Don't let the 4.6 rating on glassdoor fool you please - Senior Backend Engineer Deel Employee Review

1.0
15 Apr 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The product is very good, and the technical team is really strong. There are many options to withdraw your salary from Deel to other platforms.

Cons

Don't let the 4.6 rating on Glassdoor fool you; I fell into the same trap, thinking I joined a fast-growing startup with a great culture and great people to work with. The disappointment started right from the beginning when I learned there was 0 onboarding for me, just software setup and setup of the infrastructure. They assigned me to a big project that required a deep understanding of their entire codebase right on my first week without any buffer of time for me to learn how things work. I had the same deadlines as others on the team right from the start, even though I was a newcomer who needed some time to get used to the project and the codebase. We had daily status-update standups in the mornings that lasted at least an hour, and despite that, my manager would ask me for extra updates 2-3 hours after the daily calls and one more time in the evening. It was more than clear that they had no trust in their remote employees and micromanaged them to make sure they were always around their setup, which is a very toxic thing to do; never had such an experience. It was not a coincidence that during my 3 months at this company, I saw 4 people leaving the company (they were also new joiners, 4-5 months at most), which makes me believe they have a very high turnover rate (also by reading the Glassdoor comments). The pressure of deadlines was crazy. Any other project/task/bug was the most critical emergency to be taken care of. Managers talk to you with a very negative and controlling manner, and I have seen some of the upper managers too talking the same way to lower ones, so I believe this is just the way it is at this company, everyone pushes the negativity down through the pyramid. Lastly, they ask you to give them a 5-star review on Glassdoor as soon as you join, and they really pay attention to their ratings here to keep them high. So don't fall for that trap, and good luck

Explore other reviews about Deel

5.0
10 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Fully Remote - Global team - Best talent in the world - People genuinely care, not only about customers but also the team mates - Deel speed is real - Real collaborative environment where you are valued - Amazing team culture with work life balance

Cons

No negotiation route for compensation during promotions

2.0
25 May 2026
Anonymous contractor
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Fully remote - Mostly nice and talented people, you can learn a bunch and the atmosphere is good in the beginning - Once you realize you're not ever getting a raise you can get by doing bare minimum - You can write the ceo on slack and he will respond, which is actually insane considering its such a huge company

Cons

- Everyone is underpaid, even the senior directors. They present employee equity as extra compensation, but make it very difficult to sell shares at secondaries. - Raise/promotion policies are set up in a way where most ppl will never get it. I've seen superstar employees get 2% annual raise. The rest got 1%. - Pay is localized, so you can do the same exact job but get pay half of the compensation if you're not based in the US. - It's either employee contract for less money, and you have some employee rights given to you by your country, or more money but you're getting misclassified on a b2b contract and using vaction days when you get sick. The actual work requirements and responsibilities are the same in both cases. - If you're not drinking the koolaid you better fall in line and keep any opinions challenging the status quo to yourself - Manager can get pretty manipulative, they'll say anything to appease you, but will not act in your interest unless it aligns with their internal politics play

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