The Workday outage that began on Friday locked employees out of the tools they use to get paid, request time off and manage their benefits. The widespread failure hit the human resources platform used by more than 11,500 organizations around the world, leaving workers unable to clock in and out, check their pay information or file for benefits. The company said it put some of its systems into maintenance mode to fix a problem it found while testing, and it apologized to customers while it worked on a solution.
What happened
The outage began on Friday evening, and reports of problems spiked shortly after 5 p.m. Eastern time. Downdetector, a site that tracks service outages from user reports, recorded nearly 3,000 outage reports shortly after 5 p.m., and the number of reports peaked around 5:19 p.m. before tapering off. Employees who tried to use Workday were met with an error message saying the site was unavailable.
For many workers, the timing made the failure hard to ignore. People who needed to clock in or out for a shift could not do so. Others could not check their pay, request time off, sign up for training or file for benefits. Because Workday is the system of record for so many employers, the outage touched almost every part of the workday for the people who rely on it.
Who was affected
Workday says more than 11,500 organizations use its platform worldwide. Its customers include some of the largest employers in the United States, including Target, Walmart, Charles Schwab, Nasdaq and Netflix, as well as the US Department of Energy and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Municipal governments also rely on the platform, including the cities of Philadelphia, Dallas, Charlotte, Seattle and Denver.
It is not clear whether the outage affected all of Workday’s customers or only some of them. The company said some of its customers were experiencing a service disruption, and it said it was working urgently to investigate. The number of Downdetector reports — nearly 3,000 at the peak — points to a broad problem, but the company has not said how many employers or employees were affected.
What caused the outage
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, Workday said it discovered a problem while testing its backup systems, and it placed some of its systems into maintenance mode to fix it. The problem left some information inconsistent, which could cause errors when users tried to access their accounts or complete tasks.
The company has not given a fuller explanation of what went wrong during the testing, and it has not said what the inconsistent information was. In a statement, Workday said, “Some of our customers are experiencing a service disruption and we’re working urgently to investigate.” The company also apologized and said it was looking for the best way to fix the problem.
What we know
Here is what is confirmed. The outage began on Friday evening, with reports spiking shortly after 5 p.m. Eastern time. It prevented employees from clocking in and out, accessing pay information, requesting time off, filing for benefits and using training tools. Workday has more than 11,500 customer organizations, including major retailers, financial firms, government agencies and cities. The company traced the problem to something it found while testing backup systems, and it put some systems into maintenance mode. It has apologized, and it said it is working urgently to investigate.
What happens next
Workday has not provided an estimate for when the platform will be running again. That is the question most employees and employers are waiting on, and for now there is no answer. Until the platform is restored, workers who need to record their hours, check their pay or request time off will have to rely on whatever backup process their employer has in place.
Employers that use Workday should watch for updates from the company and from their own human resources teams, and workers should keep any records of the hours they worked while the system was down. The outage is a reminder of how much of the modern workplace now runs through a single platform — and how quickly a failure in that platform can reach millions of people.
Sources
Sources: Engadget and LiveNOW from FOX. Featured image: Office workers typing on keyboards at computers in a modern workplace. Photo by cottonbro studio, Pexels License, via Pexels.