Toxic Work Environment - Project Coordinator Zaneen Group Employee Review

A few colleagues were genuinely supportive.

Zaneen is a small, family-run company that checks every box of a toxic work environment. Micromanagement: Everything is controlled by the owner. Even in areas where you have professional expertise, decisions get overridden by him, and you get the “I’m the owner of the company” talk. Every chance he has to say that sentence, he will - in case you forgot who you’re talking to. Abusive environment: the owner is frequently rude to employees, raising his voice over any insignificant inconvenience, and if you ever get into a discussion with him, he will not let you talk; he interrupts you at all times. Very aggressive behaviour. Double standards: the owner absolutely hates remote work, you will be informed that remote work is not allowed, only to find that a handful of people work either fully remotely or on a very generous hybrid schedule. But cohesion and fairness are not something you can expect from this company. Blame on others: upper management often blames delays or errors on other departments when they are the ones holding up the workload. “We’re a family”: they often refer to employees as family, or Z-fam. That’s a big red flag. They could do themselves a favour and stop using that terminology; it displeases every employee. We all know which family really matters in this company, and that employees are not a part of it. Even the fridge in the kitchen has a label so employees don’t use the “family” side.

A few supportive coworkers made day-to-day a bit more bearable

Severe lack of communication from management CEO is erratic, often changes direction and then blames employees for the confusion Micromanagement at every level with little autonomy or trust No opportunities for professional growth or development Contributions are rarely acknowledged or appreciated Culture of gaslighting and blame from the top down