Avoid if you have greater ambitions - Software Applications Engineer Workday Employee Review

2.0
Aug 30, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Unlimited PTO policy. Easy for engineers to take at least 5-6 weeks off a year. - Dog friendly office. - Easy to coast by and collect paychecks. - Close to Pleasanton BART. - Most teams allow engineers to work from home once a week. Workday is a great place to work if you live in the East Bay and value work/life balance highly. Perfect for people with families that want an easy workload and lots of PTO. Never felt stressed to deliver on a deadline. Easy to get stuck here since you barely feel like it's work.

Cons

- Abysmally low pay / salary compared to other tech companies in the Bay. - Lack of motivated engineers due to low pay. - Proprietary coding language not transferrable to other companies. - Promotion is mostly based on tenure, not accomplishment/talent. - Located in Pleasanton. - Snacks/drinks are of the cheapest quality, and often run out. If you're an engineer that aspires to leave Workday eventually, avoid at all costs. Working in a proprietary language 9-5 will severely diminish coding skills that other companies actually care about. Nowadays there's a serious lack of drive when comparing engineers at Workday to other companies. Great engineers have been leaving in droves since last year. Good luck escaping when you've been pigeonholed into your role.

Explore other reviews about Workday

5.0
Jun 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great work life balance, great community and benefits

Cons

Forward mobility, growth, and momentum

avatar
Workday Response
6d
Thank you for your review. We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience working at Workday. Our goal is to create an open and diverse culture at Workday and we value feedback like this as we strive to become an even better company for our Workmates!
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
avatar
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.
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All