Workday Suffers Massive Outage, 1 Day After Microsoft Faced Similar Disruption That Impacted Thousands of Companies
Workday Suffers Massive Outage, 1 Day After Microsoft Faced Similar Disruption That Impacted Thousands of Companies
Desiree Anello Sat, November 14, 2026 at 5:54 PM UTC
0
Workday logoCredit: INA FASSBENDER / AFP via Getty -
Workday suffered a major outage that impacted thousands of companies on Nov. 13
The software platform handles payroll and human resources management for various businesses
Workday’s outage came just one day after Microsoft experienced similar disruptions
A major Workday outage impacted thousands of companies, just one day after Microsoft experienced its own shutdown that did the same.
The software platform, which handles payroll and human resources management for various businesses, was affected on Friday, Nov. 13.
“Workday is currently unavailable,” the platform signaled during the outage, per Fox Business. “We are currently experiencing a service interruption. Your service will be restored as quickly as possible.”
“We apologize for the inconvenience,” the message from the company continued. “If you are a Workday customer and require additional assistance, please contact the Workday Administrator within your organization. Otherwise, please check back later.”
Among the companies affected were Walmart, Target, Netflix, Southwest Airlines, Salesforce and more. Workday serves more than 11,500 customers globally, according to its website.
Downdetector, an outage monitoring platform, reported that nearly 3,000 users began experiencing problems with Workday shortly after 5 p.m. EST on Nov. 13.
In a statement to PEOPLE on Saturday, Nov. 14, a Workday spokesperson said, “Friday afternoon, we experienced a service disruption affecting two of our data centers.”
“Service was restored by 11 a.m. EST Saturday, and customers are coming back online. We recognize the critical services we provide to our customers and their workforces, and we sincerely apologize for this outage,” the company representative added.
The spokesperson said in a prior statement on Nov. 13, per Live Now Fox, “Some of our customers are experiencing a service disruption, and we’re working urgently to investigate and resolve the issue. We sincerely apologize for the challenges this is causing impacted customers.”
Advertisement
— sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.
One day before the Workday outage, a major Microsoft 365 outage caused disruptions for companies, governments and millions of users worldwide, with services including Outlook, Teams and Copilot affected.
The outage, not believed to be due to a cybersecurity incident, first began before 11:17 a.m. EST on Thursday, Nov. 12, according to Downdetector.
Microsoft OutlookCredit: Thomas Fuller/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty
“We regret that today’s outages caused disruptions for our customers, and we are working to address the issue,” Microsoft executive Charles Lamanna wrote on X.
“We will continue to share more information as soon as we have it, and for now I can confirm that there is no indication this is the result of malicious or cyber activity,” he added.
Just after 6 a.m. EST on Nov. 13, Microsoft reported once again that “users may be unable to connect to multiple Microsoft 365 services,” but the company said progress was being made.
Microsoft also reiterated that there was still no evidence of malicious activity, and Lamanna explained that investigations pointed to “technical challenges” that were making recovery “more difficult than normal.”
“I’m working closely with the engineering team to complete the full post-mortem,” he wrote on X. “We will publish the post-mortem shortly covering the step-by-step timeline and our many repair items to avoid similar outages in the future.
on People
Source: “AOL Money”
