Deel Speed: The inside story of a $12 billion HR startup's breakneck growth
The exact relation of Vanya and Anne-Lise to Alex Bouaziz is unclear. A Deel spokesperson declined to comment.
We think the contractor model, paired with a new set of benefits that correspond to this new type of global worker, should be considered more routinely in today's world of global work.The use of contractors isn't unusual at scrappy startups. In the US, as in Canada and many other countries, contractors legally work for themselves, with a high degree of flexibility. They choose their own hours and typically work using their own equipment.
For Deelers, as the company's workers are called, it's almost impossible to tell who is in-house versus on a contract, workers said, with no distinction drawn in meetings, in Slack, or day-to-day work. Some hires in the US, Canada, Hong Kong, and elsewhere didn't know they'd be classified as contractors until they received their job offers.
But numerous contractors said they were expected to be consistently online during regular working hours in their time zones to attend meetings and do work."If you were not online during normal working hours, that would not be accepted," a former manager who managed contractors said about the expectations for them.
Bouaziz, who is largely based in Tel Aviv, Israel, is himself an independent contractor — a fact that is touted by the company internally."HR used it as a talking point to ensure people who are contractors don't feel like they are not treated like full-time employees," a former worker said. Depending on jurisdiction, independent contractors aren't granted legal protections against unfair or sudden dismissal, pension contributions, health insurance, mandatory severance pay, unemployment benefits, worker's compensation, the right to join a union, or overtime pay.
In many cases, Deel told workers they were being hired as independent contractors because the firm didn't yet have the appropriate legal entities to bring them on full time. But in several countries, it was able to hire and employ full-time employees for its clients via its employer-of-record service, while hiring only contractors internally.
Multiple other former workers said they felt like employees in all but name and that Deel was so demanding of their time they couldn't have done outside work even if they'd wanted to."I didn't have enough energy to do everything they wanted me to do. For me to have any energy on top of that to do another job would just be ridiculous," a former contractor said.
Deel said its use of independent contractors was fully compliant with local laws."Our worker contracts and employment agreements follow local country employment laws, and all managers are given guidance around country-specific considerations like parental leave, time-off requests, hours worked, holidays, and notice periods, and how they vary by worker type," a spokesperson said.
When workers have a contract with a California entity, that may subject them to California labor rules, even if they didn't work within the state, Thomas Lenz, an adjunct lecturer at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, said, talking generally about the state's employment law.
To some workers, that all-encompassing work ethic was exhilarating."Alex Bouaziz makes a culture where everybody lives their life inside the company," one former early worker said."Even when people wake up at night, they were happy to solve any issues to make our customers happy." Bouaziz acknowledged there could be pressure on employees as the company grew at a rapid pace."There's definitely some teams that are maybe going to be a bit more intense than others," he said.
Deel sometimes also aggressively promised Deel's capabilities or new features to prospective clients, making workers scramble after the fact to deliver what the customer was expecting."I'd certainly overpromised things we could do. Then I'd have to walk it back," a former worker said.
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