Direct self-reference leading to cycle exception

In this case you need to annotate the relationships with @JsonManagedReference and @JsonBackReference like this:

 @ManyToOne
 @JoinColumn(name = "company_id", referencedColumnName = "id")
 @JsonBackReference
 private Company company 

And

 @OneToMany(mappedBy="company")
 @JsonManagedReference
 private Set<Employee> employee = new HashSet<Employee>();

There is a nice example here