Sage reviews

I worked long enough at Sage to understand the trajectory of its culture, its people and its identity. And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it. I can no longer in good conscience say that I identify with what it stands for. It might sound surprising to a sceptical public and some senior leaders at Sage, but culture is a vital part of a company’s success. It revolved around teamwork, integrity, a spirit of humility, and always doing the right thing for our customers. The culture is the secret sauce that makes a company great and allowed us to earn our customers’ trust for many years. It wasn’t just about making money; this alone will not sustain a company for so long. It had something to do with pride and belief in the organization. I am sad to say that I look around today and see virtually no trace of the culture that made me love working for this firm for many years. I no longer have the pride, or the belief. Leadership used to be about ideas, setting an example and doing the right thing. Today, if you make enough money for the co (ethical or not.) you will be promoted into a position of influence. If clients don’t trust you they will eventually stop doing business with you. It doesn’t matter how smart you are.

There is no direction, senior managers for the most part are bullies who think that hurling expletives and abuse at people will motivate them. Sage is constantly in competition with itself causing internal conflict and political games rather than getting the job done. There isn't enough resource or backfill at the coalface meaning staff are overworked to breaking point, good people are leaving in droves. However sage does fill an ever increasing quota of directors and VPs, mostly based in London creating a disconnect and lack of understanding of how the business works at HQ in Newcastle ( it's still HQ for now). Senior leaders cannot accept harsh truths, harsh truths don't even make their way up the chain when they should which results in mass panic when an executive finally realises what's going on when it is often too late to act. Senior members of staff are not held accountable for disastrous failures. Staff are asked to polish turds and then lambasted when they aren't shiny enough. Sage is staring into the abyss for all the reasons above, those with any degree of foresight are looking to get out quickly, the ship is sinking, which deeply saddens me.