A Once-Great Culture Now Unrecognizable After Acquisition - Anonymous Employee Smartsheet Employee Review

1.0
31 May 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The company once had a collaborative, people-first culture that supported employee growth and innovation. There are still some incredibly talented and hardworking individuals doing their best despite the challenges.

Cons

Since the acquisition, there has been a drastic cultural shift that has negatively impacted morale, transparency, and collaboration. Senior leadership turnover has led to inconsistent direction and an erosion of trust between teams and management. Pressure to meet unattainable goals has increased, often without the necessary resources or support. Decision-making now appears more focused on optics and self-preservation rather than on empowering teams or delivering sustainable success. Benefits have steadily declined over time, with reduced offerings and less investment in employee well-being. There are persistent issues with leadership accountability. Concerns raised through internal channels do not seem to result in meaningful action, which has contributed to the departure of several high-performing team members.

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Smartsheet Response
1y
Thank you for your review and for sharing your honest feedback. We hear you, and value your perspective. We aim to foster that collaborative, people-first culture, and recognize the incredible dedication and talent of everyone at Smartsheet. Acquisitions, while transformative, are also designed to bring accelerated growth and new opportunities. We hope that you’ll share your feedback in our company engagement survey so that we are able to take action on some of these items. Thank you again.

Explore other reviews about Smartsheet

5.0
11 Jun 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
26 May 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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