Workday Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Workday full-time for more than a year

Pros – A lot of good people (although most have left)
Fairly good product

Cons – Senior Management is Machiavellian
No upward growth
"In crowd" atmosphere
Innovation is discouraged
If you get on the wrong side of Snr Management, you are put on "special project"
IPO won't get their emps anything. C'mon guys, $250m raised in VC funding?! You will be left with a crap job and no upward mobility

Advice to Senior Management – Too bad money can't buy you character and integrity

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Workday

Pros – We are building apps in the 21st century and as such want new fresh ideas. We hire smart people who have experience but can take a fresh approach - this is key to our success. The product requires collaboration across the entire company.

Cons – We are still in the growth mode and the work - life balance is not there yet, but it is getting better.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Workday

Pros – Laid back attitude, allowed to work from home sometimes, good work-life balance are all great parts of working at Workday. Also, the company is successful and generally people are upbeat. Also nobody gets fired here. So considering the company outlook, this is a great place to work if your priority is job security and low stress.

Cons – Limited exposure to widely used frameworks and development tools--this is especially true for Application Developers. On the Tools team you get more exposure, but it's mostly just Java and a little bit of XML processing. The problem is a "Not Invented Here" attitude, that results in more work for you and fewer employable skills to gain. A little too much company kool-aid; sometimes the hype gets to me. Not all managers are top notch (they get fired more rarely than employees) and some are just plain ineffective and annoying (but most of them were at least developers at some point). Also pay is low.

Advice to Senior Management – Give your employees enough work to feel like they are productive. Don't be a nervous nanny, nobody likes a micro-manager (a little bit of an epidemic here). Treat your employees like adults, not kids.

Current Employee – been working at Workday

Pros – Great Technology
Great Vision
Fun People to work with
Strive to do your best

Cons – Inexperience Management
Decisions come from one person with little room for feedback
No Career Path - after entry level - you are stuck in a path to no where
Internal fighting between development (engineering) and product management (business)
Everyone reports to one person -- that one person has no time to talk and eventually ignores you.

Advice to Senior Management – If you plan to keep good people and be the BEST, then you need to start to clean house from the TOP... the people you promote to management aren't really good managers -- You provide HR applications... it's about time you develop your own HR team and create solid careers paths in development and in other areas... right now, for example, your financial development team is headed by one person and everyone reports to one person... no growth for anyone on the team -- that one person has absolute control... not the best way to run your engineering team.

Current Employee – been working at Workday

Pros – Workday is a great company, has a phenomenal product, and is for the most part very well managed. It also has very good values that it tries to embody in every aspect of their business and how they treat employees

Cons – The values I just mentioned don't seem to be equally carried out in every department.
The inside sales department is run in a fashion that doesn't represent the values the owners work so hard at implementing, which is a shame.
Also, there seems to be rampant nepotism going on.

Former Employee – worked at Workday

Pros – Very interesting technology.
Great consultant ecosystem which feeds Workday new customers.
Outstanding marketing team which does a great job of building buzz.
Lots of influential people who have hitched their wagon to the Dave train, looking for a payday.

Cons – Leadership team with a singular focus on a liquidity event.
Decisions driven by focus on liquidity event negatively impact individuals at all levels.
Overpromising to new customers and underdelivering.
Dilution of options. Workday needs to come clean on how many outstanding shares there are now. Early employees with 50,000 options may end up being sadly disappointed when the total outstanding shares are published. With $150M raised to date, it's impossible to say how many shares are outstanding. Many people took a lower salary and pretty poor benefits with the expectation of striking it rich at an IPO. With Aneel's V.C. background and experience in diluting early rounds, there may be some dour faces if/when that S-1 gets released.

Advice to Senior Management – Come clean with the employees on how many shares are outstanding after Series F.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Workday

Pros – Team mentality; very positive working environment.

Cons – Onboarding was difficult - not a lot of structure/formality. Hard to meet/get to know coworkers. But, I think this has to do with the fact that they in such a big growth phase right now and they're trying to get procedures in place to handle this.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Workday

Pros – Next to Facebook, Workday's IPO is the most exciting in Silicon Valley. Cutting edge technology. The rate at which Workday can develop product is unbelievable, leaving our competition struggling to keep up. Vacation time was increased this year, and if the company hits its goals. Company meetings are fun, celebrities such as Captain Sully and Steve Young have attended in the past. We poke fun of our competition at the meetings,portraying SAP employees doing the goose step, and there is even art work of Larry Ellison being flushed a toilet at the company headquarters. Needless to say, product confidence is very high.

Cons – There is a lot of money at stake at Workday. Not only are the investments of our founders on the line, several millions of the famous Bay Area Tech funders and CEO's have there money wrapped up in Workday. As a result, things have tightened up. Salaries haven't been raised in years, and stock is being guarded tight. As it stands, the amount of work vs resources is stretched thin, and every overhead cost is scrutinized.

Advice to Senior Management – Look past 2012. The IPO is a very big milestone, however, building a sustainable company with good morale is of even greater importance. The IPO is going to make several people very happy and wealthy, but is that enough to retain talent and create a company for the future?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Workday

Pros – Great core values
Company is striving to be the best
Leader in technology innovation
The software helps our customers save time and money
Top executives truly care about employees
IPO

Cons – Interview process focuses on next steps after CSD, this rarely occurs
Marketing takes all the credit for pipeline development which is very inaccurate
Hit your goals quick or you're gone
No true career path into outside sales
"Fun" place to work

Advice to Senior Management – Workday is a talent management solution which allows top performers to excel in the organization. Maybe Workday should start using our own software to manage the sales group.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Workday

Pros – Workday is a wonderful place to work. I love the work that I do and the people I work with.

Cons – We are growing so fast, it can be hard to keep up with the new hires week to week.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend