WillowTree reviews about "salary"

Everything from Day 1 until I resigned was awful. My salary was 30k under the market, but during my interview, I was sold on the idea that WillowTree is a best-in-class culture and place to work. Onboarding was a joke, especially for remote folks—which was the experience that only continued throughout my tenure. There was a clear class system between folks who were in office (preferred) to remote (treated more like a burden or left over from the pandemic than an actual part of the company.) Early on, I remember TD (CEO) shooting down survey feedback that there was a culture problem because "[he] is the culture." That was the first warning sign that the promises from the interview process were not likely true. The culture is overwhelmingly one of blatant biases, closed-mindedness, and the worst top-heavy leadership culture I've encountered in my career. All input, decision-making, and support lies with people managers and up—including growth and development opportunities. Individual contributors are relegated to executing poorly defined ideas and abstract goals that are not grounded in any semblance of reality. Disagreement is encouraged on paper but actively punished in practice—especially if coming from the bottom of the organization. At no time was meaningful support offered. The only efforts made to improve the situation were obvious in their aim to minimize liability by the company or leadership. The mission was always to preserve the ego of the executives and the perception of our parent company and increase shareholder value. Not the mission of improving folks' lives through technology. If you're looking for an internship or a role straight out of undergrad, perhaps this is a place to get some experience. But I cannot recommend that anyone should seriously consider working for WillowTree (a Telus International Company.)

Trust hasn't been rebuilt since the layoffs this year and leadership does not instill confidence down to the team level. Communication regarding layoffs was extraordinarily poor and turned into a presentation full of buzzwords about how AI and voice are the future (don't forget to write your mandated book review since every employee was gifted a copy!) There's a lot of conversation happening privately among employees that used to be a lot more open because everyone continues to fear for their job safety. Rather than confidently making a decision on behalf of the company and properly communicating it, a slack poll was also sent out shortly after the layoffs by the CEO to see what services people would be open to cutting which as one might expect, imploded in on itself and didn't exactly make leadership look like they could confidently make a decision. Budget "planning" happens at the last minute, if at all. Communication around the business doing well and then weeks or days later, promotions are postponed and salary increases are suspended. Every year in December, there's a push to make it more "billable" but rather than properly plan knowing that it will be a slow month with clients and PTO, they put pressure on the teams to just "take less PTO" going so far as to ask people to change holiday plans and cancel PTO if it exceeded a certain amount. Lots of statements about how in person collaboration is important and how valuable it is to get teams together (even has it on the website that remote on-sites are quarterly) but there hasn't been one for well over a year, and the last two were cancelled at the last minute. Most, if not all, teams are cross located so be prepared to sit in virtual calls all day long while forced into the office. Leadership also sees being full-time remote as a "perk" rather than a working style. Claims that you can switch between office and remote anytime, but pretty quickly changed their tune on that one making it for senior level folks only (but who will be mentoring junior team members who remain in office?) and a lengthy approval process to transfer with a majority of requests getting denied. Sales team will regularly make promises and contracts that cannot be completed on time or on budget, ultimately leading to blame going on individuals who didn't even vet the proposal in the first place. Teams are overworked or blamed for not doing the work, leading to poorly done products or loss because of the extra investment required. None of the blame is ever put on the people selling this work though, they get their own happy hours and celebrations.

I regretfully find myself compelled to share my appalling experience with WillowTree a once-promising organization that has devolved into a disheartening cesspool of corporate greed, employee exploitation, and a complete disregard for the very culture it once prided itself on. My time at WillowTree was nothing short of a nightmare, as the management's decisions to lay off employees, slash salaries, and systematically dismantle the vibrant work environment that we had painstakingly built has left a bitter taste in my mouth. First and foremost, the heart-wrenching layoffs executed by the CEO was nothing short of a betrayal to its dedicated workforce. Talented individuals, who had poured their blood, sweat, and tears into the company's growth, were shown the door without any semblance of empathy or appreciation for their contributions. These actions not only shattered the lives of the affected employees, but they also eroded the trust and morale of those who remained, left wondering when the next round of job cuts would befall them. It is an understatement to say that WillowTree's reputation as an employer of choice has been irrevocably tarnished. In addition to the devastating layoffs, the decision to reduce salaries without any logical explanation or reasonable justification is an egregious insult to the hardworking individuals who remained at WillowTree. These employees had stayed loyal through thick and thin, enduring long hours, sacrificing personal time, and dedicating themselves to the company's success. Instead of acknowledging their loyalty and valuing their efforts, the company shamelessly chose to betray their trust by slashing their compensation, further compounding the financial and emotional stress already burdening them. But the horrors did not stop there. The once vibrant and inclusive culture that made WillowTree stand out among its competitors has been systematically dismantled. What was once an environment teeming with camaraderie, collaboration, and innovation has devolved into a toxic and soulless workspace, driven solely by profit margins and short-term gains. The spirit of teamwork has been crushed, replaced by an atmosphere of fear and distrust. The open channels of communication have been silenced, and management has become deaf to the concerns and ideas of its employees, leaving them feeling voiceless and disrespected. It is disheartening to witness a company that once boasted a strong sense of purpose and a commitment to its employees devolve into a soulless entity driven solely by the pursuit of profit. The callous actions of WillowTree's management have irreversibly damaged not only the livelihoods of the affected employees but also the company's standing within the industry. Prospective job seekers and business partners would be wise to think twice before engaging with an organization that so flagrantly disregards the well-being and contributions of its workforce. The ruthless layoffs, unfair salary reductions, and destruction of a once-vibrant culture serve as a dire warning of what this company has become. I sincerely hope that WillowTree reflects upon its choices and reconsiders its path, as its current trajectory only leads to the further erosion of trust, reputation, and ultimately, its own demise.

