CEO Must Step Down - Anonymous employee Buildkite Employee Review

Really flexible working environment with significant amounts of personal freedom to create a comfortable work life balance.

Can sometimes be a bit overwhelming in terms of sprint times / crunch projects.

There is no doubt that this company's product is one of the best I’ve encountered in my career. The technology is truly top-tier, and the customers consistently express their satisfaction and admiration for the product. The relationships I built with my colleagues were also some of the most rewarding of my career — some of them have become lifelong friends.

The C-Suite leadership team, particularly the CEO and CRO, made some deeply troubling decisions that marred my time with the company. Despite our team consistently surpassing performance goals every quarter for over a year, a sudden and seemingly arbitrary decision was made to lay off the entire department — one that felt rushed and poorly thought out, leaving double the work for my colleagues. To make matters worse, the CEO’s public statements regarding the team's departure insinuated that our team lacked the necessary skills and acumen for the role. This was not only inaccurate but deeply disrespectful to a group of professionals who had dedicated themselves fully to the company's success. The same behavior was repeated by the CEO when several VP level leaders left the company (by choice) following this initial decision as well. Since joining the company less than a year ago, the CRO made a series of poor decisions that consistently had negative impacts on the team and the business. He does not ask the team for input, does not ask about the existing processes (i.e. what is working well, what isn't working), and is not open to feedback or anyone else's ideas. This is proven by the high turnover rate in the sales department since he joined. The CEO would make promises to customers to deliver features and then later remove them from the roadmap, leaving the team in a very difficult position to deal with the fallout...then blame the team later if the customer was upset or decided to leave. I also witnessed the departure of one of the most effective and respected leaders in the company, who had contributed significantly to its growth. The way this individual was treated by C-level leadership was shocking and disheartening, especially given the remarkable success they had brought to the company over the last few years.