Nice company culture, but post-IPO, unreasonable time metrics & huge drop in managerial/HR support - Technical Support Specialist Toast Inc Employee Review

2.0
6 May 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friendly company culture (mostly). Fun amenities in-office (if you ever had time to enjoy them). I personally had one EXCEPTIONAL trainer, a pretty good manager, and a higher-up adjacent to my division who was always extremely down-to-earth and helpful, even amid "red alert" times. The company Slack had channels for various types of socializing and for coworker support RE: the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities and those with chronic illness, among others. For most departments, there was scheduled time for training and other "career growth" activities, but...that brings me to my first big Con of working at Toast...

Cons

Con #1: As the abovementioned scheduled "career growth" time was only allowed pending lower call-volume-to-available-agents ratios, most of my cohorts in the Payments division (including myself) rarely--if ever--got to utilize that time for as long as I was at Toast. The above stipulation is an understandable one; a company can't exist for long without satisfied customers who aren't forced to wait tens or hundreds of minutes for assistance. But the Payments division was not at all sufficiently staffed to meet that goal of little-to-no customer wait time AND high-quality assistance from agents. Con #2: Metrics WERE tightened for ALL support divisions after the IPO, but all support divisions were then being measured by the SAME metrics (while I was working there at least). This contributed heavily to the Payments division's metrics (particularly metrics of total call time, on-hold time, and casework wrap-up time) look consistently terrible in comparison to other divisions such as Hardware and Networking. On top of getting some of the most panicky and/or vitriolic, expletive-brandishing, abusive callers, Payments also often had to contend with extremely complicated questions (many factors involved including restaurants' on-site cash management, credit card processing, and customer billing); it was ludicrous to try and evaluate the division's overall efficacy using the same time metrics as Hardware or Menus. (On the flip side, Payments' CSAT scores were generally comparable to other divisions, and I was personally told by customers at least once or twice per shift that I was the most helpful agent at Toast that they had ever worked with, that I actually helped them solve their issues and empowered them for the future.) Con #3: Sort of a culmination of Cons #1 and #2. I was friends with Toast coworkers across almost every other customer support division; the majority of them had time to get up and stretch, to make use of the in-office amenities, and to actually put time and energy into growing within the company (i.e., make use of their scheduled "career growth" time and to organically network with other employees). This was rarely if ever the case for those of us in Payments, and on top of being charged with some of the most abusive callers (because they were most often calling when furious about money matters), it *stung* so sharply that we were seemingly left behind while other (also hard-working) divisions were thriving. Con #4: It took so long for my work technology stipend to be approved that I was never actually able to use it while at Toast (the people approving these were random, it seemingly had nothing to do with cohorts that had the same starting date). Con #5: I also had issues with Toast-issued tech; I did my best to make things work with what I had while also (in my free time) researching what the cause(s) might be and what solutions might be available to me. I *did* discover the issue (there was a difference in the tech's internal components in what was issued to my "class" versus those who had started earlier that year). But it took me *months* to get anyone with power to issue me replacement tech to even believe that I was correct in my assessment (and I provided every kind of evidentiary support I could, including photos I'd taken, screenshots from manufacturer websites, step-by-step troubleshooting I'd done). Several people tried to help me "figure it out, it's just kinda tricky" without replacing my tech only to go "oh...huh, that's weird, it's not working." It was so frustrating to be repeatedly dismissed only to then have multiple people come to the same conclusion I had.

Explore other reviews about Toast Inc

5.0
10 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fantastic company culture and excellent, full support from a highly collaborative cross-functional team that genuinely wants to see enterprise deals succeed. Overall, it is well inclusive and supportive company culture.

Cons

Rapidly changing product landscape can occasionally make cross-functional alignment a bit complex.

4.0
8 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Strong pay (if you hit your numbers) -Ambitious goals that challenge you -Competitive landscape that will force you to get better beyond exclusively selling -Founders still very involved and very visible to the company and employees -Team cultures are always strong -For sales, you always get in touch with prospects, which is an underrated pro -When leadership promotes internal mobility and career development they mean it and support it

Cons

-Numerous Sales teams that share the same markets/TAMs. Customers and prospects get exhausted of outreach - Since going public, the goal posts keep moving forward even if 60% of the org hit goal. -A number of core leaders have left, new ones still learning the ropes which was hindering the orgs and teams

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All