Toxic culture in some teams that demotivates new employees to excel in their jobs - Senior Technical Product Manager PayPal Employee Review

1.0
Oct 4, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

IT staff is very helpful; Competent salaries and benefits; Great campus and cafeteria.

Cons

Following data points are specific to my experience and doesn't necessarily mean all teams suffer from the same. This feedback is specifically for Data Infrastructure team. (1) People who have worked in the company for many many years don't share any knowledge or information to new staff. Extremely political. They feel their jobs at risk if they share any knowledge / subject matter which makes the environment highly toxic. I had to go run around people for permissions/ approvals, information shared is highly cryptic and misleading. (2) Managers here lack leadership skills. They don't have a vision and are never sure of their roadmaps. They prefer to be people managers for HR purposes. I had to go to skip level to get help but even they were of no help. (3) Chennai mafia - Yes, the office in Southern India is full of highly toxic personalities, scheming, misleading, extremely manipulating. They have subject knowledge but they are absolutely difficult people to work with. It's a shame that most of the Engineering resources are situated there. (4) Insane and inhuman scheduling of meetings in late nights for visionless, directionless endeavors. Following Agile for a meaningless projects, blame games make your life stressful. I had to attend at least 10 meetings a day from 8 am to 11 pm. What a culture!

Explore other reviews about PayPal

5.0
May 15, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good company to work for, good work life balance

Cons

They should have more developers than other titles.

2.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

PayPal has a lot of potential. It has two very strong brands in PayPal and Venmo with significant awareness and user bases that other companies envy. There are pockets of teams that are really pushing the envelop to reimagine what PayPal and Venmo could be—especially the Venmo team—and to move with speed given the company must stay focused and not waste time with Apple Pay, Shop Pay, and so many other competitors nipping at PayPal's heels and aggressively taking market share.

Cons

While some teams are pushing to self-disrupt and are moving fast, too many teams—and I'd argue the majority of the company–are living off of PayPal's laurels from the late 2010s through the pandemic. The culture and mindset have to change for the company to remain competitive. Otherwise, they are the Titanic and they're sinking slowly. The former CEO who only last 2 years tried diversifying the company's revenue, planning for the future. But the board and its former chairman (now new CEO) felt he wasn't moving fast enough to stabilize and marketshare. Instead, the board hired the former chairman who made computers and printers at HP—another sinking ship—to lead the oldest fintech company. The loss of confidence in the leadership team and the strategy are only accelerating.

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