A learning experience: the type of company I don't want to work for - Sales Associate Zizoo Employee Review

1.0
18 Jul 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Friends - all of whom have also left the company at this point

Cons

From the beginning I was skeptical of taking this job, since they wrote me a fake contract to get my visa approved because the salary is so little and being asked to start working illegally before my visa was processed. All of Zizoo's responses about supporting the health and well-being of their employees are untrue. We were told "not to become sick" during long winter months and asked to work incredibly long hours, never being compensated for working overtime (sometimes as much as working 12 days in a row and staying in the office until midnight). Even during the interview I was asked, "how will you ever go on holiday if you are always working?" Well, I guess that proved to be true when I requested 5 days holiday 6 weeks in advance and it was rejected immediately because one other team member was going on a week-long holiday in the entire month of March. Weekends and public holidays were barely compensated (75 Euro for a whole weekend...). Bonuses paid in cash, requiring some random receipts to be pulled up just to get it paid out, and never on time. Zizoo is concerned with one thing: getting to the top. The problem is, they don't want to put in the work it takes to build a strong foundation to actually get there. They care about cutting corners (including loyal employees and their salary), taking short cuts and telling whatever lies it requires along the way. I think that time will show this is no way to achieve being a top company and the structure will surely crumble underneath, as it is one that has been merely taped together rather than waiting for the glue to dry.

Explore other reviews about Zizoo

1.0
5 Mar 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nothing positive to say about this company

Cons

Aside from the lack of opportunity to grow and advance in your career, management treated me horribly. So I am happy to not be working there anymore. The constant stress, working plenty of over hours without appreciation or a simple thank you, and pressure and fear of losing your job every month was just too much. Once I was sick for a week with something serious and when I came back they had hired someone else to take over all my tasks and I was basically pushed out. It was sold to me that I would be able to take over a new project but this situation and particularly the behaviour have always left a sour taste in my mouth ever since - especially because I found out from other people before my manager had the courtesy to tell me. Also, my manager always canceled meetings last minute, forgetting that a meeting was taking place or postponing it at the last moment. This left no room to properly plan the work day and also made me and others feel like our meetings were some kind of burden and not an important part of day-to-day business - especially considering that there was not much transparency, to begin with, and you would find out about changes or restructures in the last moment - even if they didn't make any sense. Furthermore, I and other contractors who were working full time at the company were just left without pay, constantly being told that we would get paid soon, basically letting us work for free for two months. Really horrible company and management. Never again.

2
1.0
27 Feb 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I was at Zizoo for almost 4 years and I will say the number one pro were the amazing colleagues and people I met. Sadly, this was the case in the earlier years as they began to leave (should’ve been a red flag). The quality of team mates declined as they refused to fix issues within management and preferred to pay cheap salaries over keeping quality employees. I was always grateful and became comfortable with the opportunity to work remotely without being micromanaged. Any issues or concerns I had were always addressed in a timely manner and the overall vision of the company was promising this was all before the current management was in place. Learned a ton about the nautical industry and learned how much potential there is in it if there would’ve been an honorable and clear plan for business besides only being worried about sales to get investors to throw more money in.

Cons

-As much as every department got together and devoted countless hours in creating plans of action in order to improve the business, they were never implemented so every season we face the exact same issues with the hopes to “ fix it before the next season” -This final year was absolute hell for the operation team. We all worked together Diligently to overcome the cashflow issues as it was ensured to us time and time again that it was temporary. Once we realized it was not temporary they were already scamming clients, charters and having the operations team try and pick up the pieces. It began with late payments to charters then having clients pay twice and not refunding them to ultimately not paying employees their salary for months (I personally did not receive salary for two months while I was still expected to work full time) Since they claimed disolvency only German team was protected rest have been left with no answers or updates what so ever.

3
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