Pros
- The Sezzle ‘village’ is fantastic: hard working, collaborative, humble, go-getters, strong work ethic. Unfortunately with the layoffs so many of these exceptional people have left… it’s now a skeleton crew with a sad shadow of what it used to be. - Ownership and accountability for the work you do. Quick decision making, and ability to make an impact on the business and the team. - Going up the rocket ship was fun, well funded, well resourced, people ‘played nice’. Going down it’s a disaster… no vision, no strategy, no plan for how to get the company through acquisition.
Cons
- The Sezzle ‘chiefs’ were great at selling against a compelling vision but fell short at execution. Politics, favoritism, ‘boys club’ decision making, ‘I am the owner so do what I say and don’t ask questions’ mentality is sinking the business. - The CEO is clueless about Marketing however decimated the team to a tiny fraction of what it was so he could ‘lead it’ … vs letting experienced marketers lead intelligently through proper conversations and challenging discussions. Many decisions appear to be ego based/ shoot from the hip vs an intelligent assessment of how to meet the demands of the business. - CEO is inexperienced and surrounds himself with junior ‘yes people’ who are timid of pushing back or making waves. Sezzle lacks seasoned business people who know how to lead a team, foster conversation, encourage healthy debate. - KPIs and business plans are a joke. Big ‘no-no’ to lack of strategic and analytical planning to inform goals. Instead, random and unachievable figures are shared and of course, cannot be met. They probably sound good in investor calls… but harsh reality has caught up with made up figures. - For a Bcorp company that prides itself in ‘doing the right thing’ I have to admit that the layoffs were done in a disastrous way. People’s computers were shut off within minutes of receiving the news, some people didn’t even get the call to alert them they were being let go (they found out when laptops went dark), no vacation payouts, the crappiest ‘packages’ (1-2 week severance, seriously?!), immediate termination of health insurance and benefits, not an ounce of empathy from CEO when announcing the news to employees post RIF (just another agenda item on the list). - No path to the future. 1 month post RIF there’s yet a plan to be formulated or shared, no clarity on jobs to be done other than ‘business as usual’ (with less people and huge blow to morale). Plus, Zip is also laying off people. Sounds like all hell broke loose! - Low compensation. Base pay is LOW unless you’re in a few ‘preferred’ areas where reputation is strong or led by members of ‘the boys club’. Options are worth $0… so, all of us who took pay cuts to serve the mission and build something special are now left behind in the dust. Sad to know that bringing ‘financial empowerment to the next generation’ was relegated to a cute tagline and not truly a value leadership stood behind for ALL people (including employees).