Seeing What Sticks - Anonymous employee Gusto Employee Review

2.0
Oct 25, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Some of the benefits/stipends (fitness, phone, internet) - Most people are reasonably nice - Lateral moves to other teams are common if you find something you're interested in - The product has a lot of room for improvement but by nature is pretty sticky

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.

Explore other reviews about Gusto

5.0
Jun 10, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Smart and friendly coworkers. Excellent team culture

Cons

Tunnel visions on AI a bit too much

2.0
May 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The product is genuinely good, too bad the same can’t be said for how they treat the people who sell it.

Cons

Leadership talks a big game about people-first culture but the reality doesn’t match. The Chicago office expansion felt like a poorly thought-out experiment, new hires were brought on without a clear long-term commitment, and layoffs came without warning, leaving people blindsided. Crossing a billion dollars in revenue and still cutting employees sends a clear message about where workers rank on the priority list. Remote work flexibility is also a glaring weakness. For a company selling HR software to modern businesses, their internal stance on where employees can work is surprisingly rigid and hypocritical. The “flexibility” messaging is mostly optics. The broader concern is the AI roadmap. The automation push feels less like an innovation strategy and more like a slow wind-down of the workforce. Employees aren’t blind to it, it creates anxiety and erodes trust. The culture of transparency they promote externally is largely a facade internally.

10
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