Where to start. As always it should be from the top. It became clear during my tenure at Dynatrace that outside of the software org itself, technical expertise was not valued. Real solutions were not prioritized and leadership only cared about what they could trick to the board into believing was them being innovative.
This led to a level of toxicity and disfunction I've not seen in multiple decades of work.
Leadership chains were either complete nepotistic hires only tasked with doing the bidding of higher ups or entrenched fiefdoms protecting their area at all costs. Many leaders had zero expertise in their area, or experience that was a decade plus out of date.
Project/program planning was non-existent. Timelines were delusional. Workload was consistently too much, and everything was always on fire. The top priority work would shift almost weekly based on who complained the loudest to their higher ups and what ill-informed promises were made to the board.
All that mattered were timelines, and if you didn't play the game to give them the date they wanted to hear (9 times out of 10 by cutting corners) you would be moved out of the way, as evidenced by recent layoffs.
Working extra hours and weekends was never outright expressed as necessary, but there is no feasible way to avoid it and deliver everything in motion. The vast majority of people are working after hours and on weekends consistently. They can tout their wellness days and holiday calendar all they want, but none of that matters when they are just used to get work done without being constantly pulled aside for the next emergency.
The corporate/consulting brainrot speak is pervasive. The meetings are never ending. The addiction to consultants was next level. If you can think of a consultancy firm, Dynatrace is actively burning money with them and none of them are coordinated.
Politics reigns supreme at Dynatrace, and as the mask fell leaders were not even clever about hiding the fact. They would blatantly state it as if its a normal or healthy situation.
Do not accept a role here if you have other options.
