An Amazon hangover - Senior Manager Smartsheet Employee Review

1.0
Aug 2, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I think the industry space the company is in has much promise. And Smartsheet is definitely an early leader in that space.

Cons

Smartsheet culture has changed drastically over the years. When I started here years ago, it was a genuinely cooperative culture. But Smartsheet's early success with their IPO attracted career managers (including the current CTO), especially from Amazon who I assume wanted to ride the wave of growth Smartsheet was having. They changed the culture to introduce stack ranking. Employees are ranked on a complicated matrix of past performance and anticipated future impact (AFI) with 3 ratings - lagging, on par and pacesetter. Employees that fall under the bottom 3 boxes of the matrix (anything lower than 'on par' for 'past performance and 'on par' for AFI) are rounded up for improvement. In the past, the performance improvement plan (PIP) was more reasonable and genuinely sought to help employees improve. But now that time are tough (with the 2022 tech layoffs), it's more about managing them out.

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Smartsheet Response
3y
Thank you for taking the time to write about your experience at Smartsheet. We’re proud to be a leader in our space and I’m glad to hear you see our promise as well. I hope you’ll continue to actively contribute to our future individually and as part of your larger team. While I agree we have grown quickly, we’ve worked hard to preserve our people-first culture as we’ve scaled the business, upholding our shared values including what we refer to as “‘We’ Before ‘Me.’” I would like to share that our performance management philosophy has not changed. Performance counts at Smartsheet and always has; in fact “Drives Results” is one of our core competencies. We do not engage in forced ranking, however we assess our talent relative to expectations of their level and the market. And, we do have guidance for our leaders to ensure we can differentiate and reward our team members for exceptional results throughout the year including during reward cycles. If you have any questions -- particularly around what you can do to help support team members who may be underperforming relative to expectations -- please know that my door is always open. – Megan Hansen, Chief People & Culture Officer

Explore other reviews about Smartsheet

5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great collaborative environment and competitive

Cons

Easily overwhelmed with phone calls, chats, and emails.

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Smartsheet Response
1w
We're so happy to hear that you're happy here! Collaboration with a healthy dose of competition is always great to hear, thank you for your review!
1.0
May 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Supportive of AI tooling. I had a great manager. I heard the severance packages are great, but I left of my own volition, so I don’t have personal experience.

Cons

Complete lack of direction or management at the mid to high levels of the company in product and engineering (most everyone left or was pushed out by cronyism from the private equity acquisition). No more equity offered to employees. No opportunities for promotion. They’ve shipped or are shipping most of the core products (including the core “sheet” aka Grid app) to India and have laid off tons of employees (somewhere between 12% and 15% of the company). Upper management did the thing where they had the US developers interview tons of people out of India, and then about half a year later laid off tons US developers, including several of the people that did the interviews. Upper management said that the India teams would be working on other projects, but clearly that was a lie. They laid off people without consulting their managers, or their manager’s managers, and without knowing what team they actually worked on or what they did. So entire teams were laid off unbeknownst to them. Very quick and poor handoffs to India, if any. You will likely be working on multiple teams at once, or moved to multiple teams during your time there in short periods of time. On-call can be a nightmare. There is no culture of any kind. Basically do not work here, whether you’re out of the US, India, or Bulgaria (the main countries for developers).

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Smartsheet Response
3w
Thank you for your honesty. While we’re glad that you had a great team and the tools you needed, it’s incredibly tough to hear that other aspects of your experience were less than great. To your point about equity, we’d like to clarify that we do offer a limited equity pool with specific eligibility. That said, navigating transition is already tough, and adding in other aspects like global shifts and new leadership can make it feel even harder. We know the dust hasn’t completely settled, and we understand that we have a lot of work to do to repair employee trust and morale. We’ve set off on that journey, and we appreciate all of this feedback along the way. Thank you, and we wish you all the best in your next chapter.
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