Toxic Culture, bad manager and leadership - Senior Software Engineer Personio Employee Review

1.0
14 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They pay slightly above market salaries, but due to salary freeze the rest of the market is quickly catching up

Cons

- Bad and toxic leadership - Culture of blame - They make colleagues compete against each other so there is no incentive to help anyone, every man for himself - The product is failing to get traction outside Germany, too much competition - Management operates from a perspective of distruct - Engineers are seen as dispensable resources - Top down culture and impossible to make a positive impact

Explore other reviews about Personio

5.0
14 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

My coworkers are wonderful, I feel energized coming to work everyday

Cons

The company has had a lot of churn at Director+ levels, not a clear vision across the company

1.0
30 Oct 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Smart collaborative colleagues at the lower IC levels.

Cons

Personio is a dying company. The over-complexity of the company's technical systems is comical. Every attempt to simplify seems to lead to more complexity as things get half migrated and left to rot. Engineering leadership seems clueless and unable to present a clear plan-of-action to get things on track. Principal engineers force engineering time to be spent on silly projects that don't move the needle long-term. There is an overall aversion to taking the time to learn deeply about systems being used. Personio feels like a combination of all of the negatives of both a startup and a mature tech company, with none of the positives. The tech is half assed and duct taped together, but still somehow everything moves at a glacial pace. There is a mass shared delusion at the company that an IPO is in reach. No investor is going to buy this company's junk shares on the open market.

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