If You Got the Call from Atlassian. Read This Before You Do Anything Else

​

Last week, I ran a private webinar for a group of 50 Atlassian employees who had just been told their roles were gone. There was no recording. No replay. Just 50 people in a room, some in shock, some surprisingly calm, all of them navigating one of the most disorienting moments of their professional lives.

​

We spent 60 minutes working through exactly what to do, in what order, and why it matters more right now than at almost any other point in your financial life.

​

The feedback was overwhelming. So I'm writing this for everyone who wasn't in that room — because what I shared that night applies just as much to you. Whether you're at Atlassian, Google, Microsoft, or anywhere else in the tech sector right now: layoffs are no longer rare events. They are a feature of this industry, not a bug. And most high-earning tech professionals are completely unprepared for the financial complexity that arrives the moment redundancy hits.

​

Let's fix that.

​

What You're Feeling Is Normal

​

Before we talk numbers, let's talk about what's actually happening in your head right now. I worked with tech professionals for 20+ years and I know how redundancy can have a particular sting that's hard to explain to people outside tech. Your identity and your job title are often the same thing. Your team, your mission, your daily rhythm — gone overnight. Even when you see it coming, the reality of it lands differently than you expected.

​

The shock is real. The fear about money is real. And if you're feeling a strange mix of grief and quiet relief, that's real too.

​

Here's what I want you to hold onto: corporate restructuring reflects shifting business priorities not your value, not your performance, not your worth as a professional.

​

The best people get made redundant. It happens to talented, high-performing individuals every day in this industry. My client saved Atlassian millions of dollars in annual recurring annual cost in a side project, he had a perfect long tenure and a history of great deeds, he was a a great self-driven leader, he would be a great asset in any company and none of this was enough for him to survive this round of layoffs.

​

Focus on yourself and your loved ones. Everything else can be changed or replaced.

​

What separates those who emerge stronger is not luck. It's what they do in the first 30, 60, and 90 days.

​

Here's what most people don't realise: redundancy isn't just an HR event. It's a tax event, a super event, an insurance event, and a cash flow event, all at once. And several of these have hard deadlines that don't wait for you to feel ready. Below is 5 crucial steps I shared and everyone took notes of them.

​

1. Understand Your Redundancy Package

​

Before you sign anything If Atlassian's situation qualifies as genuine redundancy (and for most employees, it does), you're entitled to a tax-free component that most people significantly underestimate. For the 2025–26 financial year, the tax-free threshold is $13,100 plus $6,552 for every completed year of service, capped at $260,000. This portion is entirely excluded from your assessable income this year. The rest of your payout is taxed differently and at concessional rates, but it still hits your tax return. If you're re-employed quickly, that combined income could push you into the highest marginal bracket. You need to understand your full breakdown before June 30.

​

Action: Request a written breakdown of every payment component from Atlassian HR immediately.

​

2. Your RSUs and ESPP Are More Complex Than You Think

​

This is the area where I see the most costly mistakes and the most money left on the table.

​

If you had unvested RSUs at the time of termination, vesting has almost certainly stopped. But check your Grant Agreement.

​

For shares that have already vested: RSUs are taxed as ordinary income at the vest date (based on market value). Any gains after that point are subject to Capital Gains Tax — with a 50% CGT discount available if you've held the shares for 12 months or more post-vesting. If you're considering selling Atlassian shares, map your vest dates carefully. Selling too early could mean paying double the tax you'd pay by waiting just a few months longer. And on the ESPP side: the discount you received at purchase may be assessable as income in the year the shares were acquired.

​

Your plan rules will determine post-termination holding period requirements. The single most urgent action on equity.

​

Action: Download your full equity transaction history from Atlassian's systems before your access is revoked. This is the most easily missed and hardest to recover administrative step. Don't skip it.

​

3. The 60-Day Insurance Window

​

When your employment ends, your employer group insurance, life, TPD, and income protection typically ends with it. But there's a narrow window (usually 60 days) to convert that cover to a personal policy with no medical underwriting required. This means no health questionnaire. No exclusions for pre-existing conditions. The cover you had simply continues in your own name. If you have any existing health conditions, this window could be worth tens of thousands of dollars in future premiums or the difference between being insurable and not. Once the window closes, it's gone. It may not be the most competitive rate but for some people, it's gold.

​

Action: Contact your super fund and employer insurer this week.

​

4. Your Super Needs Attention Too

​

Super Guarantee does not apply to genuine redundancy amounts so don't assume super was paid on your payout. Verify your final contributions are correct and check ATO MyGov before your Atlassian email access is cut off. If your super balance is under $500K, you may be able to use carry-forward concessional contributions from the past five years. With the 2025–26 concessional cap at $30,000, making a personal super contribution before 30 June and lodging a Notice of Intent to Claim can meaningfully reduce your taxable income this financial year — dollar for dollar. This is one of the most powerful levers available to you right now, and it expires on 30 June.

​

5. Do Not Self-Lodge Your Tax Return

​

This Year I say this with genuine urgency: this is not a normal tax year. You have redundancy payments, equity events, potentially a mid-year job change, and super contributions all landing on the same return. The interactions between these elements are complex. Errors are easy to make and expensive to fix. Engage an accountant who understands tech compensation. Bring your PAYG summary, all ETP summaries, equity and share vesting statements, and ESPP purchase records.

​

The Behavioural Psychology of money

​

This is the trap most people fall Into when a lump sum of money hits your account, there's a psychological pull to do something with it immediately, pay off the mortgage, invest it, upgrade something. Resist this.

​

The 72-hour rule:

​

Make no major financial decision within 72 hours of receiving your payout. The urgency you feel is not real. The deadlines above are real. Those are the things to act on first.

​

Also resist anchoring your lifestyle to your previous salary before you've secured your next income. Fixed costs that feel comfortable on a $300K package can become suffocating on $0.

​

Your 5 Most Time-Sensitive Actions- In Order

​

1. Secure your equity transaction history from Atlassian before system access ends

​

2. Invoke the 60-day insurance conversion — contact your fund this week

​

3. Call your mortgage lender proactively to discuss hardship provisions before you miss a payment

​

4. Make a pre-June 30 super contribution and lodge your Notice of Intent to Claim

​

5. Engage an accountant before your FY2026 tax return is due

​

This Is Not the End. It Might Be the Beginning. I've worked with tech professionals through redundancy at Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and now Atlassian. The ones who come out ahead aren't the ones who had the biggest packages.

​

They're the ones who treated this moment as a strategic opportunity rather than just a financial emergency.

​

Your skills are rare. Your experience is valuable. The market for senior tech talent is not as closed as it feels right now. But the financial decisions you make in the next 60 days will echo for years. Get them right.

​

I ran this session privately for 50 Atlassian employees last week with no recording and no replay. If you wish you'd been in that room, the next best thing is a 1:1 Clarity Call where we can look at your specific situation together.

​

Whenever you're ready, here are a few ways I can help you read on where you stand, the fastest levers to pull, and whether property is your engine or your anchor. No BS. Just clarity.

 

1. Listen to my Podcast — real financial strategies for tech pros, no boring jargon.

2. The Wealth Byte Newsletter — quick, no-BS emails once a month.

3. Follow me on LinkedIn — over 4,500 tech pros already do.

4. Wealth Bytes - You Tube— bite-sized videos on investing, RSU, tax strategies, and building real wealth.

5. Work 1:1 with me — build a strategic, work-optional financial plan to retire early on 10-20k per month.

 

My personal update:

​

Started planning the 2026 holidays like a fully functioning adult: spreadsheets, browser tabs, the works. Genuinely buzzing. Then immediately fell into a rabbit hole of fuel crisis headlines and flight cancellation statistics. The war is dragging on much longer than anyone expected, and apparently so is my ability to just enjoy a holiday announcement without catastrophising at 2am. Flights are booked. Hope is booked. Backup plans: also being researched.

​

Settling into the new home is going brilliantly, if by "brilliantly" you mean I've unpacked the exact same number of boxes I've somehow generated in the process. It's a living organism. I sort one pile, look up, and three more have appeared behind me.

​

The little one has started kindy and is picking up words and letters at a pace that genuinely impresses me. The snag? He has discovered that school is not, in fact, an all-day free-range playground situation. The betrayal in his eyes when this truth landed is something I will carry with me for decades. He expected daycare energy. He got a curriculum. He is processing the injustice. We are all processing alongside him. Send snacks and moral support.

​

General Advice Warning: This article is for educational purposes only and does not constitute personal financial advice. Your individual circumstances will determine which strategies are appropriate for you. Please seek advice from a qualified financial adviser before acting on any of the information above.