A culture of weak leadership and politics - Senior Software Engineer Toast Inc Employee Review

Workforce reductions are handled in a way that lacks transparency, with quiet, incremental layoffs creating uncertainty and eroding trust. In some cases, decisions appear influenced more by individual managers’ insecurities or personal biases than by clear business or performance criteria, which raises concerns about fairness and prioritization of the company’s long term goals. Certain departments, particularly those tied to financial products, suffer from weak and inconsistent leadership, with layers of management that often lack clarity, direction, or technical grounding. Career progression feels opaque and heavily constrained, with advancement rarely reflecting actual impact or capability. Visibility seems to outweigh substance, those who promote themselves aggressively tend to move forward faster than those delivering meaningful results. Despite public messaging around inclusivity, there are noticeable gaps in how fairly people are treated and recognized across teams. There is a disconnect between senior leadership and individual contributors, with limited evidence of genuine respect or understanding of day to day work. Navigating the environment often requires prioritizing optics and alignment over honesty and technical integrity, which creates a culture of guarded communication. Collaboration is undermined by self-interest, with many individuals focusing primarily on personal advancement rather than team success. Technical depth and real contributions do not appear to be the primary drivers of growth, individuals with strong communication but limited execution are often the ones who progress. HR and People functions appear to operate primarily as a shield for the company, whether by design or expectation from top leadership. Instead of acting as a neutral or corrective force, they tend to defend the organization even when issues are rooted in ineffective or unqualified management. This dynamic, directly or indirectly, enables weak managers to persist, while concerns raised by teams are dismissed or reframed. As a result, leadership often receives an overly sanitized version of reality, with significant gaps around project health, delivery challenges, decision quality, and root causes.