Horrible Culture and worklife balance in the BI team - Data Science & Analysis Smartsheet Employee Review

1.0
Aug 28, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some people in the BI team and people in other teams are great to work with. The overall company culture is good but the culture in the BI team is horrible

Cons

Horrible culture and work life balance. Senior Leadership of BI is to blame, starting from the VP. They drive employees like cattle and the entire team has regular 50+ hr workweeks, including a lot of weekends with no overtime. No respect for the employees work life balance. I've had the VP doze off in a 1v1 with me lol. I had prepared so much for the meeting only to have him doze off midway while I was talking. He didn't even bother to apologize or reschedule. He just acted as though he was listening while barely listening and asking the same questions over and over again

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Smartsheet Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. We’re operating in a demanding and exciting time, full of opportunities to collaborate, innovate, and grow – and I know that only happens in an environment where employees feel empowered to balance driving results while making the best choices for themselves on a personal level. I’m disheartened to hear about your experience trying to find that balance at Smartsheet. Thanks to feedback like yours, we’re aware of the need for more bandwidth on this team and continue to bring new team members onboard. Thank you again for your feedback and I encourage you to reach out to people@smartsheet.com if you'd like to share more details about your time on the team. – Stephen Branstetter, Chief Operating Officer

Explore other reviews about Smartsheet

5.0
Jun 11, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great collaborative environment and competitive

Cons

Easily overwhelmed with phone calls, chats, and emails.

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Smartsheet Response
1w
We're so happy to hear that you're happy here! Collaboration with a healthy dose of competition is always great to hear, thank you for your review!
1.0
May 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Supportive of AI tooling. I had a great manager. I heard the severance packages are great, but I left of my own volition, so I don’t have personal experience.

Cons

Complete lack of direction or management at the mid to high levels of the company in product and engineering (most everyone left or was pushed out by cronyism from the private equity acquisition). No more equity offered to employees. No opportunities for promotion. They’ve shipped or are shipping most of the core products (including the core “sheet” aka Grid app) to India and have laid off tons of employees (somewhere between 12% and 15% of the company). Upper management did the thing where they had the US developers interview tons of people out of India, and then about half a year later laid off tons US developers, including several of the people that did the interviews. Upper management said that the India teams would be working on other projects, but clearly that was a lie. They laid off people without consulting their managers, or their manager’s managers, and without knowing what team they actually worked on or what they did. So entire teams were laid off unbeknownst to them. Very quick and poor handoffs to India, if any. You will likely be working on multiple teams at once, or moved to multiple teams during your time there in short periods of time. On-call can be a nightmare. There is no culture of any kind. Basically do not work here, whether you’re out of the US, India, or Bulgaria (the main countries for developers).

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Smartsheet Response
3w
Thank you for your honesty. While we’re glad that you had a great team and the tools you needed, it’s incredibly tough to hear that other aspects of your experience were less than great. To your point about equity, we’d like to clarify that we do offer a limited equity pool with specific eligibility. That said, navigating transition is already tough, and adding in other aspects like global shifts and new leadership can make it feel even harder. We know the dust hasn’t completely settled, and we understand that we have a lot of work to do to repair employee trust and morale. We’ve set off on that journey, and we appreciate all of this feedback along the way. Thank you, and we wish you all the best in your next chapter.
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