What is the company culture like at Zola?

You gain experience in recognizing toxic leadership firsthand.

Horrible company with even worse leadership. The culture is built around fear of the CEO, and everyone scrambles to impress her by tearing others down and showing zero respect. Instead of fostering collaboration, the environment is cliquey, competitive, and mean-spirited, like working with high school bullies dressed up as executives. Diversity is nonexistent, and if you’re not part of their inner circle, you’ll be dismissed, belittled, or outright ignored. Worst of all, the constant negativity takes a serious toll on your mental health. What should be a positive industry feels draining and demeaning here.

Good healthcare plan I guess, free bagels on Thursday but that’s it

Unhealthy work culture and very unprofessional leadership managed by toxic women. Everyone is terrified of one of the CEO (this seems to be a recurring theme in Glassdoor reviews), and as a result the toxicity trickles down. The marketing and sales leaders are so catty and unprofessional and will do everything in their power to bring you down. I’ve seen so many people suffer here mentally and physically, it’s not worth it.

Great environment and people to work with - invested in making you feel like part of the team

No real cons; culture is more remote but they do a good job at making everyone feel like a team when in office

- Some really great people work there - Sometimes we had cake

- Management changes their core business plan every other year - Recurrent layoffs (3 in 3 years) followed by restructuring followed by hiring without much thought. Just seems like a boat with a hole in the bottom that they keep having to bail out. - Not a lot of internal movement. Especially because they tend to lay folks off at the same experience level every time. - Micromanagement - Upper management is so attached/possessive of the business that they don't know how to be hands off. Not willing to listen to new ideas or take risks. Make decision based on their "gut" or experience, but doesn't seem to be very data driven. - Penny pinchers - management sacrificed a lot of core culture and joy when the numbers started failing. Also delayed yearly comp raises due to layoffs. - Company has lost its vision and its soul.

Amazing culture, bright colleagues, and high level of excellence

Limited bandwidth at times but strategic prioritization judgement calls help decide how to use the resources at hand

I really enjoyed the culture and benefits while working at Zola. Every member of the team made themselves available for questions and help. There was never a time where I felt I couldn’t ask a supervisor a manager or team member for something and they would be annoyed or leave me hanging. Everyone is really so helpful.

The SNI agents ( mostly remote workers from the Philippines) cherry picked which tickets they wanted to tend to sometimes they took to the more simpler tickets to keep their numbers up and reroute it the more intricate tickets back into the queue. Management was very good about calling this out when we complained about it and sent out several announcements request requesting that this and requested that everyone take responsibility for the tickets that are routed to them. Unfortunately, my contract was not renewed because the company employed bots for our roles. I felt that this was greedy and disingenuous, but I do understand that majority of companies are moving in this direction for entry-level position positions.

Amazing company with really nice culture, people and challenging projects

Didn't find any particular one

* Customer-focused, people-oriented culture with a fantastic women-led leadership team that values inclusivity, transparency, and care for employees * Fast paced yet balanced work environment, with a genuine comittment to work-life balance. * Collaborative, team-oriented tech environment that invests in employee growth with strong onboarding processes and excellent documentation and tooling. * A culture of innovation where ideas and feedback are valued from everyone, regardless of role, with a shared focus on improving the wedding industry for couples and vendors. * Excellent startup benefits, including unlimited vacation, comprehensive healthcare, and summer hours. Very fair compensation for the stage and life of the company * Leadership team emphasizes transparency through regular updates on business performance and presentations, empowering employees to stay informed and aligned * Beloved traditions such as employee awards, where colleagues recognize each other's achievements, fostering community and appreciation * A great environment for self-starters who thrive on being challenged, wearing multiple hats, and making meaningful contributions

* The fast paced and dynamic nature of the company can be demanding and isn't suited for those who prefer a more laid-back or structured work environment * Employees are often expected to take on varied responsibilities and adapt quickly to changing priorities which can be challenging for some

* Customer-focused, people-oriented culture with a fantastic women-led leadership team that values inclusivity, transparency, and care for employees * Fast paced yet balanced work environment, with a genuine comittment to work-life balance. * Collaborative, team-oriented tech environment that invests in employee growth with strong onboarding processes and excellent documentation and tooling. * A culture of innovation where ideas and feedback are valued from everyone, regardless of role, with a shared focus on improving the wedding industry for couples and vendors. * Excellent startup benefits, including unlimited vacation, comprehensive healthcare, and summer hours. Very fair compensation for the stage and life of the company * Leadership team emphasizes transparency through regular updates on business performance and presentations, empowering employees to stay informed and aligned * Beloved traditions such as employee awards, where colleagues recognize each other's achievements, fostering community and appreciation * A great environment for self-starters who thrive on being challenged, wearing multiple hats, and making meaningful contributions

* The fast paced and dynamic nature of the company can be demanding and isn't suited for those who prefer a more laid-back or structured work environment * Employees are often expected to take on varied responsibilities and adapt quickly to changing priorities which can be challenging for some

Bagel Thursdays are single handled carrying the culture

Zola used to feel like a fun, inclusive, supportive place to work and in the last couple of years it’s taken a turn for the worse Ever since we appointed a co-CEO (which is weird enough as it is for such a small company) she has single handedly destroyed the culture. One town hall she actually got up in front of the entire company and said “I am always right about everything” and laughed. She is out of control, catty, and everyone walks on eggshells around her. I’ve also heard her trash people just for leaving the company for better opportunities and acts like everyone should give Zola blind loyalty. But it’s ok for her to be a part of laying off over a third of the company? Hypocrisy at its finest. The company went through massive layoffs last year and is down to a skeleton crew. Zola used to have a full, diverse HR team and now there is only one person left for HR for the whole company. Major red flag. Unless major changes happen I don’t see Zola coming back from this.