Chasing Growth, Losing Culture - Anonymous employee Zapier Employee Review

1.0
Mar 18, 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Remote-only environment that actually works - The ICs (Individual Contributors) at Zapier are some of the best people you will ever have the pleasure to meet

Cons

- There is a small, dedicated team looking after DIBE (Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, Equity) - both in core roles and through folks volunteering to lead ERGs - but any effort made is sullied or blocked by decisions made above them. It seems that the rounds of layoffs they have been through have disproportionately impacted folks from underrepresented groups, suggesting a fundamental issue and proving they are happy to staff these folks in roles that aren’t secure. I don’t have exact numbers but believe in the 2023 layoffs that around 40% of folks laid off were from underrepresented groups. Sadly that theme continues and in the most recent support restructure only LGBTQIA+ and BIPOC folks were laid off, with the majority also being women. This is not a safe company for folks from underrepresented groups, and GTM is not a safe team for women. - On the whole, leadership doesn’t seem to understand or care about the work that the ERGs are doing. Aside from the ERG Chairs, others that lead ERGs are expected to fit this additional work into their core role and don’t receive any additional compensation. Managers often don’t understand the additional work ERG Leads on their team are doing, and as a result, they’re not supported directly with this work. - Remote-only means when lay-offs happen, the victims of them are cut-off immediately without the chance to say goodbye. This impacts morale and means rumours naturally start to surface. - There is sadly a ‘boys club’ culture beginning to sow its seeds, particularly within GTM. Sales is now the ‘golden’ team in the eyes of GTM leadership, yet there is no collaboration with Product or Support from the Sales Team. GTM leadership also seems uninterested in Support, apart from its bottom line and the impact it has on their bonuses. GTM leadership seems to have no idea how to motivate a team; people in support don’t want to see you dressed up as Taylor Swift, we want you to actually listen to us and act on our feedback. - Part of support was outsourced at the lowest cost possible it seems. The outsourced team don’t have the technical knowledge or aptitude required to support Zapier’s products. The internal team and the management that were laid off are/were often the blame for the performance of the outsourced team. Rather than dealing with our feedback about the outsourced team directly, we were instructed to ‘be nice’ to them. - Support Leadership is staffed with robotic personalities who seem to only know how to say yes to levels above them. This is resulting in a team that feels lost, micro-managed, and unheard. Folks that don’t only say yes, or have dissenting views, seem to be the ones that get laid off first which goes completely against the feedback value and doesn’t create a safe environment where feedback can be shared.

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Zapier Response
2y
Hi Fellow Zapien - There's a lot to cover here! It sounds like you may work within our Support team. The #1 thing I can say about Support at Zapier is that I'm hugely proud of the work of this team. We've made changes in Support over the past year to best serve our customers. From your experience, it sounds like there's more work to do to ensure that teammates within Support are equipped to thrive in our new model. Please do keep the feedback coming to Support leadership in particular—that's how we can best learn, adapt, and succeed. You can also share feedback or concerns with your People Business Partner. Meanwhile: Thank you for everything you do at Zapier—whether that's in Support or elsewhere. Warmly, Brandon (Chief People Officer)

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Cons

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