Zalando Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Pros

- Truly open company - Upper management listens (Mid level managers don’t) - Good for extroverted people - Lots of learning. Some people with very good technical knowledge. - Good hiring process - Very good COVID response - Company cares for employees - Work life balance - Okay salary - Visa sponsor and relocation reimbursement Zalando is what you make of it. I learned a lot here.

Cons

Feedback system: Some managers provides feedback about every tiny little thing. Feedbacks here are actually orders. You must follow it. Because if you get the same feedback twice it’s a yellow flag. And is misused as a tool of micromanagement. Promotion system: Some people wants to get promoted desperately. To prove that they will often try to make your biggest achievements look questionable. It’s not about someone’s good performance but also about proving(whether it is true or not you just need to write good essays) that my performance is better than others. Not for introverts: They literally have this as a check mark “present ideas in front of team”. If you are an introvert and aren’t comfortable about PowerPoint presentations in front of 40 people you are doomed. Some one will write this in your every performance feedback that you are not proactive(as you didn’t offer to do presentations when asked for). They take proactivity very seriously. And presentations are how you show proactivity here.

Pros

- Good work-life balance - Good company culture - lots of opportunities to learn within the company - good vibe and familiar atmosphere - good care of employees in general and during COVID - shared CEOs vision

Cons

- HR: nothing makes sense here. Poor to none focus on employee retention. There are great plans on expanding the company but, no candidate I proposed was ever accepted through the referral program (10 out of 10 discarded without contacting the person). Somewhat arrogant and unavailable all the time. - saturated, very difficult to make a career progress - low salaries compared to the competition - chaotic, poor communication between teams - company prefers to hire inexperienced people at senior levels than making progress people in the company - high turnover in management roles. Every time a new Head or VP comes in, wants to prove a point by doing the opposite of the previous one

Pros

International, young, informal, good work/life balance

Cons

The business is profitable by itself. The tech products make virtually no impact when it comes to innovation, so leadership only cares about taking the next sales decision. Promotions and work recognition is random and contextual. So if are good in a bad set up , forget it you will be stuck. If you are mediocre in the right set up you will be promoted in every round.

Pros

Europe's smartest colleagues, caring work culture, evolving mindset, amazing work-life balance

Cons

Unorganized at times, sometimes there are remains of hierarchical and rigid German work culture that seems to be hard for Zalando to shake of

Pros

Company's culture & values; benefits; salary; best working atmosphere; internal growth & job rotation; a lot of trainings; the importance you have as employee for the employer; possibilities; part of the change (you can make the difference in diversity & inclusion items or in sustainable aspects); smart working; TOP work-life balance; opportunities for women;

Cons

I think there are no cons.

Pros

Exposure to many parts of ecom businesses, from Performance marketing, content & creation, marketing campaigning, Human Resources, finance controlling, business development, category management and market place to name but a few Flexible working hours Honesty and transparency from the board and management in cascading information and its reflection in its wins and mistakes It’s pioneering mentality for example the great strides made in sustainability which only 2 years ago was a small side project. Tolerance and international community Pay, salary and perks for Berlin are very good. In house training and development courses are excellent if you have time to attend, the leadership courses were excellent.

Cons

The absolute unmanageable workload and constant lack of investment into headcount in category management. Certainly at teamlead level and above in category management, you are married to your job which is why turnover is so high. A work/life balance is not possible. It’s not a sustainable way to live for long term health and it needs more than ever in a COVID world to be addressed. The race mentality and speed at which the business develops and changes which does not stop to properly address the people it affects at different levels of the business. In most businesses pressure is top down. At category management you feel it from the top, from The brands but most frustratingly from all the link departments be it, finance controlling, logistics, Zms or partner program . The business is so big it is it not aligned on internal strategy goals with different priorities. It is hard to yeld support and truly get your goals achieved. Zalando Calls itself a fashion platform but truly they are tech first foremost and forever. People that join the business with a genuine passion for fashion would miss working in a true fashion led business. There is a distinct lack of onboarding and on job training support for basic daily functions, clear job descriptions for category management at different levels The Political game that has been developed by the personal performance review process “zonar”that is so complex and open to manipulation that creates mistrust and lack of openness from employees to address true support where it’s needed to help people develop. Many people in category management have left due to stress and burnout in the roles this has never been properly addressed to avoid going forward. It gives the impression Zalando does not genuinely care about its employees. When people are rated underperforming the focus is primarily on the individual not the environment or the lead or the team around them. Zalando has a set of principles called the founding mindset.. how they conduct themselves in the business and how they work.. it’s a great initiative for a large business. But it only works if everyone lives and believes in them, especially people at director and Senior management who set the culture and atmosphere. I have seen many examples in category management where this is definitely not the case.