Actions speak louder than words — and Xero’s actions have spoken volumes over the years.
• Foundational systems have been under strain since at least 2019, with shifting priorities and constant pivots on product direction.
• The company attempted to build a sole trader product over seven times — each attempt failed to deliver real customer value.
• During COVID, leadership promised job security. Employees went above and beyond working remotely, but received little in return.
• Stock price rises, hiring exploded under the guise of “growth” while management stayed largely silent and disconnected. Paying taxes on employee shares were stopped.
• 2022 brought another failed sole trader product launch, millions of dollars lost, more blame-shifting from the board, early departing 'pre-Reset' staff silenced with NDAs.
• The following year, ~10% of loyal, long-serving employees were laid off — many of them women — and a new CEO brought in.
• That same year a $700k prize pool was announced to attract new customers — and the board gave itself a significant pay rise.
• The next year saw the same core tech problems persist. Production was frozen after multiple incidents, the executive team was replaced and the new CEO took a large bonus. Company values changed to be less human-centric.
• By 2025, new executives were appointed, AI used to 'recover' the 10% cut in staff. Pursues yet another acquisition, CEO salary increase followed by a symbolic shareholder strike, CEO tells accountants that in-product AI is not intended to replace their jobs.
• Newly recruited C-level now located exclusively in the US, CEO tells investors revenue will double next year, share price halves over the following six months, most staff still given pay rises less than inflation, PIPs for any 'underperformance'.
• 2026 brings a further rapidly declining stock price with more layoffs as a result, claims around "accessing a global talent pool" are used to justify the deep cuts for whoever remains.
Deeper Issues
• Teams are stuck in endless cycles of pivoting, rarely shipping anything meaningful.
• Internal technical debt is ignored. The platform continues to age while flashy new features take priority.
• Testing and QA are deprioritised, which limits growth and undermines product quality.
• Management turnover is so high that performance reviews and growth plans are regularly discarded.
• Many in leadership lack understanding of how the product works, how teams operate, or what customers need.
• Stack ranking and performance management create a culture of fear, not development.
• Salaries are inconsistent, hiring processes are unstructured, and internal promotion often depends more on office politics than merit.
• Career paths are vague, and high performers are often overworked and overlooked.
• Core values like #ownership and #human felt like branding exercises rather than real commitments.
• Employees are made to feel like they are the problem while leadership deflects accountability.
