I was recently approached with a job offer that sounded great on paper - an established German business named Payever who have some big companies backing them, and the job was reasonably attractive.
But thankfully before I responded I did my usual thing before any major steps - I did my research.
I found a treasure trove of bad reviews for Payever, most from remote workers, and most of which discuss bad work/life balance and the expectation of overworking, sometimes up to 11 hours a day. I know from previously having worked under German law the limitations they have on things like working hours - there is a general maximum of 8 hours per day, 5 days per week is normal but 6 is possible, and daily hours can only be increased up to 10 hours if the average over 6 months is less than 8 hours per working day.
Further to this there were numerous reports of no onboarding process (new employees are just handed tasks and expected to deliver against a complex codebase from the first day), terrible communication, lack of documentation, low rates of pay, and abusive treatment. Even some of the positive reviews mention the high rate of employee turn-over!
Suffice to say, I politely refused that job and will continue my search. My personal opinion is that while I can still pay my rent and buy my groceries, no job is better than a bad job.