Pros
The first 5 or so months of my employment at Zola were a dream, especially coming from a large company with a very toxic and hierarchical structure. At the outset, Zola seemed to operate unlike other companies in that they were so much more transparent about business goals and reporting, things were less hierarchical, and high level leadership was more laidback and personable. The founder is lovely and you can tell she really cares for the brand and makes an effort to know everyone there. The people who work at Zola are what really makes it special, and I will forever miss my coworkers that I had there. In many ways, Zola is changing toxic wedding culture for the better and is an important player in this space.
Cons
Despite many initial positives, much of this was temporary and/or completely false when you stay long enough to see beneath the shiny surface. Almost everyone on the leadership team came from Gilt Group and there is unnecessary loyalty paid to them purely for that reason. This offers an avenue for leadership to give 50% and still be shielded from consequence. The executive of my department was absent minded, could not be bothered to show up for any meetings on time or at all, and would play on their phone while people in meetings were talking. Many of these meetings were held purely so that this person could see what we were working on, so it was quite appalling that there was so little care shown. Other executives have had complaints against them for showing up and goofing around most of the day without showing true leadership to their teams. This blind loyalty is also largely why pretty much everyone in leadership is white and there is almost zero black/brown representation outside of customer service, even though Zola likes to say they are diverse. They say you can tell one’s true character in a time of crisis. Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter is where things really took a turn for the worse and the lack of strong leadership at Zola was truly alarming. Covid-related lay offs were, as one other review mentioned, Hunger Games style and completely chaotic. When asked if executives had taken any pay cuts to avoid mass lay offs, it was met with a wishy washy answer, ‘we are looking into that as an option... There was no support or communication whatsoever from leadership or HR after-the-fact. Many roles that were eliminated were essential roles to the business, and the company is now bringing on independent contractors to fulfill those needs, with no explanation as to how lay offs were chosen and why they went after people that they actually needed at the end of the day, while less essential roles remained in tact.. Additionally, managers were not aware that people on their teams were getting eliminated until after it happened and did not have a chance to take part in these decisions. Employee morale is in the toilet because of these decisions and lack of transparency During BLM, they have not offered any form of donation to any charity, instead relying on their own employees to donate funds while on a six-month 25% pay cut, which I find problematic on many levels. Their social media accounts allude to how they are donating and helping these causes, but they are not taking any actual action to support them.