own shots (or rather isn't beholden to anyone below C-level).
> Atlassian said it planned to appeal the ruling
To me this reads as: Atlassian says it doesn’t want customers.
Happy to oblige. Our $100 million startup moved off Atlassian recently, and we couldn’t be happier.
To me this reads as: Atlassian says it doesn’t want customers.
Happy to oblige. Our $100 million startup moved off Atlassian recently, and we couldn’t be happier.
In these cases where they have to rehire someone, does the employee usually stay after? Wouldn't the workplace be kinda hostile now with the manager who fired you?
Unlikely it was the person's direct manager who made the call to fire them. I would normally assume this person won't be up for a promotion for a long time. And they'd need to do everything by the book going forward.
On the other hand they've shown everyone they have backbone and that Atlassian ss petty and engages in illegal retaliation. So the company may be forced to be on its best behavior with this person in the future.
On the other hand they've shown everyone they have backbone and that Atlassian ss petty and engages in illegal retaliation. So the company may be forced to be on its best behavior with this person in the future.
Yeah I can't imagine that playing out particularly well. Maybe at a company as large as Atlassian it is feasible enough to stay isolated. But I'd think the relationship is tainted from both sides at this point and doesn't favor either party.
I don't know about other companies, but I don't really interact with my manager outside of 1 on 1s like once a quarter. Also, it's never his choice to fire someone, it's always from above. I'm sure if he was forced to lay someone off he'd be just as happy as they are to have them back.
A lot of companies have 1 on 1s weekly.
That sounds like a nightmare. Aren't iterations 2 weeks? What is happening on a weekly basis that a manager needs to check in that often? How do they have time to do that with with 10+ subordinates?
My 1 on 1s are like, have I made enough progress in the last 6 months to get a raise or not. That answer isn't changing week to week.
My 1 on 1s are like, have I made enough progress in the last 6 months to get a raise or not. That answer isn't changing week to week.
Atlassian was extremely foolish. Obviously you want to fire someone who makes unprofessional comments like that on the company Slack, but you don't explicitly fire them for that, you find some other defensible reason to do it.
Now that we have fancy AI can't someone make a FOSS jira clone?
thats something i've wondered too, but as a long time jira user i'd rather foss contribute to something better designed (both code and ux-wise) than rehash the mess of ux anti-patterns of jira... just my 2c
hobonation(1)
Her comments were very unprofessional and unproductive. She will lose on appeal. No worker has a right to distract the company like she did.
Love the downvotes :(
> Court rules employee has the right to make the comments she made
Random HN comment:
> her comments were unprofessional and she has no right to distract the company.
Same User:
> y Downvote :(
Random HN comment:
> her comments were unprofessional and she has no right to distract the company.
Same User:
> y Downvote :(
If an employee of yours spent hours every day attacking you.... would you keep them employed? Why not?
From the article I read it didn't say employee was attacking them hours every day. From the articles the employee posted a message on an internal slack "Outrage Notification" channel which looks to be an internal venting channel containing similar content.
Atlassian has values "Open company, no bullshit" which they selectively use. "Open company, no bullshit" until it isn't. Example, this case, upsetting Mikes ego.
I was on a team at Atlassian that got constructively dissambled after not being happy with some changes for the worse. Worst retro I've ever been in, all developers heads on desks, manager: "suggest how we fix this issue", developers silent as every answer from the developer got the reply from manager on the lines of "no, you know we can't do that anymore". Then the digging through historic slack messages and social media posts started followed by departures...
That was a very long time ago now, seems not much has changed.
Atlassian has values "Open company, no bullshit" which they selectively use. "Open company, no bullshit" until it isn't. Example, this case, upsetting Mikes ego.
I was on a team at Atlassian that got constructively dissambled after not being happy with some changes for the worse. Worst retro I've ever been in, all developers heads on desks, manager: "suggest how we fix this issue", developers silent as every answer from the developer got the reply from manager on the lines of "no, you know we can't do that anymore". Then the digging through historic slack messages and social media posts started followed by departures...
That was a very long time ago now, seems not much has changed.
Come on. Her comment was
It's mildly dramatized, bordering on milquetoast satire of exactly what he was doing.
"What’s up Outragers, just dialing in from my NBA team’s headquarters to yell at the people whose careers I’ve just pummeled"
It's mildly dramatized, bordering on milquetoast satire of exactly what he was doing.
She committed the ultimate sin: pointing out what a CEO was actually doing.
> The ruling found that the engineer, Denise Unterwurzacher, had a federally backed right to make such comments because she made them as part of a collective effort to aid or protect co-workers.
> The judge ordered the company to reinstate Ms. Unterwurzacher to her former job or an equivalent position, and to make her whole financially. It is one of the most significant outcomes in years in a case involving the labor rights of a tech worker.
Atlassian said it planned to appeal the ruling, however.