Workday Disruption Cuts Off Millions, Hits Major Software Firm Too

WHO:

Fox Business - Workday is a business software company that provides payroll and human-resources management services to 11,500 companies.

Fox Business - Workday customers potentially affected include Walmart, Target, Netflix, Salesforce, PNC Bank, Chipotle, Southwest Airlines, General Electric and Nasdaq.

Fox Business - Workday’s government clients include the cities of Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Charlotte and Denver; the U.S. Department of Energy; and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Fox Business - A Workday spokesperson said some customers were experiencing a service disruption and the company was urgently investigating and working to resolve it.

Engadget - The outage affected employees of thousands of businesses who could not access workplace tasks.

WHAT:

Fox Business - Workday experienced a major service outage; users saw the message, “Workday is currently unavailable” and were told, “We are experiencing a service interruption. Your service will be restored as quickly as possible.”

Fox Business - Workday’s notice apologized, advised customers needing assistance to contact their organization’s Workday Administrator, and told other users to check back later.

Fox Business - Downdetector reported a spike of nearly 3,000 Workday-related issues.

Fox Business - The Workday spokesperson said, “We sincerely apologize for the challenges this is causing impacted customers.”

Fox Business - Workday had not provided an estimate for when services would return.

Engadget - The outage locked millions of employees out of their Workday accounts.

WHERE:

Fox Business - The affected customers include businesses and government agencies in the United States; the article identifies Philadelphia, Dallas, Seattle, Charlotte and Denver among the cities served.

Fox Business - Workday told the San Francisco Chronicle about the disruption.

WHEN:

Fox Business - Downdetector’s spike of nearly 3,000 reported issues began shortly after 5 p.m. Friday.

Fox Business - The outage followed a major Microsoft shutdown affecting Outlook and Teams in recent days.

WHY:

Fox Business - Workday told the San Francisco Chronicle that the disruption occurred after it discovered a problem while testing backup systems.

HOW:

Fox Business - Workday said it was urgently investigating and working to resolve the service disruption; it did not specify a restoration estimate.

(UPDATED November 14, 2026 16:05 UTC)

Workday’s major outage locked millions of employees out of workplace accounts and tasks. The payroll and human-resources software serves 11,500 companies, including Walmart and Netflix. Workday blamed a problem found while testing backup systems and is working to restore service.