Velocity above all else - Senior Software Engineer Sage Employee Review

1.0
14 Nov 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I have been at Sage for quite some time. For the first few years, I enjoyed it immensely. The people who work here used to really care about each other. Some still do.

Cons

After a few years of working here, Sage opted to consolidate their subsidiaries into a single global company. This in itself was not a bad thing, but the principles the business is run on has become detrimental to Sage's employees. Velocity is being punted over everything else. Your personal difficulties are no longer important to them. They squeeze you dry and when you have nothing left to give, they squeeze some more. There is no room for having a personal life and progressing while working for Sage. You either give everything for the job, or you are told that you don't put in enough extra work. The benefits are paltry and management's attempts at changing the perception can be compared to putting a cherry and sprinkles on a old, expired, tasteless ice cream. They want you to believe they want to reward you, but they do the absolute bare minimum. Sage tries to sell itself as a software company, but Research and Development, now called Product Delivery, is merely regarded as a supporting function. You cannot call yourself a software company if you don't allow for innovation when setting deadlines. Reviewing of colleagues performance is abysmal. It is practically impossible to exceed expectations. A set number of employees are allowed to exceed expectations and if you were not one of the lucky ones selected during a review cycle, it doesn't even matter if you performed above expectations. This has caused a dramatic shift to the level of input colleagues provide. Instead of improving their velocity, most colleagues feel it is futile to work harder as they are not being rewarded.

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5.0
5 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They will work with you and teach you everything you need to know and help you as long as you help yourself and meet kpi but they help you meet it

Cons

No cons to add at this time

2.0
8 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

was hired as remote and get to have that honored, but have been openly told no career progression because of remote status. decent pay

Cons

Leadership instability: Seven manager changes during my relatively short tenure. Unrealistic targets: A sales quota set at 1,100% growth (not a typo). Slow product development: Getting anything actioned on the product side takes far too long. Product management turnover: Three product manager changes, resulting in no meaningful deliverables in over three years. Misaligned hiring priorities: Greater emphasis on DEI optics than on hiring people positioned to drive growth. Internal vs. customer focus: More energy spent on internal events than on product enhancements. Lack of accountability (the biggest issue): No one takes ownership. Responsibility gets passed around constantly — for example, client cancellations going unprocessed because they impact someone's numbers. Managers have openly encouraged pushing the work onto someone else rather than handling it.

1
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Sage Response
5d
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We’re sorry to hear about the challenges you’ve described around leadership continuity, targets, growth, and ways of working. We recognise the impact that stability, clear accountability, and achievable goals can have on the day-to-day experience of our colleagues, particularly within sales and customer-facing roles. We shall share your feedback with leaders for their visibility as we continue to evolve how we support our teams to truly thrive at work. If you have any additional insights to share, please leave us more feedback via our internal Always Listening forum or through your manager. Thank you again for sharing your perspective.
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