Offer letter with salary only, no benefits, pressure to sign in 24h - is this normal for big companies ?

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Hey Reddits,

I need to get something off my chest and get your take on a salary negotiation situation.

For context: I have 9 years of experience at a startup where I worked my way up from temp recruiter to Head of Finance Operations, with a focus on managing multi-agreement payroll, but under a Spanish contract even though I was working for France from Barcelona.

For the first time in 10 years, I just went through a hiring process for a Senior Payroll Expert position, covering France and the Netherlands, for a large international group in the beauty industry, fully remote, in English.

The job posting had no salary range and no info on benefits, etc.

**First interview** with the recruiter based in Poland — she tells me she doesn't have a budget to share and asks for my salary expectations. I say 50k.

**Second interview** with my future manager — she complains about the existing mess and tells me she's been in the role for 5 months (internal move), based in Greece. The vibe is good, but she mentions the role also includes Belgian payroll (so 3 countries, 3 legislations to know, and 6 legal entities, for 350 payslips).

**Third interview** with an HR rep from France, who's actually a CSR specialist. She asks me technical questions and I nail them. Instead of a 1-hour interview, after 20 minutes she had nothing left to ask me.

**Fourth interview** with a Global HR rep based in Poland, who opens the interview by complaining that she's been in the role for 6 months (internal move) but it feels like 6 years... and that it's a disaster. They have startup-level problems despite being a large group. At the end, she tells me the role is hybrid, to which I reply that I applied to a remote listing and that I live far from Paris. She asks if I could at least go in once a month to build rapport with the team. I say okay.

3 days later, my future manager calls to give me the good news and says she'll get back to me within 2 days max to discuss details like salary, benefits, etc.

4 days go by with nothing, so to force the conversation, I call the recruiter and tell her I've received another offer.

That same evening, they send me an offer letter with the 50k but nothing else.

There's a paragraph saying they'll inform me about benefits when I sign the contract, and they push me to sign within 1 day max. I took it badly, so I sent an email asking for details on the full package.

In the meantime, I found their employee handbook online and looked into it myself, then sent a follow-up email the next day saying I'd found the information and that, now that I understood the full scope (payroll processes need to be built from scratch) and the addition of a 3rd country, I was asking for 55k.

My future manager calls to ask what's going on with the other offer I received. I gave her some details, then she asked if I was still motivated to work for them. I confirmed my motivation, and she said she'd get back to me the following week — knowing that, per the offer letter, I was supposed to start on July 10th (next Friday).

I could hear in her tone that she was annoyed, and she didn't have the same enthusiasm anymore. It kind of disgusts me a little, because it's a well-known brand, but I get the feeling they lean heavily on their name to treat you like they're doing you a favor by hiring you.

Has anyone experienced something similar, and how did it turn out?

Thanks for your input, and have a great weekend!