Great Colleagues, Toxic Leadership Fear
Great Colleagues, Toxic Leadership Fear
Great colleagues and a collaborative environment.
There used to be a time when Workday proudly boasted of being an employee-first company. There used to be a time when Workday had a strong culture, ethics, and values. Not anymore.
Now it is a soulless, Wall Street-first corporation—one with failed leadership and an endless rat race.
The company’s downfall began around 2–3 years ago and accelerated in the past year. During the pandemic, many senior leaders joined the company, bringing a toxic culture with them. It is equally surprising to see the low quality of many engineering leaders who joined from other large tech corporations. Many of them lack strategic, technical, or leadership skills. Most are highly tactical and could be first-line managers at best.
Red flags began appearing in the engineering departments nearly two years ago. Workday used to have a bottom-up approach, fostering a psychologically safe culture where everyone could share ideas and innovation thrived. The new leaders abolished this and instilled a top-down approach. Many of their ideas were outdated and, in many cases, unfeasible. People who voiced concerns—high performers who were well-liked by their peers—were let go by the new senior leadership. They built their empire through a culture of fear.
In the last year, the culture of fear has turned into a culture of terror. The level of purging has become uncontrollable. Poor leadership decisions have led to multiple engineering failures. Resilience and scalability have taken a serious hit. It’s equally surprising that the leaders responsible for this are still at the helm, with no accountability whatsoever. Anyone who objected to this was shown the door.
Transparency is what’s truly lacking in the company. Yes, everyone knows that cost optimization is important, but without visionary leaders at the top, trust slowly erodes. At this moment, employee trust in leadership has seriously diminished. It will be a Herculean task to win that back. In the meantime, people have entered survival mode, doing the bare minimum while looking for opportunities elsewhere.
Take action on the leaders who are the cause of the company's downfall.
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Workday Interview Experiences
Associate Applications Developer
On-campus interview followed by an on-site interview 6-8 weeks later. They did not contact me for a long time after the initial interview, maybe a month or so.
Test Automation Engineer
The interview process is acceptable, but there's a lack of basic courtesy in getting back to candidates after onsite interviews. The recruiter never replies to emails. If you want a job here, never showcase strong coding skills, as they seem to pre
Associate Applications Developer
It was a very positive and straightforward process. There were a series of interviews with about 7-8 different people. Most of the interviews focused on culture fit and the ability to explain technical problems clearly. There was also a tech test, w
Associate Applications Developer
Pleasanton, California, United StatesMarch 1, 2014On-campus interview followed by an on-site interview 6-8 weeks later. They did not contact me for a long time after the initial interview, maybe a month or so.
Test Automation Engineer
Pleasanton, California, United StatesSeptember 1, 2015The interview process is acceptable, but there's a lack of basic courtesy in getting back to candidates after onsite interviews. The recruiter never replies to emails. If you want a job here, never showcase strong coding skills, as they seem to pre
Associate Applications Developer
Pleasanton, California, United StatesOctober 1, 2013It was a very positive and straightforward process. There were a series of interviews with about 7-8 different people. Most of the interviews focused on culture fit and the ability to explain technical problems clearly. There was also a tech test, w
