Stay away!!! - Product Deel Employee Review

1.0
Aug 22, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The product is pretty nice and working remotely.

Cons

If you ever wonder why there's so little critical feedback here? Well, it might be because employees have signed an NDA that outlines that the employee is prohibited from making negative statements or comments about the Company, its associated companies, directors, management team, employees, products, services, or programs during and after their employment. This includes criticism, disparagement, or unfavorable characterizations. Additionally, the employee is not allowed to disclose Company-related information or provide comments to the media, including online platforms, without explicit Company authorization. Th c-suite and senior leadership are steering the ship, but it feels like they're navigating without a map. They are criticized for prioritizing profit over employee well-being. Their lack of strategic vision and disrespectful behavior towards employees contributes to a toxic work environment. Public blaming and shaming, coupled with an excessive workload, result in burnout and low-quality work output. The company's product development process is deemed immature due to decision-making based on gut feelings rather than data. The culture favors assertive individuals over collaborative efforts, leading to unprofessional behavior. The company's aversion to embracing new discoveries hampers innovation, and there's an apparent focus on quantity of features over user value. Once the head of product said in one of the all hands meetings that “We are not stopping the feature factory.” which shows that not the outcome (the value for the client/end users) is important but the sheer number of features that are being shipped. Deel is known for offering minimal benefits to its employees. The only notable benefit mentioned is access to WeWork spaces. Unlimited PTO is deceptive, with strict limitations, approval requirements, and a lack of flexibility. More than 5 days have to be signed off by the heads of product and the CEO. Taking more than 12 days off at a time is not possible. Some people almost had to beg for time off. This leaves employees feeling undervalued and unsupported. Remote is not only a perk: When working with people from different time zones you are expected to be available for them even if they are 8 hours apart. Employees express frustration over the absence of a structured career progression framework. Unclarity regarding performance metrics has led to employees being let go within their initial months. Promotions appear one-sided, leading to increased responsibilities without proportional rewards. Pay raises only happen at the end of the year. This was not communicated before the mid-year Performance review, neither in their learning platform, nor by managers / HR. The lack of career ladders leaves employees uncertain about growth opportunities.

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Deel Response
2y
There is a lot of feedback to unpack here so thank you. A few highlights that stand out to me that I agree we are working on and can be better are: compensation and how it ties to performance, career plans and competencies by role to show some options for growth and development, training for managers and individual contributors to support their individual goals and growth plans, paid time off guidance. Our average tenure at Deel is 10 months as we continue to hire approximately 100 people on average per month, but we do have many more people that are now hitting 1.5 years and beyond of tenure and we need to support them better with more clarity on opportunity here and connect the dots on how they have grown.

Explore other reviews about Deel

5.0
May 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great management and nice people in the company.

Cons

no cons really but if I have to say one thing, it would be 401K can be higher to match.

2.0
May 25, 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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