Mike Cannon-Brookes said the pre-recorded video announcing redundancies was just one piece of the puzzle for their process. (Source: AAP) <\/p>\n
Mike Cannon-Brookes is defending his company’s decision to let dozens of workers<\/a> know they were being made redundant<\/a> through a pre-recorded video message. The billionaire boss of tech company Atlassian<\/a> sparked backlash in late July when it was revealed how the 150 staff were let go<\/a>.<\/p>\n Atlassian declined to comment when approached by Yahoo Finance at the time, but confirmed it had made the \u201chard decision\u201d to make some of its customer service and support redundant<\/a>. But Cannon-Brookes said the video was only one part of the puzzle to Atlassian’s redundancy process.<\/p>\n \u201cPre-recorded video messages is the way we distribute stuff,\u201d he told the Sydney Morning Herald<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cSecondly, it implies that we didn\u2019t have one-on-one conversations with every single person who\u2019s affected.<\/p>\n “I don\u2019t think anyone\u2019s expecting me to have conversations with all those employees one-on-one, but their manager did. Their manager\u2019s manager did. All of that is ignored completely. Would they prefer that I was absent from that? I bet the answer is absolutely no.\u201d<\/p>\n He said companies all across the world use email as a “standard” way of informing staff of redundancies.<\/p>\n However, he felt a video message communicated “humanity” during what can be a difficult time.<\/p>\n Do you have a story? Email stew.perrie@yahooinc.com<\/p>\n Cannon-Brookes insisted that Atlassian tried to redeploy redundant staff into other areas of the business and that it also has “outplacement services” to help people find other work.<\/p>\n He also blamed the media for spinning the redundancy method “into a cycle of bull***t”.<\/p>\n The tech company completes quarterly staff assessments, and its head honcho said morale is “pretty good” despite the recent wave of redundancies.<\/p>\n Atlassian recently acquired The Browser Company of New York, the team behind the Dia and Arc web browsers, in a deal worth $932 million.<\/p>\n When news broke that dozens of staff were being let go, people were surprised and shocked at how the message was delivered.<\/p>\n “Corporate humanity is all gone,” wrote one person.<\/p>\n “As horrible as this is, it’s probably more humane than the treatment I’ve witnessed first-hand by HR,” added another.<\/p>\n A third said: “What a cop out. So disrespectful.”<\/p>\n Story Continues <\/p>\n The sentiment was compounded after it was alleged that affected staff weren\u2019t told about their jobs before the announcement and reportedly had their laptops immediately blocked once the video finished.<\/p>\n While Atlassian shut down speculation that the redundant jobs would be “replaced by AI”, it’s understood that those roles were no longer needed due to “improvements” in the customer experience across the company\u2019s platform and tools.<\/p>\n This meant there was a significant reduction in the need for certain people as there was an oversupply of staff.<\/p>\n The staff who were given the flick are being offered a minimum of 12 weeks’ pay.<\/p>\n While Atlassian insisted AI wasn’t “replacing” the 150 staff, the technology has been cited as a big risk for many workers across the country.<\/p>\n Telstra’s<\/a> CEO admitted earlier this year<\/a> that its workforce will shrink by 2030 as it adopts more AI processes.<\/p>\n Meanwhile, a Commonwealth Bank<\/a> worker, who had been at the bank for 25 years, recently took a redundancy<\/a> after training an AI chatbot that eventually made her role unnecessary.<\/p>\n Kathryn told Yahoo Finance it came as a “complete shock” when she was told about the move.<\/p>\n “It was great to be part of that ground-floor work on starting customer messaging… I could see the benefits, except I didn’t look far enough to see it taking my job,” the 63-year-old said.<\/p>\n “I’ve been living and breathing CommBank since 2000. I just don’t know what I’m going to do.”<\/p>\n These are just two real examples of the human toll artificial intelligence will have on the working landscape of the country, with a poll of more than 2,900 Yahoo Finance readers finding that 41 per cent were worried their job would soon be overtaken by AI<\/a>.<\/p>\n An additional 7 per cent said the tech had already stolen their role.<\/p>\n Microsoft recently analysed hundreds of jobs<\/a> to see which could be most affected by AI in the future, with interpreters, phone operators, mathematicians, and public relations specialists among the most at risk.<\/p>\n Unions have been demanding that protections be put in place to ensure workers have a say in how AI is implemented at their workplaces.<\/p>\n “The benefits of the new technology and productivity flow through to multinational tech companies, leaving workers without a say or a meaningful stake in the potential gains,” ACTU assistant secretary, Joseph Mitchell, said.<\/p>\n “Working people need to know their key concerns, such as job security, are not going to be left unprotected.”<\/p>\n Get the latest Yahoo Finance news – follow us on Facebook<\/a>, LinkedIn<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n Kathryn wanted to keep working for a few more years before retirement and worries about competing with younger people for work. (Source: Supplied) \u00b7 Supplied <\/p>\n