

Tony Hsieh next big gamble: The livelihood of a thousand or so Zappos employees - joshwa
https://pando.com/2015/07/03/holacracy-dunces/93996988078e838a8d489f03c6344517f212a02e/

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yishanl
Some highlights from Glassdoor. Strange since Zappos is championed on a
regular basis by bschools for customer service, employee satisfaction, and
culture.

"It was great the first 4 years, great leader great benefits. it has changed
tremendously and not for the good at all."

"The reality is once someone leaves, they become persona non-grata to an
extreme. They are not allowed to come to events, if they show up as your
guest… Figure out how to say goodbye with some class. Figure out how to let
people go with their souls intact. There is over 20% turnover every year."

"The relaxed environment becomes hindering when you need to get work done.
Even simply asking others to tone it down or that you need to focus is met
with purposeful continuance of whatever it is you tried to stop in the first
place. It is a "so what?" environment."

"Many people joke around so often that nothing gets accomplished when it
matters or takes a very very long time to do simple tasks. Voluntary outings
that are really mandatory. You are viewed as an outsider if you do not act
like you're part of the Zappos college fraternity like lifestyle. It is very
much like high school or college all over again."

"After getting rid of the attendance policy, people are no longer showing up
to work on time. Those that do show up to work are forced to deal with how
busy the phones are. There are petty incentives and rewards for actually
coming into work and doing what you're supposed to do."

tl;dr sentiment is that Zappos is like high school and college all over again
with a lot of politics getting in the way of work. Reminds me a bit of some
startups here.

