Databricks prides itself in having a cooperative culture to foster teamwork. However there are several individuals such as a few sales managers, a few of the employees in finance, one of the IT heads, and one of the officers who do not engage in such behavior and this list is steadily growing. This leads to blame culture that while not prevalent throughout the company, it is steadily growing. Blame culture will result in lack of accountability, lack of incentive to plan ahead, and employees who are unhappy.
I saw this blaming myself when I saw one of the customer success people visibly upset after having a meeting with a person in finance, who I think is the director of order management. Apparently this individual berated him unprofessionally and blamed him for every setback that occurred. I learned about this finance person's past work history and through a contact, found out that he was terminated after 3 months from his last job due to unprofessional behavior. Databricks should be on the lookout from hiring people with a shady work history.
I also saw one of my fellow account executives get terminated due to workplace politics. He had a simple disagreement with his sales director over how to handle a difficult customer. Note that he didn't give any freebies away to the customer nor did he promise anything that he couldn't deliver. He was right at the end, but the sales director terminated him anyway and took credit for his account despite him meeting his quota every quarter and every year. This is when I began to have a sour taste in my mouth regarding the company.
Another issue is the lack of a work life balance. I understand the need to put in the extra hours every now and then to reach company goals and objectives. But towards the end I felt like the work life balance that Databricks claims they want its employees to have has been changed to just a work life. This will result in people burning out quicker and being unhappy. Towards the end of my time there, I felt that my fellow account executives and myself were required to put in 70-80 hr work weeks. I have 2 kids to take care of and cannot continue putting in such demanding hours.
