Work wellbeing score is 78 out of 100
3.0 out of 5 stars.
Write a review

Working at Paper: 28 Reviews

Review this company
Job Title
All
Location
United States28 reviews

Ratings by category

3.7Work-Life Balance

Search reviews

Sort by

HelpfulnessRatingDate
Found 28 reviews matching the searchSee all 49 reviews

inconsistent hours, have to be at attention 24/7 on shift

Indeed Featured review

The most useful review selected by Indeed
while the pay is decent and its a very inclusive company, the hours are inconsistent at best and the culture is all very impersonal and nebulous. i mean its a startup after all
Was this review helpful?

Poor Senior Management and Leadership

My experience with Paper has been marked by a significant lack of leadership and trust within the company. When I first joined, the company seemed promising, but as time went on, it became clear that there were issues that were causing anxiety among employees.One of the most troubling aspects of my time at Paper was the constant fear of being laid off. This uncertainty hung over the workplace like a dark cloud, making it difficult to focus on tasks and contribute effectively. The lack of communication from higher-ups about the company's direction only fueled this anxiety.Moreover, it became evident that there was a disconnect between the decisions made by the bigwigs at the company and the well-being of the employees. It felt like there was little thought put into how these decisions would impact the workforce, leading to a sense of disillusionment.In conclusion, Paper has potential, but it's crucial for the company to address these leadership and trust issues to create a more positive and productive work environment.
Was this review helpful?

Paper insights

Based on 42 survey responses
What people like
  • Ability to meet personal goals
  • Clear sense of purpose
  • Time and location flexibility

Great text-based online tutoring job

This is the best online tutoring job I have found, and I have interviewed with and worked for a lot of companies. You are an actual employee there, not just an independent contractor that they don't care about. You feel like they are invested in your success and really want their employees to be part of the company community.

Pros

decent pay, mental wellness benefits, raises, promotions, supportive

Cons

Things can get hectic when there are a lot of students online.
Was this review helpful?

Ridiculous Standards, Minimal Hours

The corporate nature of this job is absolutely soul-crushing. The co-workers are great, but the management is terrible. They have insane standards for the essay review in particular, and if you don't meet them, you can and will be fired and removed from ALL Paper services without warning, without chance to contact any friends you've made, without chance to get anything you may need from your work email. During the interview, they'll ask if you're okay with "reduced" hours in winter and summer. The hours are not reduced. There are no hours. This is not a job you can live off of, and the corporate energy in the management is completely soul-crushing. I worked there for over a year and went through 5 managers in that time. Additionally, if you do live classroom work, you will not get breaks to use the bathroom. You aren't allowed to request a 5 minute break with any student in your online classroom.

Pros

fully remote, set your own availability

Cons

impossibly short breaks, ridiculous standards, no team bonding
Was this review helpful?

Absolutely horrible because senior leadership is not even remotely qualified to be leading a company.

What is the best part of working at the company?It's remote and the people doing the work closer to the tutors are truly fantastic to work with. What is the most stressful part about working at the company?The CEO and COO change course on a dime, so there's lots of pivoting midstream and most of the time without any thought on impact to employees and tutors. What is the work environment and culture like at the company?There is hardly any psychological safety while working at the company. Senior leadership doesn't listen to feedback, and you're either asked to leave or fired if you don't agree with their vision ("winning is a decision"). What is a typical day like for you at the company?This depends mostly on the department you're in. Being remote, there's a blend of meetings and work time.
Was this review helpful?

Rate your recent company

Share your experience to help others

Don't even bother

This used to be a good company, but now they're running off every decent person in the company. Tutors don't get hours (set your availability for 40 hours? You're going to get 4 hours one week, maybe 10 the next, if you're lucky), we have increasingly insane standards that we must meet when interacting with students (which would be manageable if every tutoring shift is ALWAYS understaffed and overloaded with students, which means that Tutors have to juggle between 3 and 5 students at once), and oh yeah - if you complain or do anything that visibly questions the direction of the company, you WILL be fired.I've just stopped trying to be friends with anyone I work with at Paper. It sucks when everyone who's good at their job literally just dissappears at the whim of management. I don't think that our leadership has a lot of real-world experience in education outside of tutoring. Either that, or he's a sadist.

Pros

Remote work

Cons

Everything else
Was this review helpful?

It's okay

It's a decent enough part time job, but you aren't guaranteed hours, and they will make you work with several students at a time on totally unrelated tasks.

Pros

Kids are generally nice

Cons

No guarantee of hours
Was this review helpful?

Tutor

The main issue with working here is the constant flow of changes that aren't communicated clearly to lower-level management. Also, most of the people who work in top-tier management have no experience in education, which is demoralizing.
Was this review helpful?

2 stars

What is the best part of working at the company?The pay is good. Also, there is a flexible schedule and some opportunities to pick up additional shifts at the last minute.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?The most stressful part of working at the company is the performance reviews and guidelines. There are very strict duties to the job, such as greeting a student within 30 seconds of them entering your online classroom even when you are in the middle of working with 3+ other students. The detail doesn't stop at greetings as there are guidelines on every aspect of interaction in both the chat tutoring and the essay reviewing. The essay reviewing is almost worse as you only have 15-45 minutes depending on the page length of the work. That is not enough time to give a quality response to students .Additionally, you have to write a very long summary statement to the student whose essay you are reviewing at the end. You must include a greeting, a positive statement, a statement about their holistic issues even if they have none, a statement about their other issues even if they have none, a positive statement, a good job, a thank you for coming to Paper, more details about when and how Paper is available to help further and reiterating the general issues that you already left comments about. The summary alone can take 10-15 minutes. If you do not hit every single point for every single essay and discussion with students, you get graded on your interactions. Even just missing 1-2 points can tank your score so low that they will not promote you, will - 
Was this review helpful?

