Working at PayChex — Reviews by Employees

It really depends on what team you are on, your coworkers, your boss, your location. The pay across the board is below market. The benefits are conditional.

I worked as a Payroll Specialist for over 2 years. When I got hired I was made all kinds of promises of raises and raved at about the great training programs and how Paychex is such a great place to work. After working at Paychex only a few months they froze raises and 401k matches due to the "economy". Paychex also doesn't allow overtime so you are expected to do more and more work in the same amount of time. You are also supposed to work on your level work to get 16 cent raises per level while doing your regular work. If you do not do it quickly then you will get talked to but you are not given time to actually do the extra work. Managers do not like to do their jobs. When a client would ask for a manager the managers would try to get th specialist to smooth things over, even if the client hung up on them. I have never worked for such a lazy manager in my entire life. Managers would want you to limit client freebies and discounts, but if a client spoke to a manager due to a specialist not giving away free products or discounts then the managers would talk to you for not giving a discount (you could never win). As for the other specialists, I loved them. They were great people who would help you if you needed it, but they are clearly over worked and UNDERPAID! There was not a single specialist that I knew that was happy with their job due to the stress, overwork, emotional abuse, no support from managment, and low pay associated with the job. Payroll Specialist do payroll, tax returns, set up garnishments, extensive penalty research, deals with billing issues, and various other projects, and they only get started at 12.50 per HR!!!!! I don't know who told Forbes that Paychex is such a great place to work because it sucked! I am soooo glad that I quit working there!

Hated every moment of working here...I worked in the mailroom as a payroll clerk...I have seen everything from favoritism, sexual harrassment, and office romances by the "CHEATING MARRIED SUPERVISOR" and a receptionist... who tries to get you to cover for him...its crazy...THE SUPERVISOR GUILLERMO....would try to get everyone to cover for afternoon tea time....While he left early....He would force you to stay and process payroll unill 9pm-10pm, And then if you had a complaint he wouldnt fire you he would make your life unbearable till you quit...Thank GOD, I'm free...The only thing is that Most of the Co-workers are great...

Paychex Sucks, I worked my butt off where I was working for this new area called TIB. To make a long story short there was favoritism towards blacks where blacks could call in sick and nothing would happen to them. Though I had to call in when My young child had a fever and I got terminated for it. TERMINATED cause my child was ill. This is the worst company ever.

Though I can't stress enough how much of a blessing it was to be terminated from paychex. Since then I've managed to triple my salary and now am enjoying early retirement . Thank you paychex for sucking as much as you do I sure hope that you get what is coming to you , perhaps a Chapter 13 would be nice!

Soul crushing. Sled dogs are paid better.

Career Siberia.

Pay is garbage. We deal with millions of dollars of other people's money and they pay us nothing. Management is a joke. Regardless of how obvious it is that something may be the client's fault, your supervisor will not back you. The will find some way to make it your fault.
Respect- That makes me laugh. There is NONE. If you are a payroll specialist, you are nothing to management, just someone that can be replaced by someone with a High School degree that they can train. Even if you are really good.
Benefits- They are ok. Pharmacy benefits suck though.
Job Security - I used to think it was really good but now it seems as if your kid gets sick and you want to go be with him or her that you might get canned for taking a god damn day off.
Work/life Balance - As others have said, even if you get out on time as I do every day, you take it home with you.
Career Potential - Bit of a joke. They claim that there is all this oppurtunity but then they throw you curveballs during interviews to get you to mess it up. Not a fan of their promotion process. I have interviewed for a few jobs and it seemed like they got every possible bad thing my supervisor could have come up with to ask me about.
Location - This would have to be the one thing I can't complain about. I live close to the office.
Co-worker Competence - A lot of the people I work with are good but my group has a bunch of lazy jackasses.
Work Environment - used to be good. Now I look for reasons not to come in.
Sales reps love Paychex because their base pay before commissions is double what a specialist makes. Don't listen to any reviews from them. Of course they are happy, they can pay their god damn bills.

I have been working for Paychex for 2 years, and could not be happier! This was my 3rd sales job out of college and it is by far the best training I have ever received. The interview process is long, but you realize how selective they are once you get in. The sales managers are very positive, supportive and energetic so the environment is very upbeat, although you don’t spend much time as a team in the office other than meetings. The Regional Manager is actually very visible and available to help any rep, which is a nice surprise compared to my previous positions. The commission structure is strong, and if you are following the structure of weekly activity, you will see your income increase quickly. The trips and incentives are great too, I mean who can beat a free trip to Hawaii?! And the health benefits and health incentive plans are great (You get points for your normal activities like biking, running or whatever you do… and those points turn into cash!). January is tough, and you will work long hours and Saturdays and your first year there is a lot to learn. It is a high pressure position, like most sales jobs are, but very high rewards and worth it.

For the time I have worked for Paychex I have noticee a big change in the last few years. It seems like management only cares about numbers and not there over worked, stressed out staff. The work load has gotten larger and they are not replacing the ones that leave, and all management can do is criticize and treat us like robots. Then they try to do this thing called "Stress Releif" ok when did stress releif happen by eating a cookie or playing some lame games. Stress releif would be hire some more specialist and allow us to complete the work that we currently have without constently piling on more responsibilities. Then there are some people that I guess kiss but because they seem to get to get what ever they ask for while others who work there tail off get no respect.

Pay does not equal the amount of work that this company can dish out. The operation managers do not respect that you are working hard but choose to focus all of their attention on what you're doing wrong. Benefits are ok but they ask that you participate in some health improvement program to get the better premium,probably because they know your health suffers due to the excessive stress incurred from being overworked. Job security is great, even for those that slack off. Work life balance is average considering the industry. If you work in operations, you can forget about taking time off during the holidays. I have to say that the career potential is good for those willing to relocate. There are plenty of locations across the states. My co-workers either didn't know their job or didn't care since I could hear them play dumb with the clients over the phone. The work environment is unpleasant due to the high number of clients you must work with. Management fails to take into consideration the varying complexity of the clients you are dealing with when assigning you additional clients. Isn't every business unique? The workload increased significantly as the economy slowed. Paychex wants to make lots of money and they certainly can't do that if they have to hire more employees,so they load you up instead. It seemed to me as though they were testing the limits of their employees to see how much they could handle, sacrificing quality for quantity. As the quality decreased and the clients complained, employee morale dropped. To combat this, management initiated several programs to try to motivate and encourage us. It all seemed like brainwashing to me. It only made our jobs more difficult as we had less time to service our clients needs.

Paychex really turned me off from ever wanting to work in a business environment again.