I rarely write reviews, but after two years at Cornerstone OnDemand I feel a responsibility to share what working here actually feels like.
It’s November 2024. Cornerstone executes a poorly planned layoff cutting 10% of the workforce. No handovers, no transition plans, no mitigation. Teams are left to pick up the pieces on their own. What follows are months of confusion, duplicated work, and people trying to figure out how to deliver the same output with significantly fewer hands and absolutely no guidance from above.
It’s March 2025. CEO Himanshu Palsule continues reshuffling his leadership team. At this point, no one under him lasts more than a couple of years. The constant turnover creates a vacuum of direction: every quarter brings a new “vision,” a new “strategy,” and a new org chart that will be replaced again before teams even have time to implement it.
It’s November 2025. Exactly the same week as the previous year, another unplanned round of layoffs. Another restructuring. Another wave of fear. Another holiday season overshadowed by instability and chaos. Employees walk into meetings wondering: Will I be next? Will it be my turn this November? This is what Cornerstone has turned into. A place where November isn’t about planning for the year ahead, but bracing for the next cut.
A necessary note on “Diversity & Inclusion”. Cornerstone speaks publicly about diversity, but my experience on the inside tells a different story. Over time, it became increasingly noticeable that senior hires around the CEO followed a very narrow pattern. Almost exclusively men, with very similar backgrounds, perspectives, and professional circles to his. Regardless of intent, this created a leadership layer that looked and thought the same, and it left many employees feeling that the company’s commitment to diversity was more of a slogan than a practice.
Diversity isn’t only about gender or ethnicity. It’s also about diversity of thought, experience, and leadership styles. And Cornerstone’s top level has been moving in the opposite direction.
The Return-to-Office issue. In the middle of all this instability, the CEO also began pushing return-to-office expectations that felt inconsistent and poorly thought out. Remote employees were left wondering if they were suddenly at higher risk, and the ambiguity added yet another layer of stress. Instead of providing clarity, the RTO push created more fear especially for people hired under fully remote agreements who suddenly felt their roles were less secure simply because they weren’t physically in an office.
How can anyone perform in an environment where strategy changes at the last minute, teams are dismantled overnight, and layoffs become an annual ritual? How do you expect people to build, innovate, or care when they’re constantly looking over their shoulder?
