Poor Leadership and learning opportunities - Anonymous employee PayPal Employee Review

1.0
Sep 3, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

No Pros apart from additional stocks that too if you stay that long

Cons

Alex Chriss comes across as a complete disappointment. His leadership feels more like a scam than a strategy—constantly bringing in new SVPs and VPs who add no real value, pocket hefty paychecks, and then disappear, while the company drifts closer to collapse. It’s bizarre to see a CEO celebrating vague, generic “achievements” in quarterly earnings on LinkedIn, only to comment on his own posts like a teenager craving attention. What’s worse is that he’s never held accountable for repeated layoffs—likely hidden behind slick PR, or perhaps because the company has shrunk too much for the media to care. There is no vision here. No meaningful work. People with “Data Scientist” titles often lack even basic programming skills, spending their days churning out reports and pretending it’s quality work. Stability doesn’t exist—survival depends entirely on sycophancy. Random firings are carried out by HR without clarity or purpose, while the middle management layer—Senior Managers and Managers—have become lethargic placeholders with no sense of leadership or productivity. In short, this is a terrible environment for anyone looking to learn and grow. But if your ambition is limited to boot-licking and coasting with no real work, this is the perfect place for you.

Explore other reviews about PayPal

5.0
May 15, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good company to work for, good work life balance

Cons

They should have more developers than other titles.

2.0
Apr 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

PayPal has a lot of potential. It has two very strong brands in PayPal and Venmo with significant awareness and user bases that other companies envy. There are pockets of teams that are really pushing the envelop to reimagine what PayPal and Venmo could be—especially the Venmo team—and to move with speed given the company must stay focused and not waste time with Apple Pay, Shop Pay, and so many other competitors nipping at PayPal's heels and aggressively taking market share.

Cons

While some teams are pushing to self-disrupt and are moving fast, too many teams—and I'd argue the majority of the company–are living off of PayPal's laurels from the late 2010s through the pandemic. The culture and mindset have to change for the company to remain competitive. Otherwise, they are the Titanic and they're sinking slowly. The former CEO who only last 2 years tried diversifying the company's revenue, planning for the future. But the board and its former chairman (now new CEO) felt he wasn't moving fast enough to stabilize and marketshare. Instead, the board hired the former chairman who made computers and printers at HP—another sinking ship—to lead the oldest fintech company. The loss of confidence in the leadership team and the strategy are only accelerating.

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