Work from home, laid back

The work is fine for the most part if you don't mind staying in the same position forever.
Was this review helpful?

Strong values, supportive environment, and fulfilling work

The mission behind Paper is really motivating, and it's clear every step of the way that Paper really believes in the values it advertises. Managers and other leaders are very approachable, positive, and genuinely want you to succeed. I don't feel scared to reach out for any support. The pay is good, though I'm a college student used to lower wages, so others may not agree. You have to give 10 hrs of availability each week to stay an active tutor, but you can also tell your manager in advance when you are taking a week off. During winter and summer breaks you get unlimited time off, but unfortunately that means you don't get paid.

Pros

Flexibility (hours and location), supportive managers, transparency, no toxic work environment

Cons

Hours not guaranteed and long breaks without work
Was this review helpful?

Waste of your time - Onboarding Endless Cycle

Everything at this company moves at a snail's pace. From interest in application to phone interview will be around a month. Then, they will continuously postpone your start date due to their own incompetencies in an embarrassing lack of respect for your time. Tip - go to a company that values your time!

Pros

Work culture

Cons

Poor management
Was this review helpful?

Started well but quickly changed

Started out promising. The idea of helping kids remotely was wonderful. Many talented tutors who genuinely want to help each other succeed. But that’s about it for the good. As to the negatives….Where to start… the company spins a good line about helping kids and the importance of tutoring. But once you start it very quickly descends into contradiction after contradiction and red flag after red flag. The pay is terrible, and they have over hired which makes consistent hours increasingly difficult. Just not enough to make me stay when I could work less hours and make more money with another tutoring company. Best to those who stay but know there are other options out there for you.
Was this review helpful?

Tutors are constantly burning out and no one cares

Maybe it is because of the nature of the job, but tutors are mostly treated like robots rather than humans. As time goes by, they add more procedures to make the work environment feel like an educational sweatshop. Management is constantly communicating from a script, so feels robotic, for a lack of better words. Overall HQ management has fired many tutors and directors in the most unprofessional way possible. Going through employees as people go through their socks. Be wary Americans, Canadian companies love to come to the USA because of the lack of labor laws! Had high hopes, not just tired, disappointed, and burned out.

Pros

swag, friendly and helpful coworkers, sentimental value of working with students

Cons

broken management, emotional exhausting working with students, lack of communication throughout the company, HQ getting treated like actual employees while tutors get employee responsibilities, but treated as contractors.
Was this review helpful?

Great Place to Work

Great place to learn and grow in your role. The work-life balance is incredibly flexible. I've met some great people! enjoy waking up and going to work. The culture here is one of the best I've encountered throughout my career.
Was this review helpful?

Easy work, Good for part time. low hours, messy management

you get to pick when and how long you work, however its hard to get the hours you need. Management is a bit of a messy joke, but your fellow tutors are great and helpful.
Was this review helpful?

Part-Time Job is Good for Students

I liked working as a tutor for Paper Tutoring because it was Work from Home and my coworkers were amazingly accepting and encouraging. My coworkers valued my work very much here.
Was this review helpful?

Sounds so promising but the reality's much different..

Paper offers tutors a great chance to earn decent money from the comfort of their own home by tutoring in various subjects via their virtual platform.What you don't learn until you're hired is that you cannot trust the company,management is not friendly or supportive and the workload is insane.You're not even allowed meal breaks until you've worked 5 or 6 hours and you must ask permission to even run to the restroom.They will assign various students at the same time and you must juggle all those sessions while not telling the students you are doing so.the pay sounds wonderful til you understand that they want you to do the work of 4 people while not being offered even basic amenities.Trained then resigned after seeing how chaotic and unstructured everything was. Have yet to receive compensation for the meetings and training although they promised I would.Think twice about working here.Turns out to be a bunch of empty promises in the end.

Pros

Excellent pay rate 401k Virtual position Chance to work with students from around the world

Cons

Crazy workload, Competing with other tutors for hours/essay reviews, Not being allowed even 5-minute breaks without permission, Feeling intimidated by upper management, a lot of unreasonable demands threats etc. from day one
Was this review helpful?

Productive and interesting tutoring job

Productive and fun workplace. Flexible shift times and they provide comprehensive training before you begin the job. As a tutoring job, I would recommend it.
Was this review helpful?

Great job

Great place to work! The work is rewarding and management are kind and understanding. Good part-time job for a student, but plenty of opportunities to advance as well.
Was this review helpful?

Flexible scheduling. Supportive people.

Self scheduling: pick from blocks of hours (three separate blocks, about 10 hours each) and get assigned a shift within that (usually 4-5 hour shifts). Tutor students up to high school. While tutoring, you can refer to currently working coworkers on Slack for a collaborative effort... Supportive folks all about.
Was this review helpful?

Want to know more about working here?

Ask a question about working or interviewing at Paper. Our community is ready to answer.Ask a Question

Overall rating

Based on 49 reviews

Ratings by category

3.7 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
2.6 out of 5 stars for Compensation/Benefits
2.6 out of 5 stars for Job Security/Advancement
3.0 out of 5 stars for Management
3.3 out of 5 stars for Culture

Compare Paper with

  • Companies
  • Education & Training Services
  • Paper
  • Employee Reviews
Tell us how to improve this page
What would you add or change?