How are career development opportunities at Justworks?

Lots of career growth opportunity, wonderful culture, lots of change and new things on the horizon.

Moving quickly to grow can cause gaps and impediments in processes and available resources. Not anything you wouldn't see in any company growing like Justworks is!

Historically, Justworks was an exceptional place to work. Culture was not a buzzword, it was lived daily. Leadership trusted its people, encouraged respectful disagreement, and created an environment where opinions were genuinely heard and considered. Leaders led with empathy and collaboration was the norm. That trust and openness created loyalty, long tenure, and teams that were deeply invested in both the company and their leaders. If you look, there are some very long tenured sales people here, some with almost a decade in seat. This is quickly diminishing, which I will get into in the cons.

Following a new CRO, the culture shifted significantly. What was once a trust-based, people-first environment has become increasingly fear-driven. Metrics are now often used as tools for pressure rather than coaching, and frequent, reactive changes have created instability rather than clarity. Added to this shift, there has been a constant cycle of changes, from processes, metrics, and expectations. Many of which appear driven more by a desire for leadership ownership than by clear business need or to fix a problem. These changes are often rolled out quickly, without sufficient input from front-line teams, creating confusion week over week around what "good" actually looks like. In several cases, initiatives/changes have failed within six months or less, and quietly reverted to their prior state. There is little to no accountability or reflection on why those changes did not succeed. The result is a sales organization that struggles to build confidence, consistency, or trust in leadership direction as the ground beneath them is constantly moving. A major challenge is the erosion of trust between the leadership team and the broader sales floor. Front-line managers and AEs feel unheard, disengaged, and hesitant to speak up. This has led to widespread quiet quitting and accelerating people leaving, including the departure of multiple long-tenured managers and AEs. High performers are leaving, and others are actively avoiding promotion due to increased exposure to this leadership layer. There is also a noticeable disconnect between senior sales leadership and the realities of the product, industry, and day-to-day sales motion. Despite limited familiarity with the health insurance and PEO space, sweeping changes continue to be implemented, often reinventing processes that previously worked well. This disconnect has resulted in disengagement during our weekly "commit" meeting that is just a soap box for our Senior Sales Leaders. A meeting where they get up and bark at you with elementary sales training and call people out for not running with X change that was announced 2 days ago. Perhaps most concerning is the lack of visible acknowledgment or intervention from senior leadership. There is top down awareness of these sales leadership issues across HR and executive leadership, supported by exit feedback and culture surveys, yet no meaningful action has been taken or even addressed. The impact on morale, retention, and career progression is apparent on the sales floor, like a dark cloud over the office. Without a course correction that prioritizes accountability on our leaders, these issues risk continuing to compound and negatively impact both employee experience and long-term business performance.

Employs some of the most wonderful, kind, smart, intelligent, & thoughtful Individual Contributors.

