Comparatively low salary, outdated tech stack, and declining culture - Software Development Engineer Workday Employee Review

1.0
Feb 7, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company culture used to be the biggest pro. Despite the cons, this used to be a great place to work because they cared deeply about their employees, provided tons of perks, and cared deeply about maintaining a healthy work life balance. Ever since our new CEO came onboard, all of these pros have been slowly eroding, and with the recent layoffs and absolutely tone-deaf communication of them, they’ve shown that employees are just as expendable as within any other company.

Cons

Outdated tech stack reliant on tons of patchwork hacks, and that’s even if you’re not working in appdev. If you’re unlucky enough to get stuck at appdev for any prolonged period of time working with XO, consider your skills basically obsolete. You’d be better off putting Scratch on your resume than XO. Also very low pay and room for growth. They prioritize outside hires for most top level positions. Whatever level you get hired at, be prepared to be stuck there for a long time. The strategy is to “boomerang”, i.e get a job at another company, then come back at a higher level to reap the benefits of the higher pay and company culture. You can climb pretty well if you’re a rockstar developer, but honestly if this describes you you’re way better off going anywhere else as your TC and promos here will not match what you can get at other companies. If you get a ridiculous offer from this company, by all means take it, but then get ready to bounce out of here ASAP before your career stagnates. As I said, the only reason anyone would ever want to stay here for any length of time was due to the culture here, but that’s all gone now. Don’t get suckered into being loyal to this company. You just got to be very mercenary, get your money and get out.

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Workday Response
1y
Thank you for being so candid. We view such concerns with high importance and would appreciate the chance to understand more about your experience. If there is additional feedback you want to provide, contact the People & Purpose team or explore other channels like our weekly Peakon survey questions, our Employee Relations mailer (employee.relations@workday.com), and our SpeakUp reporting hotline where concerns can be raised anonymously.

Explore other reviews about Workday

5.0
May 20, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Workday is a truly values-driven company, and you can feel it every day. We’re in the middle of an exciting transformation to drive more innovation and speed, and while that has meant making some tough decisions, those decisions are always grounded in our core values. Employees and customers are consistently kept at the center, and there’s a real sense that doing what’s right guides how we operate and where we’re going as a company.

Cons

Decision-making can sometimes feel slow and unclear, as it’s not always obvious who has true ownership or final say. In a few areas, especially HR, leadership can feel more oriented around selling and positioning our products than around deep, hands-on practitioner experience, which occasionally creates a gap between strategy and the day-to-day needs of employees and managers.

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Workday Response
2w
Thank you for your feedback. We are proud of our culture and the success that we have achieved because of the hard work and dedication of our Workmates. Thanks for your contributions, your transparency, and for being an integral part of the Workday team during your time here.
4.0
Mar 31, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people, benefits, culture, and pay. Lots of "workmates" with long tenures (10+ years). I truly wanted to retire from Workday!

Cons

Leadership changes freaked a lot of people out. Things felt unstable within the org for the last year (2025). The culture shifted from one that focused on employee growth to adopt all AI at all costs, and do it yesterday! It was extremely stressful to learn so much, so quickly, and create your own use cases and custom workflows - then to ultimately be laid off despite significant contributions.

1
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Workday Response
2mo
Thank you for your valuable input. At Workday, we pride ourselves on fostering a transparent workplace, maintaining the highest ethical standards, and promoting innovation. It's heartening to hear about your positive journey as a Workmate. We continue to be committed to delivering exceptional experiences for our Workmates.
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