Cons - too many to list - Founders, Execs, Services, Sales, Benefits, and HR are all at best well below par and at worst are dysfunctional and operate through fear, abuse, and in some cases illegal practice. Do not be fooled, despite the facade this company is a grand con game that has fooled industry and ripped off customers for decades.
Founders – Despite coming off as transparent, available, and focused on the product, this rhetoric is driven by the need to raise share price. They literally do operate in the ivory tower. They never respond to internal emails from anyone but direct reports, even when they direct or invite staff to share ideas. They are narcissistic want-to-be billionaires. Their promises of nothing changing due to the 2017 IPO was all smoke and everything did change. They do rely and delegate to their senior execs, but these same execs are horrible bosses, tyrants, or useless fixtures that are hang-ons from the early days of the company.
Execs – the landscape of the executives is defined by the existence of the staff. So, if you are an engineer, you are a cool kid and will get the most positive executive experience. If you are in marketing or HR then you live in la-la land with unicorns and fairies, nothing can go wrong. If you are in services then you are a slave in a dying revenue stream. If you are in sales then you are expendable. My experience is in both services, then sales. I have seen the best executives leave from Services because of unrealistic expectations placed on them from corporate. Sales, on the other hand, is a complete catastrophe. The sales execs are indeed the tyrants and nitwits others have referred to and for some reason everyone around them believe that everything they say is right, and it is not. When they are right, they are bullies and when they are wrong they are delusional, refusing to even hear alternative business cases. This impacts others up and down the chain who feel they have to practice a knee-jerk reaction management style. As a result, people either leave or are fired all the time, even executives.
Sales – my closest experience to sales is with the Federal Sales team. The group is completely dysfunctional. This is mainly due to the fact that the leaders are yes men for the exec tyrants and they have no strategic sense whatsoever. They have limited software sales experience and try to manage beyond their capability. The execs rule through fear and in one 18 month period, 11 staff from account executives to industry executives/VPs were either fired by execs or left as a direct result of them. That is an abysmal record but corporate shields them from the company acknowledging and addressing the real problem. Additionally, the execs rarely fire folks themselves even if they are direct reports, and will have someone else do the dirty work. A lot of positioning happens at the senior ranks due to who the execs are friends with, even replacing folks in positions for friends. The Federal execs are disconnected from the sales team due to disruptive personal schedules, yet insist they are involved from a micromanagement perspective. Account Executives' progress is constantly disrupted in having to repeat reports that have already been presented and AEs dread taking the execs to customer meetings because they have very little tact in customer relationships. Basically they make Account Executives' lives and jobs miserable. Appian sales is an abusive work atmosphere and execs constantly uses profane language as they yell on the phone. They insist staff work in the office but they are rarely there themselves. They are constantly distracted and define the term “bad boss”. In some cases the execs operate illegally in their abusive behavior and the toxic atmosphere they create. They have ruined countless careers due to their own deficiencies and somehow escape the fate that they so fondly use on others to get their way.
You know those folks that can’t look you in the eye when they speak to you? Not the type that divert eye contact to think or because they are shy, but the ones who uncomfortably just can’t look people in the eye when they talk? Well, don’t trust those people ever. There are a few of these in Federal sales and who like all the other narcissists at Appian, are really bad bosses. They are never available and perfect the facade of being experts in the Federal industry when they are really just former integration PMs (from integrators, not from Appian) with a few big implementations under their belts, and even fewer that were Appian. Their contacts don’t matter in winning new business and their demeaning tone and manner in which they speak is embarrassingly condescending and uncomfortable. For some reason potential customers listen to them and don’t realize how really insulting they are to their knowledge and capability. There is a reason they have no direct reports.
Human Resources – in all of this the HR team is completely hypocritical. Terminations come out of nowhere with no reason or justification. If you look up what “at-will” employment means, the source will tell you to refer to Appian. They honestly do not care about employees as human beings, bottom line. If some tyrant or nitwit decides they don’t like someone, that person is gone the next day. There is never good news from HR and if you see an HR executive, you minutes are numbered. You are summarily treated like a criminal and literally escorted out the door. I saw one senior person terminated for no reason and forced to leave everything behind, even personal artifacts that were never recovered. At Appian there is no such thing as a Performance Improvement Plan (PIP). You are simply cut loose and forced to sign non-disclosures. They even try to get you to "resign" so that they don't have to pay unemployment insurance.
