Shopify Employee Reviews about "work life balance"
50% would recommend to a friend
(199 total reviews)

Tobias Lütke
48% approve of CEO
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Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
- "Great benefits and actually care for you and encourage you to use all your vacation and personal days." (in 341 reviews)
- "Permanent work from home is the number one reason why I stay with the company as it gives me more time with family." (in 123 reviews)
- "Massive layoffs without any warning AFTER saying there will be no more layoffs privately and publicly" (in 106 reviews)
- "Senior leadership will not take responsibility for any decline in growth or making the wrong strategic decision" (in 99 reviews)
- "New products are rolled out without testing to a team who receives little training to be set up for success." (in 38 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of Shopify and is not affected by filters.
Found 199 of over 3K reviews
Updated Nov 28, 2023
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Reviews about "work life balance"
Return to all Reviews- 3.0May 20, 2023Enterprise Account ExecutiveCurrent Employee, more than 1 year
Pros
-Fortune I have a great Manager -Product is a leading brand and innovative -Colleagues are smart, kind and talented sales professionals -Wealth of knowledge gained in ecommerce - Good benefits, and Lifestyle spending account which can also be divided to contribute to RRSPs but not matching
Cons
- Poor direction in operations and lack of understanding of our books of business -Burn out is high and very little work/ life balance - Change is too frequent and detrimental, not productive (Ex. product weight for comissions change every few months, targets received half way through new quarters, compensation and role changes without employee say, disconnect between department communications for sales enablement and launching new products) - Lack of company trust; Ex. 2 layoffs despite promises of security - Career progression opportunities are unclear -70/30 compensation structure. The base salary is close to the market but OTE is lower than the typical 50/50 split - Took away Friday's off during the summer and quarterly in person bursts which were part of the signing incentive -Morale is low
6 - 4.0Jan 6, 2023Support AdvisorCurrent Employee, less than 1 yearToronto, ON
Pros
You will improve your focus, efficiency and communication skills. Really high quality people in terms of emotional intelligence/ empathy.
Cons
Work life balance is not ideal for the first few months while you get used to things. A lot of work and stress relative to salary provided compared to previous jobs as scope of problems is expansive, and the impact of your work on merchants can be high.
1 - 3.0Sep 10, 2022Marketing DirectorCurrent Employee
Pros
Work life balance is #1 for me and I get that here Benefits are also real good!
Cons
Things have change since I started a lot time ago. Rigid structure has removed a lot of the fun experimental type of work we used to thrive on. Traditionally lower pay than other tech. Decisions made from Leadership often questionable
2 - 5.0Apr 27, 2022Marketing LeadCurrent Employee, less than 1 yearNew York, NY
Pros
Been here for about a year and I truly love the company. The culture is great. And they really care about their people Work life balance is very doable and manageable at shopify. Which I find is not always easy at other tech companies. There’s a lot of autonomy and independence and nobody is micromanaging you Lots of great perks and incredibly smart, talented people. I have to say, everyone, I’ve met at Shopify is really nice, helpful, and very bright and talented. It’s a place for those who want to constantly grow and evolve. It’s a very collaborative company too which I love. As we move into a global space and adjusted to working 100% remotely, they are still figuring a lot out but they are always asking employees thru surveys about things and trying to make things work for us.
Cons
It’s not perfect, each growing tech company has growing pains and Shopify may have made decisions that not everyone likes but, to be honest, at the size it is now it’ll never please everyone
2 - 1.0Aug 10, 2023Risk AnalystFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsDublin, Dublin
Pros
Home office allowance, 3.500 EUR per year for wellbeing and lifestyle spending.
Cons
- They used to be great, but now they fire people to please shareholders when they lose money on bad projects - They used to give a lot of goodies for employees but not anymore - They will not think twice about firing people if an AI can do the job - They don't follow their own values, even though they say they are creating a company for the next 100 years, and that we are like a family, they way they are operating is very unstable and hypocritical. - Work life balance went to trash when they fired thousands of people without thinking about the workload that would be left for those who stayed.
