Horrible management, even worse work environment - UX Designer Canonical Employee Review

1.0
Jul 3, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- competitive salary - fully remote work - week-long "sprints" every 6 months with fully paid travel and accommodation - an opportunity to network with very talented people (before they quickly leave the company)

Cons

- extremely high-pressure and stressful work. The company claims to follow a meritocratic system, but individual opinions don't matter and any employee initiative is frowned upon. - the management is notoriously horrible, with some managers exhibiting behaviors that can only be described as psychopathic. - employees are hesitant to seek promotions, as management is ever worse higher up the hierarchy. I have heard multiple stories of verbal harassment and humiliation in meetings from senior managers. - there is no compensation for overtime, but employees are encouraged to finish projects on time regardless of personal sacrifice. It is not uncommon to hear about coworkers working late or on weekends. - the turnover rate is extremely high, with employees either leaving or getting fired monthly. The company attempts to attract talent with promises of prestigious work in a progressive system, but the reality is an extremely rigid, toxic environment. - the company regularly hires employees from the Asia, Africa or Middle East with the promise of future relocation to the UK or an EU country where the company has a legal entity. However, I have never seen anyone successfully relocate. Instead, requests for relocation are quickly denied by management, making it seem like a false promise and a sleazy business practice. This tendency was more evident the longer I worked there. When I joined, I had a one-on-one meeting with a departing employee who told me, "The moment you start crying at this job, leave it and don't look back." I wish I had taken her advice sooner.

Explore other reviews about Canonical

5.0
Apr 18, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

very good. happy so far

Cons

could be better, like the time of application to final round

2.0
Jan 5, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

> Highly visible open source company > O.K. pay and benefits > Twice yearly trips to interesting locations > Intelligent and mostly caring colleagues > Getting to put Canonical on your resume will help your career

Cons

> Toxic leadership style trickles down to the middle management. They're ruthless and single-minded (and extremely intelligent) at the top, and those seem to be the traits that get people promoted. The promotion process is also hilariously involved, and if you don't perform they'll demote you. > Insane interview process - mine took something like four months to complete, represented like 40+ hours of my time, and was considered average. > Twice yearly trips for grueling weeklong sprints. > The company only hires the best so, if you're used to being very good at your job, here you'll only be average at best. > Stack ranking - bottom X% of employees after each biannual review are placed on a PIP. > From what I saw, there are no "personality hires". Morale is expected to be derived solely from the company-paid work trips and the experience of getting paid to create open source software. Maybe this is unavoidable for full-remote companies, but it gets gloomy. > The video-on calls with your team and other teams will take up several hours of every single day, good luck finding time to actually get your work done during the day.

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