I want to start by saying I worked at Justworks for over five years— I stuck around through many highs and lows, but ultimately left when it became clear the company had completely lost any sense of appreciation or respect for its employees. If you’re looking for an extremely high-stress job with low pay, no growth opportunities, and a micromanagement style that’ll make you question your every move— Justworks is for you! More specifically, the Customer Success Org is the place to be if you enjoy being constantly overworked, disgracefully underpaid, and treated like trash by both your company *and* its customers. Great for anyone who loves burnout and prefers not to be recognized or rewarded for their contributions. Let me paint a picture of your day-to-day: log in at 9AM sharp— if you're late, you’ll receive verbal, then formal written warnings from your manager. They’ll be monitoring your availability at all times, both in and outside of the office. If you're on the Support Team, you’ll have a pre-set, hour-by-hour daily schedule with one designated lunch break. Need an additional 15+ minute break? You’ll need to request approval from your manager. Get ready to feel like a child, because that's how Management will treat you. Expect to be inundated with emails and calls the moment you log on for the day. Nearly every customer conversation is extremely nuanced and urgent. For example: a customer forgot to run payroll and now their employees won’t be paid. It’s your fault. Fix it. The customer doesn’t care that the system can’t retroactively send out hundreds of thousands of dollars or that they made the mistake— they expect you to make it happen anyway. Now you’re scrambling to coordinate with internal teams, beat a same-day processing deadline, and then deliver the news that their employees likely won’t be paid for another week. Next call? A frantic employee in the hospital because their health insurance isn’t showing as active, and they can’t get care for their newborn in the NICU. Fix it. You’ll work with internal teams, insurance carriers, dig into the backend systems, and try to figure out what went wrong— all while trying to stay composed and work to calm the panicked parent. Expect to be on edge at all times. There are no 'light' days. You will constantly be drowning. Justworks has never staffed the Customer Success team adequately, and they never will, because no one in leadership is willing to stand up for the department and the hardworking, dedicated people who keep the company's customers happy. Let’s talk upward mobility next. Maybe you eventually want to grow into a managerial position, or maybe you think joining the CSO at Justworks will be a good stepping stone to eventually transition to another internal team. I promise you— this will be the worst step toward professional growth you can possibly take. Recruiters are known to make the process of internal mobility seem realistic and attainable, but that’s not an accurate portrayal of how things actually work. To start, if you want to grow internally— either horizontally or vertically—you’ll need nearly perfect individual metrics (i.e. CSAT, Q/A Score, NPS, etc.), which are very difficult to maintain. To give you a little insight: receiving just ONE bad Q/A score means your metrics will be in the red for several months. Add in one or two angry customers taking their frustration out on a CSAT survey with a 1-star review, and you’ll be digging yourself out of that hole for the rest of the year. Since your metrics won’t meet management’s expectations, you won’t even be allowed to APPLY for internal roles. It’s also worth noting that management often changes the expectations for these metrics, but doesn’t factor those changes into decisions around growth opportunities. So, let’s talk about what your 'career path' actually looks like: Option 1: You want to grow into a managerial position. There’s a long line for any management openings, so expect it to take years of going above and beyond, and being fake to the right people, until it’s your turn. Most managers who started as ICs had to apply for a leadership role 2–3 times before they were even considered. For some roles, upper-level leaders won’t even consider internal candidates and will only hire external candidates, often people they’ve worked with before. Option 2: You want to move horizontally onto another internal team. Again, expect it to take years, with zero guarantees. During those years, you’ll get small pay bumps (at most, a 3% increase year-over-year). Still, you work hard for those pennies, keeping your eyes on the goal of moving to a team that aligns better with your long-term career goals. When the right opening finally shows up, three years later (if you're really, REALLY lucky), Justworks won’t care about your tenure or pay history. Depending on the team, even if it’s a more senior role with more responsibilities, you’ll likely be expected to take a pay cut. Don’t expect your years of hard work and dedication to translate monetarily, because they won’t. The last thing I’ll touch on is Justworks’ internal policies and the HR/People Team. It’s honestly laughable because Justworks is literally an HR/Benefits/Payroll company, yet its own People Team conducted themselves despicably during my time there— embarrassing for a company that supports thousands of other HR teams. Justworks doesn’t take its own advice or put its values into practice internally, and you will feel that at some point. Unfortunately, it’ll probably happen when you’re at your lowest— facing a personal crisis and hoping the company will be reasonable or supportive. Spoiler: they won’t be. I heard countless complaints about the People Team, including some that brought me to tears, stories of my smartest and hardest-working colleagues being treated with complete disregard during some of the hardest moments of their lives. It’s a weird and frustrating experience to be on a customer-facing team that’s held to incredibly high standards— advising companies daily on how to handle sensitive HR issues, all while knowing that your own employer wouldn’t follow those same standards themselves. All of that said, Justworks is clearly trying to position itself to go public. To make things appear copacetic from the outside, the company has morphed into a rigid, stingy, corporate machine that’s completely abandoned the employee-first culture it once prided itself so heavily on. At the end of the day, what used to set Justworks apart from ADP, TriNet, or Rippling? A huge part of the appeal was the quality support our Customer Success team provided. It’s notoriously hard to get support from competitors, and that was one of Justworks primary differentiators. But based on how the CSO is run now, that competitive edge is almost entirely gone. I have no doubt this will erode the company's ability to retain customers in the next few most pivotal years to come. My advice? Work literally anywhere else. Work at Starbucks if you have to. DO NOT TAKE A JOB AT JUSTWORKS if you have even the tiniest speck of self-respect or regard for your mental health.

- Chill WLB - Nice coworkers - Less feudal than a corp - Free tokens

- No growth opportunities - Micromanaging leaders and managers who gaslight - Mid, chaotic tech - where your brain and resume go to die - Poor business outlook due to macro and market headwinds - Poor pay

Use to have good culture

-low pay -too much politics -lacks diversity in leadership

Employee diversity, dog-friendly office and convenient office location in FiDi.

You have to work most banking holidays. Pay is below market compared to similar roles at other companies. Internal mobility and career advancement is driven more by office politics and connections than merit. Company and department policies often lack consistency or enforcement. For example, the Customer Success organization was established with an unlimited PTO policy, yet management later imposed an informal cap of 20 days. Similarly, although it was communicated that employees must be in a role for at least one year before transferring internally, an internal move was approved for an employee after just six months.

The pros aren't worth it anymore

Career development is based on favoritism No clear business strategy or direction HR department and senior leadership are unethical in their performance management tactics

Managers and leadership are supportive, collaborative, It's a team that wants to succeed and and champion Justworks hiring /business needs. Professional development opportunities Good work/life balance Great culture- inclusive + collaborative

Fast paced - some processes can shift and evolve, which is natural due to the growth of the company. Must be comfortable navigating in the grey from time to time.

It’s been a great place to develop my skills, take on new challenges, and grow my career alongside smart, supportive colleagues. Leadership invests in people and I feel valued

Like any company, there have been some changes that take adjustment or need more fine tuning, but overall they’ve been handled thoughtfully and haven’t overshadowed my positive time here.

Salary is alright, the job is easy

Certain managers make it clear they don't want to manage and are coasting along the way because it is an easy job to them which they vocalize. Other managers make it clear they want to hire "one of us" insinuating they want to show favoritism towards their race. Though the company preaches DEIB, they don't actually mean it for all who work there, only their favorites. There is a severe lack of growth opportunity and management will prevent you from switching departments. They claim you should be open with them with your interests but will prevent you from switching teams.