Gusto Reviews

Cons

Long hours end of month

Cons

Unclear whether the company has an actual overall market strategy it is executing against because exec decision making takes so long / shifts often, and planning is almost entirely bottoms up. Being the first mover / dominant player in category means there's so much opportunity to go after that leadership can't focus (FOMO). Additionally, tons of growing pains operationally that have never been solved along the way -- expected more maturity for a company of the size and age, still feels Series B. None of the above is insurmountable but can feel that way as there is little productive recognition of these issues on the part of mid-to-senior management. Culture is friendly, but tends to minimize issues and lots of social pressure to wrap any constructive feedback in so much positivity that it dilutes the impact or urgency of the issue itself. Frequent turnover at the executive / senior manager levels which is destabilizing for ICs / roadmap continuity.

Cons

Senior management makes decisions in silos and frequently fails to consult the experts they hired. “Make it work” is constantly said without proper tools or time to do so. Internal systems are antiquated, for example, Project Managers using Excel to keep track of 100+ simultaneous projects. Time off is difficult to get even as a salaried employee — they expect you to still attend “important” meetings on days off and every meeting is considered important.

Cons

I had two managers that were hostile and bullying me for years. HR stated they investigated the situation but nothing came of it. These employees continued to thrive while I suffered severe anxiety and panic attacks resulting in me taking medical leave. These employees have since left the company but have stunted my career progression and mental health.

Cons

-Many changes were made to hourly, ICs that were very negative and only impacted us with little notice given. Unlimited PTO was taken away with a 2 week notice and you either took the time unpaid or went in the negative. Gusto wouldn't even front load hours with the short notice. Your first year you only accrue 10 hours of PTO, THAT IS HORRIBLE. - When the PTO change was rolled out, the executive team required team managers to hold meetings. The ICs spoke their concerns and we were told they were being taken to the executive team. I was directly told from a manager, the executive team was not taking the concerns. -In the all hands meeting after all these changes were rolled out, the executive team was rude and blunt not interested in listening to our concerns. This isn't a direct quote but CEO said "Either get on board or get out" and "Prepare yourself for more changes" -Extremely low pay -No paths for career growth -New time tracking is horrible -Micromanaged

Cons

Not much to say about it

Cons

- C-Suite/J-Staff often seems incredibly short-sighted and just throw stuff at the wall hoping something sticks, without any serious thought to downstream impacts, the work required to execute, or how it may affect their direct reports and ICs. Most of this could be avoided by simply consulting with their direct reports before making decisions on a whim. - Almost a sub-bullet to the above but they really don't think through how changes they make will land with employees (especially ICs). Leveling/career pathing seems directionless I've seen plenty of talented hard-working Gustees sit at the same level for years while some folks seem to get promoted every other review cycle. A more recent example was the mandatory two days a week in office. On one hand in Denver and SF you have folks who need to be in the office having to fight for office space with people who probably don't need to be in office. Then you have the NY office where despite telling people at the start of August they were giving them till Mid-September to adjust their lives accordingly (and most not needing to be in office from what I can tell) they didn't actually have enough seats to accommodate everyone. One of my colleagues in NY was telling me that they had to make arrangements to care for their young child with a quick turnaround (sidenote: I'm no parent, but I assume that's not cheap especially in NY so hopefully Gusto is at least subsidizing it?), only to come into the office and have to do their work in Cafeteria because all the seats were booked on the mandatory days. - Lackluster systems and processes: Gusto's systems and processes are held together by bubble gum and duct tape. I'm not sure if senior leadership is unaware, or don't know the magnitude of the issue but it just makes life harder particularly if you're on the Revenue side of the house (Marketing,CX,Sales,FBOS etc.). There's so much efficiency (and probably MRR) being lost here, not to mention in no way is the way we do things scalable or up to par for a company hoping to IPO (hopefully) in the near future.

Cons

- Higher level management is extremely tone deaf and has a complete lack of empathy - Deceptive rug pulling recruiting tactics - No incentive to do better work when employee benefits are only being removed as the workload increases - Pay is worse than competitors - Benefits are worse than competitors - Employee experience and reviews are getting worse over time - Runs quarterly feedback surveys and does not implement any meaningful changes - Return to office mandate - Claims to care about diversity and inclusion but does not address how a return to office mandate disproportionately affects families, caretakers, and neurodivergent employees

Cons

Open floor plan is a nightmare Sexism Lots of frat bros

Cons

Nonsensical metrics and cryptic work expectations. Constantly changing approaches with no rhyme or reason. Changes result in nothing but "moving the goalpost" and management dances around awkwardly again until the dust settles but nothing changes or improves. Benefits slowly stripped away for non exempt employees. Cult like atmosphere made worse by weirdo toadies who openly worship management. Executives came from Tesla and Netflix so they only know how to grind, underpay staff, and recommend layoffs for profit. Middle management that isn't spending all day kissing rings is stretched beyond capacity and revenue targets are unatributable and based on nothing. Upper management also have started recording screens and raiding Slack logs. Beyond all of this, the outsourcing of the care department to Central America for slave wages has caused the system to fall in on itself and sales has become just another cog in the gears of escalating angry customers with the inbound and outbound teams. Wages cut, benefits cut, workers surveiled and hounded for taking breaks to deal with basic needs. All of this to prove profitable to prepare to be sold to some slash and burn equity firm or gobbled up and dismantled by some giant soulless tech company. Avoid this place if possible.