Look behind the curtain - Anonymous employee Buildkite Employee Review

The sudden surge in reviews is happening because, for a long time, no one REALLY listened. I have been reading these latest reviews, and am relieved to see others are writing what I too felt. What I see is a wave of frustration from people who have been raising the same concerns for the last 18 to 24 months—only to be ignored or even gaslit. The defensive positive reviews: Mostly come from either “Captain’s Picks” or new hires. Except for one recent quarter after a stagnant year, and the number of Finance and Sales hires, this company is not "fast growing". The reviewer who praised the leadership team is no doubt a member of the leadership team. This is not a scale up—the CEO was at pains in the last few months to *denounce* that notion and repeated several times at an all-company meeting that “we’re not a scale-up, we're a startup”. We also had slides that accompanied this message. The negative reviews? They are from people who have nowhere else to go with their feedback. These anonymous reviews are brutally honest because people did not feel safe sharing their true thoughts in official company channels—or because leadership was not listening. This is not a coordinated or orchestrated attack. As I write this I do not know who these other reviewers are. It is clear they are not only “disgruntled former employees”—an easy deflection—some of them are still there. These reviews are frustration blowing the lid off a volcano. The last official internal sentiment or feedback round happened in mid-2024, and Engineering morale was captured as very low. Absolutely NO action was taken after this survey. Not only did the VP of People create the sentiment survey, but, like several Human Resources and People Team leaders before them, they left a few months after joining and was never replaced. And thus nothing was done with the employee sentiment feedback. Ever wonder why Human Resources Leaders do not last here? Those who came before had widely-known bad experiences, leaving either in frustration or because they were pushed out. If the CEO is dictating how you should do your job or is pressurizing you to go against your training and experience, what is the point of even being there? At the 2024 company offsite (soon after this employee survey), the CTO himself looked visibly unhappy and admitted his own personal and professional wellbeing was poor. His engineering team’s morale was low and he knew the CEO was reported to be at the center of the problem. Some privately called him a “CEO apologist and enabler.” He was stuck in the middle. In his own way, he tried to keep the peace and look after the engineers while trying to retain his job. (curiously, soon after his departure there were key engineering leaders departures too—see below) For him to now publicly praise the CEO and somehow forget the feedback he was presented with—and when it was clear to all he himself was not happy—is not just obviously an orchestrated PR damage control move; it is a sign that he has been manipulated into taking the hit for “not having enough experience,” even though he has more experience than the CEO. As the CEO has done with others, has he also gaslit the former CTO into believing HE was inadequate? To all who knew the CTO or saw him in action, his latest review is baffling and cognitively dissonant—and the assumption is that the CEO’s sympathy-seeking act worked. The CEO has tried the sympathy act about this “attack” in a company call too and in private slack channels. His story telling stage persona only works on those who do not know better and have not seen behind the curtain. Since the CTO was “asked to leave” (quoting the CEO), one VP of Security left, and three new VPs of Engineering were appointed. Two of them did not last—both clashing with the CEO within weeks and then resigning. Two other highly experienced engineers, at the Principal Engineer or Director level, also recently resigned. Another Director all of sudden did a “voluntary move” into an entry level Engineer role. All within 3 months. In a company of only 130 people. The one VP of Engineering who survived this time is executing the CEO’s micromanagement instructions to the letter and is of course being praised for doing so. While unfortunate and unpopular, it is recognized as a survival mechanism. Look at the body count whenever this CEO is met with opposition, starting with his first VPs of Product and Engineering 2 years ago. Right now, the People Team is being run by the Chief Financial Officer—who also calls herself the Chief Operating Officer. She cares about reducing costs, and has no background in Human Resources or People Operations. How do you think that is going? And let us not forget: the Chairman of the Buildkite Board is also the CEO’s business coach. How objective can he be about Keith’s behavior? Is he only hearing Keith’s one-sided perspective, and ignoring THIS feedback—if he even hears it? Brutalist “leadership” covered up by cajoling and gaslighting: that is why people have had enough, and why these reviews are happening now, and why people are leaving.