Datadog

• Decent pay
• Decent stock
• Decent tech stack
• Decent coworkers

• No bonus
• Poor 401k match
• Unfettered and unchecked management politics
• Biased promos

The situation at the company has seen quite a transformation. During the post-pandemic period, a significant influx of managers, ranging from EM1 to VP levels, joined the company. It's become apparent that each of these managers is primarily driven by their career advancement ambitions.

They chose to join Datadog and brought in numerous new hires, seemingly as a means to bolster their own standing within the company. Engineers, for the most part, tolerated this situation as it didn't directly impact their day-to-day work.

However, with the recent decline in the market, the C-suite has started to scrutinize these empire-building endeavors, seeking concrete evidence of their achievements. Moreover, they've reduced the available headcount for these managers, which has prompted them to set unrealistic deadlines and closely scrutinize their own engineering teams.

Consequently, we've witnessed a wave of engineer layoffs, and those who remain are under immense pressure to produce results, even though the managers seem uncertain about the specific goals they want to achieve. It appears that these managers are primarily concerned with protecting their own positions, even if it means sacrificing the well-being of our services, team morale, and the actual work being done.

Regrettably, the atmosphere within the company, especially within the NYC office, has become quite hostile due to management's insistence on framing every engineer's existence as a zero-sum game.

To pave the way for a more promising future, it's imperative that management undergoes a restructuring process that emphasizes technical expertise.

We can only hope that this review reaches the ears of Datadog's HR department and is subsequently brought to the attention of Olivier and Alq, so they can take corrective action with regards to our current management team. Datadog should consider a reevaluation of its leadership, similar to the approach taken by Meta, in order to rid the company of empire builders who are now resorting to engineer layoffs.

It's high time for decisive action: either part ways with your current managers, or, at the very least, require all managers, directors, and VPs to demonstrate how the company has actually gained from this cycle of skillful employees being let go, only to be backfilled with another engineer with no context. What tangible benefits has this six-month hiatus brought to the company? What is the ROI of this firing and hiring cycle?

Additionally, I strongly recommend an immediate freeze on all management track promotions for the next two years. This pervasive empire-building mentality must come to a halt. Engineers hold a pivotal role in driving the company's success and are, without a doubt, more valuable than the managers who seem focused on their own career progression. It's unlikely that any manager will step up to salvage the company during outages, so it's time to refocus on what truly matters – the skilled engineers who keep things running smoothly.