What sets Paycom out from the pack, right from the start, is its incredibly archaic policies regarding things like work/life balance, advancement and general corporate culture.
First, time off is done by in separate pools. You have each category like sick, vacation, holiday, and floating time off. That's a lot of stuff to keep track of but it doesn't matter very much because you don't GET very much of it particularly in your first year It would be better to lump it all together and just call it Paid Time Off but again, that's a quibble. The big problem is the lack of allowed time off. You don't have a lot and when you do go to use it, most of the team leads I worked under were very intrusive in wanting to know why I wanted time off. I couldn't just say it was a personal reason, they wanted to know exactly why before they'd approve it. I was shocked. I'd never worked somewhere before were this was considered appropriate. As an example I wanted to take time off to go to the doctor in the morning and meet a plumber at my house in the afternoon. When I finally broke down and told my TL they asked why I couldn't just have my spouse meet the plumber, move my doctor appointment to early in the morning and then only have to take off a few hours instead of the whole day. This wasn't even during the busy part of the year. This was a slow period. I was appalled. I finally got the time but not after having to basically dig my heals in and refuse to compromise on it.
This ties into the general corporate culture as well. The CEO started the company by floating payments between credit cards (this is told to you as part of your orientation), working off a couple of card tables and built the company up from there. There is very much a cult of personality around him and the ingrained sense that one should give up everything to work hard for the company is the attitude going around. This would make sense if all the people doing that were equity holders and would share in the profits and large salaries that come from such a position but they're not. There's a difference between working hard and sacrificing your life for a company. Paycom believes you should come down on the latter.
This figures into advancement as well. Most companies eventually go to a system of internal hiring that involves the people who want the job formally applying for it and then going through interviews. Paycom does not do this. You have to be noticed by the hiring manager and stay on their radar long enough to get moved up. This leads to a very cutthroat environment where people are trying to move up and show leadership and stepping on each other trying to claw up long enough to be noticed. This makes on the job training, about the only kind you get there, iffy as well because if the person training you thinks you might be in competition with them you don't get the best training.
It's not even worth it for experience straight out of school. You won't learn anything that's useful to anyone but Paycom. I understand that coming out of school, particularly if you're in Oklahoma, it can be tough to find work anywhere but be wary of Paycom. They won't hire you in your degree field because they know you'll jump ship once you have a few years in under your belt. So unless you just want some general experience, look elsewhere graduates. You won't even get much useful office software knowledge beyond a few Microsoft products because almost everything they have is custom written by their own programmers and so doesn't apply to other companies.
Experienced people you'll have the same problem but greater because when you go looking for work outside Paycom, it'll almost look like a break in your experience from previous jobs because of how little carries over because of the aforementioned custom software. When I finally started looking after getting tired of the company it was a problem on several different interviews and one I believed kept me from at least one good job before I finally got hired elsewhere.
Finally, the one thing I couldn't abide any longer and what drove me out, was the utter lack of concern for employee feedback. It was a regular request for flex time and better work life balance. It was always addressed but always with a dismissal. Then they'd brag about how they added salads to the lunch menu or something else inane like that. Between the lack of good vacation, the lack of concern for feedback like the above, no paternity leave, advancement by squeaky wheel (in the sense having to be noticed and noticed constantly), and various other issues it didn't surprise me to hear several people talking about forming a union so their concerns would finally be heard. I wish I could have stayed and make something like that a reality, I gave those considering it advice from my own time belonging to a union how to organize and I hope it'll happen, but I have no doubt that Paycom will squash anyone who tries anything useful like that.
So overall, stay out of this company unless you think you can put up with all of the above. It's not worth the time.
