Pros
Great benefits: 401k, health, dental, vision, charitable donation matching, bring kids to work, bring dogs to work, generously stocked kitchen, company events, telecommuting, employee stock purchase plan Many of the negative reviews seem to come from Pleasanton, particularly on the development side and from longer tenured employees. I am a bit newer and do not work in Pleasanton. Here's a frank review: The Workday infrastructure is incredible. They provide you with a tremendous amount of resources in order to succeed: mentorship programs, constant training, multiple weekly optional webinars to learn, a learning resource complete with courses, guides, and very detailed videos, an incredible amount of material from research reports to best practices, and a culture of helping. All my coworkers (or workmates as we like to call them) go above and beyond to help - the culture is really to try and remove ego and collaborate. Perhaps I got lucky with a good location and a good manager. There are many Oracle, SAP, and ADP transplants which may dilute the culture as some have complained, but as a newer employee, I think the culture is wonderful. The interview process is very collaborative to ensure that talented team players with a positive mentality become a part of the company. I initially interviewed with 5 people and had follow up mini interviews with 3 more. A competitive culture: this company wants to win. They celebrate wins and take a honest look at losses. The organization believes in its vision and I love how we stress 'Taking the High Road' and winning with integrity. There is a lot of mud slinging out there. The software is supported with attentive care and it shows in the product. Like any software, its not without its flaws including proprietary technology - but it works well. From what I can see, Workday is heavily invested in their clients' success, I feel this is a rarity amongst older software companies I've worked for.
Cons
There are many smart people here - you will feel dumb or outclassed at times. Track to promotions can be difficult because of the talent. Workday seems to provide a modicum of autonomy across different geographic areas. Different geographies have different ideas on how to achieve goals while maintaining Workday's guidelines. Yes there does seem to be some cliquishness between the old guard and the newer folks - this is understandable because they've worked together so long, have become friends, and had to struggle when the company was much weaker competitively. Some older tenured employees do seem to be riding the gravy train at times. In this day and age, you can't just ride tenure. You have to back it up with performance. Your tenure may buy you a little respect initially but if you can't back it up, you'll lose it quickly and then some. Any interactions I've had with older guard have been neutral or positive. Forming meaningful relationships takes time but there is always an underlying level of respect. It is hard to get hired here, afterall. Workday has been scaling tremendously and with that comes growing pains and more layers of management. I believe this is necessary, however. It simply does not make sense to have 1 manager oversee 50 employees. The structure is broken down so that individual managers help 5-10 people and can give attention to their reports. Due to growth, some got promoted to managers while others didn't. Missing out on that promotion can be a source of frustration which is understandable. Again, tenure should not be the sole metric of promotion. Performance matters. Like any organization big or small, there's politics. If you're naive enough to believe any company, organization, or even church doesn't have its own internal politics, I've got some oceanfront property in Arizona to sell you.
