More than just a job... - Anonymous employee Trendzer Employee Review

The teams were small, quite a lot of younger people, and we've gotten pretty close. My direct manager was very pragmatic but overall a nice person. I was able to develop my skills a lot. It was nice to work for a small company with international relations. Working for Trendzer has been a learning experience in both a good and a bad way.

Oh man, where do I start? Many decisions regarding the platform and customer care were made by senior management staff in the UK, hardly using input from people that actually work on the platform and speak to the customers. There was little flexibility regarding working hours and workplaces. UK policies were also used for Dutch employees, even though some policies did not fit Dutch work culture at all. The line "This is normal in the UK" was used a lot as an excuse, but seeing as half of the team isn't in the UK, it doesn't count. All in all, we were told many flat out lies and whenever we spoke up, they either ignored the situation or replied in a derogatory manner. The office itself was very basic and uninspired. Whenever something was broken, it wouldn’t be fixed. The coffee was bad and often out of stock. We initially didn’t have warm water. The instalment of a simple kitchen was hailed as some sort of miracle, when it's honestly just a basic need. Asking for office supplies, such as proper equipment and storage space, was a huge struggle. Sometimes there was no toilet paper, so we brought our own just in case. The salaries were quite bad. If they managed to pay you by the end of the month, that is. Getting a reimbursement for travel expenses is normal in the Netherlands, but Trendzer initially refused to provide this. Holiday money was incorporated in the gross salary to hide the fact that the salary was absurdly low. There was no Christmas/end of the year bonus or a pension scheme. There is a company bonus scheme, but nobody has ever seen a dime of that. Trendzer has gone bankrupt twice, and the companies that Trendzer arose from have dealt with bankruptcy too. The owner actually works in Sales and not as CEO; however, he still has a lot of influence, even though he seems to have no clue about how to run a business and doesn't care if employees are being paid. Yet somehow after each bankruptcy, he’s got enough money to set up a new business, while his employees still have several months' worth of salaries to receive.

The people working at the coal face are great. We have been through so much together we have formed some really close bonds. I enjoyed the work and the direction the company appeared to be going. My direct manager whilst being a bit of a jobs worth is not a bad person.

This is a new company formed from the ashes of RSTO Ltd. Those now directly in charge of the department are sadly way out of touch and have little or no idea how to manage the department or the people within it. We have been told many outright lies which we receive no apology for but instead expected to work and should be "grateful" that we have jobs. I can assure you most of us would have preferred redundancy as this is what happened to half the company in November. We used to trust in our superiors but now we are full of dis-trust and actively looking to exist the business as soon as possible. Whatever is reported to the CEO regarding the department is obviously flat out lies trying to cover management failures and trying to gain credit for anything and everything possible. The worst part of all is the patronizing tone used when spoken to by those in charge of service delivery, They also speak very loudly when they think no-one is listening and frankly insult us by talking about us calling us all manner of derogatory terms.