19 - 5.0Feb 14, 2022DeveloperCurrent Employee, more than 5 yearsRoscommon
Pros
I find working at Shopify totally stress free, intellectually rewarding and challenging. Our hours are totally flexible as long as work is completed to the high standards we set. My team has absolutely no politics or internal strife, everyone works well together, mentors each other and encourages learning. I have so many opportunities to learn new languages, new frameworks and am encouraged to complete self-development at every opportunity. Since the entire company went remote in 2020, it has opened up opportunities across the whole company and many different areas of development and I know I can change direction and explore another aspect of our engineering infrastructure if that's what I want to do. And Shopify cares (and I mean really cares) about our well being and work / life balance. There has never been any issue if I need some sick time, or personal time for whatever reason. They support everything I need to do family-wise, the flexible working hours make managing a career and family very easy and their health cover is great. I also know I can advance my career with this company, I can clearly see how to achieve this and what I need to do to get to where I want to go. Shopify provides a framework for everything need to accomplish and reach the different roles in the company and it's a meritocracy, promotion doesn't just depend on how long you have been here, but the impact you make in your role.
Cons
I honestly don't have any cons to add here. I'm in my 40s and so have had numerous jobs, have travelled, have spent time in academia and ran my own business for a decade. I can honestly say that I never worked anywhere remotely as good as we have it here in Shopify. I think perhaps I could attain a higher salary as a developer in some other software companies in Ireland, however I don't believe for a second that I would have the same quality of life as Shopify has provided me with. That reason alone means I will be with them for the very, very long term.
1 - 1.0May 29, 2023Technical Support SpecialistFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsCalgary, AB
Pros
Some of the best and most capable employees and co workers I have ever met, its incredible to see the talent that Shopify has "tricked" into coming
Cons
Harley said in his podcast with Tim Ferriss that his job is to make employees want to stay and make it so they don't want to go anywhere else. I joined Shopify because of this statement he made, however this is completely false and a gaslight. Shopify does not care about keeping quality talent. You will be underpaid and under appreciated. You will work so hard that you will likely forget yourself and lose your health and work life balance. I was the highest performing member of my team, but the entire portion of my work was sold because the CEO Tobi has the attention span of a house fly and fails at long term preparation and strategy. Harley, Tobi and Kaz are hands down the worst group of leaders I have ever worked with, including in big companies like Apple. To summarize, Shopify has done an exceptional job of fooling you into thinking that they care, but in the end, you will get an email and get laidoff if the Tobi Tornado changes his mind based on a late night idea from playing Starcraft. I have never put so much heart into a company and been kicked to the curb so fast. I wasn't even given a proper interview with anyone and took me 24+ hours to even hear from anyone after I was laid off. Please, do your mental health a favour and look for companies that truly care, and have long term employees (thats the key.) This company is run by unexperienced programmers that are still emotionally children.
10 - 2.0Aug 9, 2023Senior Financial AnalystFormer Employee, more than 1 year
Pros
- Working team is highly engaged and hardworking, great group of folks that just crunch through work despite management lacking - Good equipment to carry out work
Cons
- Expect people to take step downs with the promise of internal growth opportunities that are very lacking - Little next to no opportunity to grow upwards; continuously filling opening with external candidates - Poor work life balance as leaders do not advocate for their teams and the workload coming from other business partners - Little authority for decision making as senior leadership dictate work and upcoming focuses despite glaring opportunities and outlined risks - Constant chaos for no reason (re-orgs, resets of budgets/strategy, responsibility changes etc.)
7 - 4.0Feb 9, 2022Sales ConciergeCurrent Employee, more than 5 yearsGalway
Pros
* Flexible working hours * Work is consistent * Room for project work * Benefits are great * Remote working is done right * There are options for career development or change * A good work/life balance is encouraged * Not penalised for staying in a position for a long time
Cons
* The career growth options are limited, most trend towards leadership * The quality of your lead can vary wildly
- 5.0Mar 5, 2019Production EngineerCurrent Employee, less than 1 yearOttawa, ON
Pros
The pay is good and the environment is nice. The food is also really good
Cons
Higher ups preach 'work/life harmony' (work/life balance) but you'll get side eye if you try to leave the office before 5 on a Friday
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