Huge workloads, lack of leadership direction - Anonymous employee Sage Employee Review

1.0
Jun 19, 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Great people (while they last) - A good opportunity to learn how not to treat people and how not to manage organisational change

Cons

- Huge and unrealistic workloads, but when you ask for help no-one in a management role is willing to facilitate solutions. - The lack of planning or thought before knee-jerk reactions means endless re-work, crazy deadlines and work that is just wasted. - It's not clear if the leaders are making the structures up on the spot but it seems that way. Decisions are constantly changed, the people responsible are shuffled endlessly and nothing is shared other than the highest level strategy - Employees are made promises that are not delivered on - The culture within the HR Function is toxic, with scape-goating & misleading behaviours causing a number of great employees to leave.

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Sage Response
8y
Thanks for your review. It is disappointing to hear that you had a negative view of Sage but we appreciate all colleague feedback - past and present. We agree Sage has some awesome colleagues across the 23 countries we operate in. Our colleagues are critical to our success hence some of the fantastic initiatives including the mentoring programme, the Leadership @Sage programme, investment in our office locations across the globe, our first ever global intranet, Sage Save & Share Plan - allowing all colleagues to own part of Sage, the summer parties - thanking colleagues for their hard efforts and Sage Foundation, allowing all colleagues 5 days volunteering for a charity of their choice - this is just a snapshot of what we've been doing. As a former employee I am sure you will be aware that we have been working hard to transform the business, and that the purpose of the transformation is to make us a stronger business which will allow us to operate more effectively and deliver more value for our customers. Our future focus is very exciting and we are confident that our partnerships we are growing will continue to help us deliver long term benefits; but we are aware that moving through a change programme can be difficult at times. We believe in our brand and that our CEO and Leadership team have built a winning strategy that will continue to deliver positive results for our business and make us stand out against our competition. We encourage all colleagues to talk with their manager and share feedback and thoughts, plus we ask all current colleagues contribute to the anonymous colleague survey which is launched tomorrow - 5 July. Thanks again for your feedback and we wish you well with your career.

Explore other reviews about Sage

5.0
Apr 28, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits. Strong company. Customer focus.

Cons

Frequent Executive changes. Trimming in Engineering teams interferes with product changes.

3.0
Apr 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Pay’s decent -Benefits are solid -The Sage Foundation feels like proper philanthropy -Some genuinely nice people -If you’re happy treating work as just a payslip and don’t mind things being a bit dull, Sage is actually quite a comfortable place to be. That stability is a real perk

Cons

-Far too many layers of middle management and general bureaucracy -The Ai push is getting a bit daft -Not especially innovative, so the work can feel quite uninspiring. I’m grateful to be employed, but if you’re after something more interesting, Sage will probably disappoint. That said, some people prefer it that way, fair enough -The office / hybrid requirements feel a bit pointless -Sage doesn’t tend to do layoffs, which is good, but it does mean there are quite a few people where you’re not entirely sure what they do. A lot of meetings, essentially. Even the positives come with trade-offs

4
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Sage Response
1mo
Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughtful and balanced review. We’re pleased to hear that you value your compensation and benefits, as well as the work our Foundation do, among the areas you’ve highlighted. We also recognise the points you’ve raised around bureaucracy, innovation, and the pace and focus of change. Different people are motivated by different things at work, and it’s helpful to hear honest perspectives on how our structure, processes, and priorities can impact day‑to‑day experience and engagement. Feedback like yours helps inform ongoing conversations as we continue to evolve our ways of working, use technology more meaningfully, and improve the products and experiences we create for our customers. If you’re open to sharing further insight, we encourage you to do so through our Always Listening survey. Thank you again for your openness and for being part of Sage.
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