Most trying work environment I have been in - Software Engineer Atlassian Employee Review

3.0
Mar 7, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

By many objective measures and accounts Atlassian is a great place to work. They have top notch benefits, pay, PTO, and work from anywhere policies which rival many much larger companies. Uniquely they are one of the few organizations this size still offering remote work. Even with the drop in stock, unless you needed the equity to meet your living expenses, you would still be better off financially here than at a startup. The company provides a good balance of stability and being able to still have impact as an individual. Atlassian should be a 4 or 5 star organization.

Cons

But they aren't one. People often point to the intro of APEX as the reason the culture declined. APEX was a tool to raise the floor on performance which was not a bad thing but it was done without raising the bar on hiring, rewarding high performance appropriately, and other processes that exist in other organizations with similar performance management to provide carrots in addition to sticks. This is one of two organizations I have been at where rewards are only given to those in the right circle. It doesn't matter if you come in and transform the culture and teams, you will not be given the same meaningful opportunities. They will just extract what they need from you and let you to figure out the rest on your own. Privilege and power are not distributed or redistributed based on your contributions but who you enjoy working with. This would be fine if outcomes were there but instead these groups exist because they tolerate doing "enough". Instead high performers are expected to pull the weight and held to a higher standard than their peers (at the same level). That seems dangerous for an organization that is trying to grow.

Explore other reviews about Atlassian

5.0
Apr 14, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great pay for an SDR role and very comfortable benefits great culture and people despite whatever happens in the company

Cons

Not clear career mobility a

3.0
Apr 30, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Amazing people, I loved the core values, competitive salary, great benefits

Cons

I want to start by saying I am not bitter or angry. Working for Atlassian was a whirlwind. I was there for 11 months before being laid off via email. In my time there, I went through 2 re-orgs and 3 managers. It just always felt like being on a hamster wheel… in a hurricane. Today I received an email 7 weeks after I was laid off that started with, “ Congrats on your first year at Atlassian—we know that's a huge accomplishment and are beyond thrilled to be celebrating with you!” It was a bummer to receive that, to say the least, but it included a link to leave this Glassdoor review to “ help provide invaluable insight to future candidates and help us to improve your experience as an employee continually.” so here I am. My advice is to do proper change management of your automated emails when you layoff 5% of your workforce so that emails like this aren’t sent to hard working former employees that you eliminated congratulating them on a milestone they never reached. I know this wasn’t intentional, but it hurt.

386
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All