Payhawk reviews about "people"

Even before starting, I experienced questionable behavior from people managers. When I asked for just one week to consider the offer, the response was: "Make up your mind - there are many others in line." (attitude showing a lack of respect for candidates and sets a clear tone of how people are treated even before joining). Additionally very strong hire-and-fire mentality. The company is severely unorganized, with pseudo-processes that create more confusion than clarity. Reasoned as "dynamic startup" - very funny. Cross-team collaboration is virtually nonexistent, making it difficult to deliver meaningful outcomes. The onboarding process is a mess: 100+ checkboxes spread across 4–5 outdated documents. Employees must manually request access to systems (some of which haven't been used in years), while newer essential tools are not even mentioned. Assigned "onboarding buddies" are unavailable in 60% of the time, leaving new hires unsupported during a critical time - mine was a good and quality guy but the very poor management make his value near zero. Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) hovers around 1-2 out of 5 in my team, yet this is never acknowledged or correctly addressed during Scrum meetings or retrospectives while. Monthly 1:1s with engineering leadership felt performative. Constructive feedback about the need for team collaboration and onboarding improvements was either ignored or misrepresented in written feedback as "XXXXX not helping," later used as a basis for complaints. For 5 months I've observed that 10+ persons leaved by their choice due to inadequate management only in engineering teams. Fancy titles, creative team names, and polished outward appearance, but very little actual professionalism, collaboration, or respect internally. What looks shiny on the outside masks a toxic culture and lack of real leadership. All this in some teams - maybe there is good teams too, but in general - very bad experience. You decide - a healthy culture and genuine development, or pretense and backstabbing. If you're curious, take a few minutes to look at the LinkedIn profiles of some of the company's "principals" and "directors". Analyze their actual experience, the scale and impact of the products they’ve been involved in, and compare that with the titles and descriptions they claim. What you’ll find is a pattern of inflated roles attached to minor or failed projects, dressed up to look like major achievements. It's a reflection of the broader culture - style over substance, ego over teamwork and value.

As a scaleup in a highly competitive market, Payhawk is not the place for people who want to lean back and ride the wave. It requires energy, ownership, and resilience — but for those who thrive in that kind of environment, it’s a very rewarding place to be.

Sometimes it feels like we want to do too many things with a small team, so there’s a lot of urgency and deadlines can be really tight. But at least everyone is pulling in the same direction. CEO wants efficiency so there are restrictions over headcount.

High pressure is due to the nature of scaling up and its aim to dominate its market space. Sometimes it may take longer to go through several iterations of processes or structures in order to find the one that works. Work-life balance remains a struggle due to ambitious growth aspirations.

One of the most troubling aspects of working here is the constant threat of being fired under the guise of "poor performance". In my experience, only a small fraction of those let go were actually poor performers. The majority of the people being fired were hardworking professionals, and it feels like the company is actively looking for a reason to let people go. I've personally been asked whether I think certain colleagues should be fired, which makes the environment feel very toxic and unnecessarily stressful. Giving negative feedback is strongly encouraged. The workload is overwhelming, and burnout is common. I’ve seen colleagues struggle to maintain a work-life balance because expectations are unrealistic, and there’s always more work piled on. Many people work even during vacations and sick days. This has led to a declining quality of the product. We constantly see clients complaining. Managers track everything: when you arrive, when you leave, how long your breaks are, even the smallest details of your daily routine. It creates an environment where employees feel like they’re not trusted and are constantly under surveillance, which only adds to the stress and discomfort of the workplace. Salaries used to be competitive, but that is no longer the case. It’s been made clear that pay raises are tied to the company’s business performance, and given the the poor business performance, salary increases are practically non-existent. Finally, considering that the company insists on everyone working in the office, you'd expect the office environment to be more appealing. However, there's not even basic perks like free fruits or snacks, which are a standard at most companies.

Only a few generic benefits (commuting alowence, 30 days off, medical and dental insuarance). Not enough WFH

As the company grows, communication sometimes becomes more challenging, but if you are self-driven, resourceful, and proactive, you will find ways to navigate and succeed.