Chaos, disorganization, politics, and an increasingly toxic culture
Pros
-You’ll work with some of the smartest, most quality people in tech. That is, until many of them will be driven away by Anaplan’s utter lack of care for their people. -The product is the real deal, and it changes customer’s lives for the better. If only they could tell the story in a way that doesn’t sound like every other tech company.
Cons
-More politics than the West Wing. Want to get your project prioritized? Just start name-dropping. The problem with that is, it loses its impact when everyone tries the same old trick. -They make everything difficult. Everything. Be prepared to redo your work a few times and ask yourself, “why does this have to be so hard?” -They are absolutely horrific at planning. Siloes galore, tons of miscommunication, loads of duplicate work. If only they had a planning solution they could use to make it better. If the cobbler’s children have no shoes, Anaplan’s feet are cold, bare, and covered with blisters. -Random projects would pop up because someone on the C-Suite wanted them, and they’d become priority, take 10 people off their actual jobs, lead to minimal real results, and create massive stress. And they always come with weird codenames. “Hey, have you heard of Project Andromeda? I need you to work on it for the next three weeks.” -An unhealthy obsession with change ensures that your job never stays the same long enough to know whether what you’re doing is working. -If you enjoy endless chaos and reorganization, you’ll love it at Anaplan. If you enjoy being utterly unprepared for huge changes that will probably change back in a few months, you’ll love it there. -While they’ve dialed it back in recent days, their subscription to Cy Wakeman’s poisonous propaganda was unhealthy. For a while there, the theme was “shut your mouth, no feedback please, but bring your whole self to work.” -Want to get ahead? Be prepared to kiss up to Frank on his narcissistic Slack channel where he shows you the rich people things he did last weekend (what, you don’t chill with James Corden?) and hear how thankful he is for the peasants who make his daily chai at Starbucks. -Brace yourself for the dreaded “Organizational Announcement” emails that tell you of the most recent firing or reorganization. Think you know how to do your job? Just wait a few weeks. It’ll change. -The San Francisco HQ was too small from the beginning. No space to think, and those terrible smart boards that people will take calls on, disturbing anyone within 100 feet. Now, if only they had workforce planning software to predict how much space they would need. -The door to the C-Suite’s favorite conference room should have a revolving door on it. -Cutbacks, cutbacks, cutbacks. Pre-IPO holiday party = a huge buffet. Post-IPO holiday party = a tiny bit of food came out every few minutes, and we all left hungry. Two years post-IPO holiday party = canceled in lieu of “office luncheons.” The least they could do was make it not as obvious. -Significantly below-market pay, and when that point is brought up, you’ll only hear platitudes and non-answers -“Frank Answers Questions” sessions where Frank non-answers questions, they delete the truly valid and/or controversial ones, and someone serves up softball questions like “Of all the things you love about Anaplan, what do you just love the most?”