My experience at ThoughtWorks.

I shipped off my company laptop and badge back to ThoughtWorks (TW) last week. Before I sign my severance package, I wanted to share a few thoughts and reflections on my time spent as a consultant with TW in the USA. All of the writings are based my views, experiences and opinions IN THE USA. This article will focus on two parts of the experience: 1. My work experience, 2. My layoff experience.

Working at ThoughtWorks in the US

When I joined TW in 2019, we had three core pillars for values: 1. running a sustainable business, 2. championing technical excellence, and 3. lend a helping hand toward social justice. Those might not be the exact phrases, but the concept is there, make money being the best in the industry, while taking care of the community around us. Easy mission to get behind. Ask any ThoughtWorker and they'll rattle it off the three pillars with a nostalgic look in their eye.

Those core pillars / values has since changed. Ask any ThoughtWorker now, and the majority isn't going rattle off the eight core values that they currently have, because it's convoluted and doesn't send a cohesive message.

The eight core values no longer encompasses working in social justice, or it isn't prioritized. This shows in the clients and projects we pick up. I am not and will never discuss current or past clients. But do know that if you're thinking about joining TW, the chances of you getting on a project that you're passionate about or even a project that benefits the world in general is next to none.

I was involved with four projects during my three years, 11 months and 28 days at TW. At most I was on the beach (benched) for 4 months during that time. This gives me a utilization of roughly 90%. None of which were used in any social work for mine or other communities. I didn't seek it out, but nor was I offered any.

The compensation working at TW is only competitive for consultant job titles and not software engineers. While I was hired at TW in 2019 as a consultant writing software, my cash based compensation started at $110k USD. My final cash based compensation prior to being laid off, including a promotion to senior consultant writing software, ended at $135k. Over a span of four years, I had only gotten a 22.7% raise. This averages out to 5.7% yoy. The average inflation rate during this period was 6% or more. Despite getting a promotion, I would still be losing money to inflation while working at TW.

This was terrible considering my reviews were consistently above average or exceeding expectations and I had also gotten a promotion. It felt like we were being reminded consistently by leadership during townhall and Q&A sessions that inflation is not transitory (tell that to the price of eggs in super markets) and that no one joins TW for the money. Given that TWKS is at $7.25 from an ATH of $34 at the time of this writing, it's true that we shouldn't join for the compensation.

I do have love for my fellow coworkers, despite me having next to no love for TW leadership. TWers are the smartest and most empathetic people I have ever worked with. I would not have pulled through the projects I were on had it not been some of the most amazing people I was working with. You folks impacted me in the best ways possible, and I will miss working with y'all.

Layoffs at ThoughtWorks

TW leadership was a chicken with it's head cut off in an opaque black box during our layoffs. There was zero transparency with lots of mixed messages. Employees were assured that layoffs were absolutely not on the table. This assurance was contingent on employees taking a week of furlough each for the months of February and March (25% monthly pay reduction).

TW leadership also tried to balance their financials by incentivizing employees to use their PTO if they were on the beach (benched) through a use three days get two days deal. The deal was terrible for the employees as we now know. Always get your PTO payouts.

The layoff process was essentially ripped from Up in the Air. I was invited to a zoom meeting (who knew zoom meetings were both the harbinger of work and a lack of work) 30 minutes after the US CEO of TW sent out an email outlining layoffs happening. Then I was basically read the layoff lines from the movie, and my access to okta was cut off 15 minutes later.

My severance package was pitiful. Living in the state of California, which requires mass layoffs to be informed two months in advance or have a two month payout, TW did the bare minimum of paying out two months. In the process I lost the full vesting of my 401k, because I was two days short of it fully vesting at the four year anniversary mark. The state only requires 401ks to fully vest if the company lays off more than 20%. For the TWers that are still at TW, don't clap when leadership says they paid out severance. No one gets an applause break for doing the bare minimum.

Final Thoughts (Pun intended)

If you've read this far, thank you. For any workers and employees that finished this article and were laid off anywhere, if you haven't signed your severance package, be sure to leave a glassdoor review before you do. When you leave that review, be sure to knock off a star if there was any discomfort caused by leadership and management at your job. You wouldn't leave a five star yelp review for a restaurant that served you poorly, so don't leave a five star glassdoor review for leadership that served you poorly at work.

The layoffs at TW were a rushed event, so I didn't get to say goodbye to many of you that I've worked with. If we've worked together at TW and you enjoyed working with me, I hope we connect and keep in touch. My schedule for hot beverages is open for folks in or visiting San Francisco.

Be and stay well!

PS. If you are TW leadership and want to reach out to discuss my experience, DON'T. There is nothing to discuss.