It's not what everyone thinks it is. - Anonymous employee Zingerman's Employee Review

- pay WAY below the standard in the area on all levels - benefits are not great. NO sick days and no holidays (except two) off - very high expectations for low pay I worked with the company for many years, and for a lot of them I LOVED my job, I loved the people I worked with and I loved the culture. As time went on and the company grew, and the owners started taking interest in things outside running Zingerman's, things REALLY started going downhill. What was originally an environment where ANYONE could challenge things and make contributions turned into a place where I feared saying ANYTHING that challenged what was going on for fear of being reprimanded. I repeatedly saw coworkers promoted into management positions despite multiple complaints about their performance and behavior. My department was also the subject of blatant abuse by some of the partners including being berated and called out in meetings. Beyond the hostile environment, the expectations at Zingerman's are VERY high. If you're in a higher level position, you're expected to teach a class, attend classes and keep an endless schedule of meetings on TOP of doing the actual job you're hired for. Towards the end of my time there, I was doing maybe a couple of hours of work and the rest was spent going to meetings or teaching. All this being said, it might be a tolerable place to work temporarily if the pay were commensurate to that of similar organizations in the area.