Pros
Gusto is this great hybrid company that feels stable/has support but also feels very much like a start-up, which for me is the ideal environment for a pre-IPO company! Folks have strong personal connections to our mission (ie small businesses) which I love and are very values-driven. There's a ton of work that needs to get done here which is great if you're super motivated and looking to build! It doesn't feel like there's a ton of red tape yet which means we can make changes quickly and anyone has the potential to have a huge impact regardless of role/level. Everyone is very collaborative and moves quickly which I like. I also think it has reasonable performance expectations especially compared to some past companies I've been at (which has led to burnout in a lot of cases) which is nice. I like my team and have a very kind, competent, and supportive manager which makes a huge difference in my daily work life! The culture at Gusto is lovely! Everyone is kind, hard-working and even though sometimes the workload does peak, people do respect personal boundaries at work (ie work life balance). There's a lot of parents and families at the company, including the founders so I find that creates a really empathetic environment for when "life happens." It's not super social outside of work but that probably just comes with it being employee life stages (ie having families)/more hybrid company but I do wish it was a little more social. While I do prefer being 100% remote, coming into the office 2x a week does feel rewarding cause everyone comes in even the founders. The food and physical environment of the SF office is great (10/10) and they're constantly bringing in pop-ups or fun events to make it worthwhile to come in! On the total rewards side, I love that we get unlimited PTO (I try to take at least 4-6 weeks in a year and management has been very supportive of this), the health benefits are solid, we get a wellness stipend (albeit is small but its there), commuter, fertility benefits and the wi-fi/cell phone stipends are nice! My cash salary is good but my equity was on the lower side compared to last companies of similar size/stage. While Gusto isn't the "best" company I've ever worked at, it does have enough of everything I need to be satisfied with my work life and I can definitely see myself being here for the next couple of years!
Cons
I have received more benefits, cash, and equity perspectives at previous companies of similar size/stage. It's not a short-term dealbreaker given the pros but definitely something top of mind long-term. The benefits I miss having are 401k matching, performance-related cash bonuses (in addition to the equity bonuses) and a larger wellness wallet to use. And I wish we did more social impact/volunteer initiatives especially cause it does line up with our company values. Beyond total rewards, Gusto is in that awkward teenage transitional period where they're trying to become more mature, efficient, and scalable. The pain points (decision-making, collaboration, speed, etc) that come with that type of transition are reasonable and to be expected. So they're here but they're not atypical. For me, I like that period in a company because I want to help take it to the next level but to be fair, that experience isn't for everyone. We've recently also had numerous mid-level leadership changes so it will be critical to see who those next leaders are that will shape a lot of the future direction of Gusto on the org-level. A lot will depend on how Gusto navigates this change organizationally in the next couple of years.