Paychex reviews

3.1

46% would recommend to a friend

(5,975 total reviews)
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John Gibson

48% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Paychex has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 5,975 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Paychex employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Informatique industry (3.9 stars).

Reviews by job title

6K reviews
5.0
Nov 2, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Paychex is a great company to work for a number of reasons. 1. Company perks. When you win, you feel like you are on top of the world. From last Friday of the month off to team happy hours and events, Paychex knows how to treat their top performers. 2. Work/Life Balance. I have to say I've had many jobs in my life and this by far exceeds any company I've ever worked for. You literally choose your own schedule with the exception of a mandatory Monday morning meeting. Monday afternoons through Friday you get to choose when you see your clients, when you visit your partners. You don't have to sacrifice time and work a ton of hours to do the job. 3. Money. I'll say it again. When you win, you are winning. The compensation structure at Paychex is gold. They nailed it on the head with bonuses and percentages because it doesn't take much to easily hit over $100k annually. 4. Training. You are so well trained on all of the products and services it's ridiculous. I came in not knowing a thing about accounting, payroll, taxes, nothing. I am now able to speak intelligently about it to my peers and it feels so good to know what the hell you're talking about. 5. Management. I can't say enough good things about my managers. Because they were in the same job I was in at some point, they get it. They don't micromanage you and over step boundaries. They truly feel like your friend and genuinely want you to succeed in the job.

Cons

There are no real cons here

2.0
Nov 5, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great initial training program, great way to get your foot in the payroll industry, relaxed management. no micromanagement. Variety of clients were fun to interact with and assist on a daily basis. You get to learn about all types of industries and how they do payroll, from restaurants, to factories, to hospitals, to government entities.

Cons

Supervisors don't know the job as well as they should. You are expected to be a tax advisor, legal advisor, HR advisor, IT advisor, and general grunt worker for the clients with zero extra compensation for the amount or quality of work that you perform. This is a great job for a lazy "just make it through the day" type employee. Anyone who goes above and beyond on a regular basis should look for satisfaction elswhere. It was hard to find a "win" on a daily basis or feel that you were making an important impact.

1.0
May 12, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many gadgets. When you call the same company 100 times on the phone, you will be able to say something new each time. That is, if the gadgets are working, which many do not, cuz they can't get your login accurate.

Cons

Extreme micro-management. Rude, condescending and disrespectful management. No personal time; must work nights and weekends with no warning. Low-grade, high-pester, amateur sales methods. Your clients will beg you to leave them alone; or threaten to file a harassment charge against you. (This is not an exaggeration. This happened frequently.) Many, long, worthless, time-wasting meetings that never end on time to respect your schedule. A ridiculously dysfunctional onboarding; nothing that you are required to use works properly. A lot of training, with a whole lot of homework, but then you'll get yelled at for not working with customers 10 hours per day on top of the training (that takes place during the regular day, so you can't win). Favoritism. Reps that buddy up to the manager can do anything they want, but other reps get ridiculed for simple, meaningless stuff. (Saying too much. Not saying enough. Dumb question. etc.) Disorganized sales efforts; there can be 5 different sales departments calling on your accounts without telling you, asking you, coordinating with you, etc. And then you'll have to split your commissions with them. And you will get blamed if they botch one of your deals, whether you knew what they were doing or not. But their worst trait, or perhaps this is just evidence of their miserable culture, is there insanely high turnover. They claim to be the experts in helping clients reduce turnover "because high employee turnover first destroys a company's culture, and then it destroys profits." But their turnover in sales is so high, and they know it, that they actually restrict some account access to new-hire's because they typically quit so fast that they don't want the customers to know it. The sales turnover rate at my office was 165% per year. The highest I have ever seen before was 67%-80% per year, and that was at a crazy boiler-room type of culture where the entire team turned over every 5 or 6 quarters. Here it was 165% per year. On average, all reps left within a year, and 2/3 of their replacements also left before the end of that year. The average tenure of our sales team was 3-months. A "senior" rep, i.e. one that is in the top half of team tenure, may only have 2 months at the company. Of the senior reps who have the best accounts for making commissions, the average tenure was 10 months. Even they who earn the most quit fast. Why? Because nobody can tolerate their management style, and because nobody makes anywhere near what they say you will make. You have about 0.5% chance of making the money they say that you "can" make. No talented and knowledgeable person would ever consider working here. Even if you're less experienced and desperate for money, I promise you, you'll be miserable and underpaid. If you doubt this review, then look at their stock. Their long stock decline (now at a 5-year low) proves that they are failing. It also explains their horrible and desperate management behavior. And their turnover. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Viewing 133 - 135 of 5,975 Reviews

Glassdoor has 6,146 Paychex reviews submitted anonymously by Paychex employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Paychex is right for you.