Appian reviews about "ceo"

Most of the leadership insists they are the smartest people in the room so they will not listen to others. One of their “values” is descension where they claim employees should be able to voice opinions on better alternatives. It sounds good but definitely not practiced. In fact some will actually hold a grudge and become argumentative. The leadership has an arrogance since they saw success early on when starting out and they feel like they will continue doing what they have always done the way they have always done it. For such a young company they are afraid of change. They continue doing what they have always done and they expect different results (definition of insanity). There is a very good reason they are not profitable yet and that lies on the management. But rather than admit they have made mistakes they blame the employees. There has been an exodus of employees with some quitting and layoffs. The CEO has claimed in the past we will not be doing layoffs but then they do it anyway a few weeks later. He continues to claim we haven’t but people talk. Just be honest about it and own it. It would be better than lying to the employees who no longer trust you. There are toxic leadership and departments as well that you want to stay away from.

- Stringent RTO (3 days w/in 50 miles) despite leadership saying remote work worked great throughout the pandemic. This is just one of main examples of leadership back pedaling on previous decisions. - Significant layoffs despite the CEO promising last year there would be no layoffs and then going radio silent for weeks without acknowledging them. These were made with little to no regard how they would impact remaining employees. They say they want small elite teams, but don't pay people a below average salary. - Out of touch leadership that doesn't listen to employees or try to take the time to get to the root cause of issues - Company does not live it's values - they are a joke, especially valuing dissent.

The leadership here has destroyed the morale of the company. So many well-respected performers and leaders have left in the past year. Terrible change management, unattainable targets, constantly changing strategy, not celebrating top performers. The CEO seems tone deaf to the fact that morale matters in a workplace. I have no idea how he is going to regain the trust of his people.

Appian has a strong product and once had a lot of potential in the market, however, the amount of damage done the past 2 years is beyond repair. As you can see in most of the reviews, a lot of this is due to poor leadership and the founders being too arrogant to step aside and recognize the faults of their own in order to fix it. Appian is nothing but a constant cycle of bad decisions made by the same leaders over and over again. This has put the company in a place where it will struggle to survive and will never achieve the position that the founders are trying to portray they will be at. The CEO and fellow executives are completely out of touch with reality. It’s the classic case of tech minded people with no background or experience in sales taking control over a sales organization because they refuse to trust anyone that is actually qualified and experienced to do the job they were hired for. Appian now has had 3 CROs in the past 3 years and 3 different VPs of NA Sales. Leadership has made some of the most thoughtless decisions that dictate the sales organization without even considering feedback from sales management or those out in the field. This has done nothing but create internal conflict across departments, drive out top talent, and create frustrations with customers and partners. Yet, even though the sales org is aware of how each change and new policy will have negative implications when announced, their voice is never taken into account and the blame is always put on them for not executing on these senseless strategies. As a result, employees have to suffer the consequences of these bad decisions through layoffs and demotions. These mass layoffs usually happen twice a year with others silently being let go throughout each quarter. Rather than having some internal reflection in attempt to solve some of these issues, and actually work on creating a solid foundation for a sales org, there only seems to be more bad decisions as a result which continues the cycle. It’s very unfortunate to see Appian take such a drastic turn downhill when there are so many smart and talented individuals that work there. That’s the only thing that has kept the current employees present because the leadership, pay, and toxic culture has driven everyone else out and will prevent Appian from hiring any new talent. The company is truly on its last legs at this point.

They are continuing to cut people. There is a toxic culture where everybody is looking to protect themself. They are firing people with no respect of their experience, seniority, knowledge... Their marketing sucks, they are changing the message every 6 months. They have a fundamental pipeline problem. Also, leadership is trying to avoid conflict with the CEO and they are making absurd decisions just to please him and keep their seats. It's not a good place to be.

It sucks to feel like you are on a sinking ship. I truly don't understand how given how out-of-touch and fickle leadership is that Appian has gotten this far. I've never seen a company succeed in spite of itself. Most of the AI is window dressing. Leadership is always chasing trends, which is why we are never able to keep a 1 year strategy for more than 2 months. Leadership is so busy pandering to the CEO that they have little time to provide direction, or goals. They continue to cut folks to save costs, and that cost cutting just overwhelms the survivors.

Culture is quickly degrading. The ability of upper management to continually fumble policy rollout is stunning. RTO is a popular subject here and it is worth noting. CEO repeatedly praised record productivity during the pandemic but then quickly changed tune once RTO became an option. Ableist ideas and communication have resulted, with the most shocking assertion being that those unable/unwilling to come into office are proving themselves as not dedicated and consequentially ineligible for promotion to a management track. Of course when challenged management denied this, despite them openly communicating it in an all company meeting. Their position is not strengthened by head leadership's continual assertion that RTO will promote a "virtuous flow of talent" to the (physical) workplace. Like noted in previous reviews, the majority of upper management at Appian has either worked there their entire career, or worked there so long that they seem to have lost sight of the larger business landscape. This means that there is little flexibility or openness when it comes to new ideas. As someone coming in with external experience (and apparently hired for that) it was extremely demoralizing to be shut down due to management's adversity to risk, no matter how small. Additionally, management training is woefully inadequate. Over my tenure I raised several issues (including blatantly sexist behavior of coworkers) with my immediate manager and was basically told to suck it up. Unfortunately my experience is not an isolated one. Also, beware the "unlimited PTO," it is not unlimited. While of course no job can offer truly unlimited PTO it is extremely frustrating for them to promote this as a perk and then to be challenged when exercising it. During one of my years at Appian life circumstances necessitated my taking more PTO than "recommended." My manager knew of my circumstances and still made it a point to repeatedly challenge me to "take less time off." This made an extremely difficult time in my life even worse and proved a sharp reminder of where Appian's values lie.

- The culture has done a complete 180 in recent years. Executive leadership claims to listen and care through surveys and a CEO manifesto, but it's clear those are just for show. - Because they are so inconsistent with strategy, every thing is a fire drill. You can never stop working and most things don't cross the finish line. Despite what they say, you are expected to answer chats/emails at all hours and on PTO. - Workload is wildly inconsistent. Some teams in Marketing are working 24/7 and others are missing half the day with no repercussions. Instead of holding other teams accountable, the thought process is to give those who work hard more work to do. - The company is pushing for employees to be in-office (despite MANY C-levels and department heads being remote with no plans to relocate - ironically, the main spokeswoman for the endeavor living multiple states away). - Promotions are often given to individuals who foster hostile work environments, while kind and effective contributors are overlooked. - Leadership dismisses valid feedback, with even HR acknowledging the issues but feeling powerless to drive change. - Long-tenured employees are leaving in droves, and leadership doesn’t seem to recognize or address this alarming trend. They ask how to keep you after you've given notice, not when you consistently brought challenges forward. - Appian is actively pushing out leaders who respect and advocate for their employees, while retaining those who cater to the C-suite's ever-changing priorities, no matter how inconsistent or detrimental they are. - Decision-makers in Marketing lack a basic understanding of the CRM system or sales strategy, which is alarming for a company that prides itself on business solutions. - Promotions, bonus percentages, and raises often seem to go to those who are “buddy-buddy” with the right leader rather than based on merit or impact, leaving many employees demoralized.

sales leadership bringing their own friends. team is unrecognizable