Atlassian says it had right to fire engineer for suggesting CEO is 'rich jerk' • Hacker News Board

Re: Atlassian says it had right to fire engineer for suggesting CEO is 'rich jerk'

#161

Post by Arainach » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 8:40 PM UTC

ivan_gammel wrote: post #160

Arainach wrote: post #159

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Yes, and what is the essence of that labor? It is to create profits for shareholders No, it's not. I'm not sure what your source of capitalism koolaid is, but employees are transacting labor for money, and shareholders do not come into it at all. The nature of labor is stocking shelves, writing code, emptying trash bins, or whatever else you do. Full stop. If you want employees to "think of the shareholders first",…

This conversation is not about „employees thinking/not thinking about shareholders“. You are cherry-picking that topic and taking it out of context, for what reason exactly? I have explained already a few times why and what context matters here. Are you struggling to understand it or just avoiding it?

You started your initial response with "When you sign the working contract, your job is to act in the interests of shareholders".

Working for a company does not mean blind allegiance to leadership, nor does it mean no criticism.

Re: Atlassian says it had right to fire engineer for suggesting CEO is 'rich jerk'

#162

Post by ivan_gammel » Tue, Mar 24, 2026, 9:08 PM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #161

ivan_gammel wrote: post #160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This conversation is not about „employees thinking/not thinking about shareholders“. You are cherry-picking that topic and taking it out of context, for what reason exactly? I have explained already a few times why and what context matters here. Are you struggling to understand it or just avoiding it?

You started your initial response with "When you sign the working contract, your job is to act in the interests of shareholders". Working for a company does not mean blind allegiance to leadership, nor does it mean no criticism.

I fully agree with you, it doesn’t. However I wasn’t saying that, so I have to conclude that you are speaking to someone else here, making up arguments from an imaginary opponent, and I’m not needed here. Good luck.

Re: Atlassian says it had right to fire engineer for suggesting CEO is 'rich jerk'

#163

Post by mingus88 » Thu, Mar 26, 2026, 10:52 AM UTC

Arainach wrote: post #152

mingus88 wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed. I have held similar opinions of leadership at many of my jobs. If you are so burned out that you can’t help but vent publicly, it’s time to go. It’s just not healthy for you. But of course leadership is going to take care of that for you because it’s not healthy for the company either to have open dissent. And most of us are far easier to replace than a CEO

> it’s not healthy for the company either to have open dissent. It's deeply unhealthy to not have open dissent.

That’s certainly not a universal take in leadership.

Disagree and commit is the manager’s take. Ok let’s hear it, but once the decision is made (by me) it’s time to STFU and just do it.

The disagree part often is just a way to manage your teams emotions. You didn’t get your way but you can’t say you weren’t heard. The leads always get their way.