Vantaggi
Two weeks notice period meaning I could get out quick before my mental health was past recovery.
Svantaggi
Currently, 95% is cons. (The remaining 5% of pros being other long suffering colleagues). I joined Sendwave. Sendwave was hard work, some long hours, but the culture and support was phenomenal- we all pulled together and it made the work rewarding. Enter Zepz and it became the biggest mess (I wasn't allowed to my original phrase) ever. The senior management are ridiculously inexperienced, incompetent, lack foresight and soft skills. They are literally out for themselves just going on constant retreats to "spark" while lower levels have their retreats removed and benefits cut. Restructures happened, twice, and the same mistakes were repeated and, I don't know how they managed this, but they outdid their first completely shambolic restructure with a second, even more disastrous one. Cut the already lean and struggling finance team by about a quarter across two brands, and the best bit? Expected those that were left to just pick up the pieces, with some people covering 2+ jobs and working 70 hour weeks, working weekends, cancelling leave etc. All this with no plan on how to maintain output or how the staff left behind would cope. Nothing. Not an ounce of support. I have never EVER seen anything this bad in 15 years of working, including in start ups. The regard for their employees is simply nonexistent. Basically we slog our guts out for SLT to reap rewards but they will say we all do it for the mission. And if you need help? Your colleagues will try their best (remember they are struggling and almost burnt out too) but many of the directors will expect you to just get on with it, it's your job, not theirs. Staff are expected to work all the hours god sends just for the proverbial pat on the back. The ones that don't know better yet lap up this "recognition" over Slack but eventually will just burn out and leave or be discarded because we are all basically expendable to them. So if you value your mental health and self esteem just keep well away from this place. Oh yes, and speaking of recognition: a whole new structure for role levels was rolled out and a new way of reviews/appraisals was fanfared. I put a lot of effort into my own self review and my manager had suggested I was due a promotion. He was then let go and I was never forwarded my appraisal or had mine commented on, nor was I ever given an actual new role when I was "moved" into the merged finance team, despite asking and patiently waiting for 6 weeks. So my 18 months of hard work to try and make it to senior manager level was all for absolutely nothing and my effort and worth not acknowledged. Again, this is the true way that SLT deal with people. There is actually more to comment on with how shoddily people had been treated, including retention bonuses, pay and equality but I have depressed myself too much recounting what happened to want to type anymore and I think the above speaks for itself anyway. It's taken me weeks to recover after leaving this place, I'll say no more.