Like most of the other comments the acquisition really changed things. I even asked in my interview how they were planning on handling the upcoming recession we could all see coming a mile away. They boasted about how they didn't let anyone go in the pandemic and how the CEO didn't take a salary for a year....so when things weren't looking great financially after the acquisition, they weren't transparent about it or at least how bad it really was and made no effort to strip things like benefits, the intern program, swag, free lunches, etc. before cutting 120+ employees. The act of it was shocking but the delivery of it was very shocking to folks as well. I don't fault them for how it was done because that's never easy but I am shocked they didn't do more to prevent having to lay people off. Things in the last couple of months just felt very off brand for the empathetic environment that was sold to me when joining.

- Lower than average salaries for the industry with minimal raises (even for cost of living) - Policies and timelines surrounding promotions and raises keep changing - WT used to build above average software, but it doesn’t really have standards anymore - Constantly seeing your teammates leave is hard - There have been at least 4 rounds of layoffs in 3 years - Zero attention or care is given to employee satisfaction or trying to be a “great place to work” (incidentally, that started the year they sold for $1.25 billion, laid off a bunch of humans 6 months later, and then they stopped asking us to fill out that survey…) - Everybody left is constantly making jokes about the day TELUS fires everybody in North America - They lie to a class of interns every year, leading them to believe that they could be hired. Interns are used the for cheap labor, and then sent on their way. The company hasn’t hired any in at least 2 years. - The thing that made WT a good place to work wasn’t that it was ever perfect but that it was fair to say that “people cared”, and when there was a problem, there was always a way to talk to someone about it and a path to try to make it better. That is no longer true. Now, bad (and often poorly considered) policies go into effect on a regular basis, and it feels like there is almost some level of joy coming from the higher ups in the way that they are “sticking it to entitled employees that used to have too much power”

This agency has gone from an agile midsize consultancy that was building cool things and valued its people, to a bloated typical tech company that exists solely to provide profit to the shareholders of its massive soulless parent organization. Benefits and salaries no longer even middle of the curve. Management will blame the downturn on “economic headwinds” but the reality is, just like half of the rest of the tech industry, they had so much belief in their own intelligence and prescience that they thought the spending on digital transformation during the pandemic would last forever. They overhired during that time because, hey, companies have to grow always to be profitable right!? That’s an idea that has totally been proven throughout history. TD (or someone writing on his behalf) responds to each of these reviews with a bunch of buzzwords touting that generative AI, and our product offerings in this area, will save everything, but the truth is that leadership wasn’t even remotely aware of GenAI until it became public knowledge in January, and are jumping on a bandwagon with little to no knowledge of what they’re claiming to advise clients of. These are the equivalent of the people standing in the back of the crowd watching the wright brothers talking about how planes are the next big thing. Nobody cares what people who can’t write code think about AI.

This place is a venus fly trap for good people. Don't fall for the culture meme like I did, it's all lip service. Some of the leadership is great, but it doesn't really matter when most of them are delusional or have a profound lack of integrity. It doesn't matter how good individual contributors are because it'll be the people at the top that are making decisions that'll actually impact you. I can't see why someone with options would work here.

* When push comes to shove, companies that profess to be customer-centered or employee-centered often turn out to be shareholder-centered. In retrospect, this started to happen at WT when TELUS bought us, but leadership kept feeding us the old lines. * Leadership will tell you everything is ok financially and that the pipeline is great, then lay you off w/o warning. How you are laid off will be humiliating, dehumanizing, and sudden, and you will have no chance to say goodbyes. * Good luck getting VPs or anyone in the C-suite to intervene helpfully when client politics, incompetence, or dependencies prevent WT teams from being able to deliver successfully. * BizDev only cares about immediate lucrative contracts and does not care about feasibility or whether we're driving good outcomes for our clients. * Staff augmentation is now the way. * You will not get SBI feedback from most leaders. * The "Options" you will get in lieu of a competitive salary are monopoly money.

At the end after the Telus merger they completely lied to everyone. Months and months of bragging about how "forward thinking" and "world class" they were only to let go of 10% of the company, outsource jobs. They avoided taking responsibility for misleading and ruining a culture of people who really believed and bought in to their business model and the companies care for it's employees. They became so caught up in presenting themselves as more than they are as a company and team by passive aggressively getting employees to post on LinkedIn and make BizDev for everyone. The content of work became aggressively boring and just an arm for lackluster companies to borrow head count to get boring and scopeless results.