Great Story, very different Reality - Anonymous employee Stripe Employee Review

2.0
5 June 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some really wonderful colleagues. Occasional option to work remotely.

Cons

Management has no idea how to manage. Company operates on a firm principle of transparency but there's very little transparency between management and employees. Very little over-sight or support. As company has expanded the quality of some new hires in various teams has gone done significantly. Huge focus on rapid expansion as opposed to proper training or engagement from management. Company still seems to believe it's a start up, which is used as an excuse by some incapable or inexperienced to do their roles. As the company has expanded it has become far more of a commercial and corporate environment with a lot of cloak and dagger that is in direct contradiction of Patrick and John's firm believe in transparency. Honesty is not always the best policy in this company, this is not a start up anymore, it is a finance and payments company that forces a positive can-do attitude and responds to honest constructive feedback and suggestions as criticisms occasionally necessitating 'check ins' with management. Some teams seem more versed in delegating their work out to other teams than actually doing their duties. Little input from management., especially when respective individuals are personal friends of theirs. Very ambiguous environment at times. It's become increasingly a game of pass the responsibility to a different team with little progress and no ownership or responsibility when things go wrong. *Very* little work-life balance- 1. You will be expected to socialise with colleagues after work-hours. 2. Depending on your team you will be expected to travel exhaustively and this can affect personal relationships. 3. Unspoken expectation that regardless of time differences, you will be available after hours, including weekends, to provide support to teams, regardless of your contract stipulations. A slightly punitive approach from management if you attempt to disengage from work during your spare-time, surprisingly unprofessional given the ethos of the workplace. 4. This is in no way an 8-6pm type company. Depending on your role, if want to achieve your targets and work on projects, expect a more 7am-10pm day.

Explore other reviews about Stripe

5.0
16 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Excellent Benefits -Breakfast and lunch everyday -Supportive Management -Great Pay

Cons

-Complex Product Suite -Quick ramp up

4.0
4 June 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The work is very high impact and there are lots of opportunities to learn if you're not already familiar with the fintech space. Most of the big projects I've been on so far have been fun to work on. There are also a lot of talented, kind, and helpful engineers at Stripe who are really nice to learn from. I really enjoy my manager and the folks on my team. The money + bonuses are ~ok~. Pretty standard for a pre-IPO unicorn, but the goal is that there will be a big pay off later (fingers crossed).

Cons

- The work life balance is *bad*. For how many products Stripe has, we are a very lean company. Too lean. There's just a lot of work, and very very tight deadlines, very fast paced, and not enough engineers and product managers to do all of it. If you want WLB as an engineer, join an infrastructure team, not a product team. - There is little to no investment in making the engineering org more diverse. This was surprising to me because of a lot of public facing company statements, but don't be fooled like I was. People (at least in the eng org) do not care about diversity. - HR sucks. And of course they would, I guess. But I had a really negative experience with HR where I walked away feeling completely devalued and gaslit. - Dev environments kinda suck and make the work a lot slower than it should be.

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