Volo Reviews

• On-site parking is extremely limited. (The company moved to Cheltenham on the premise of "up-scaling", but somehow overlooked the fundamentals of transit; now only the elites are provided on-site parking) • Cheesy "Flight" themed branding motif. (eSellerPro re-branded as Volo Commerce, to both escape the bad reputation and in a failed attempt to attract a wider American audience; instead the brand emphasis only served to confuse existing customers, and the staff. If the brand idea was intended to reflect an upcoming, market-leading and high-tech software solution, I find a "classic 50's flight theme" a very bizarre choice, as it just screams obsolete and dangerous) • Terrible yearly appraisals based on vague and ambiguous "Volo Values" (Everyone is expected to follow the unquestionable company values, as gospel; additionally, the "values" are also vaguely flight themed) • Abysmal software documentation. The software documentation consists of, and very limited wiki-base (which is being used less and less, in favour of an even more limited repository), a training site labelled "Volo Flight School" (more of that cheesy branding) and a community forum, which has evolved into another support channel as very few users are interested in helping others, who could very well be their direct competition in the open marketplace. • Poor talent retention. (The company is quickly losing it's key employees; some people are completely irreplaceable, taking their knowledge of the system and years of experience with them when they leave.) • Constant Office politics and power-play. ("Friendly" meetings with middle-middle-management (not a typo), where passive threats of an audience with HR are insinuated, in an attempt to suppress publicly voiced opinions) • The illusion of control over one's own work is contested on a daily basis, as all tasks are micro-managed. • Blame culture. (The responsibility of critical System problems are delegated to the lowest paid staff, as a matter of procedure. Interdepartmental communication is handled almost solely by the support group, while being expected to engage with the end-user / customer and keep them apprised of progress. If there is a break in the chain of communication between internal departments, the competence of the elected-responsible support member is brought into question, instead of addressing the underlying issue. Unfortunately, internal quarrels over system problems and the passing of customer queries between each department in a big game of "ticket-tennis" are both bad practices that observed on a regular basis.) • Next to no recognition of hard work, commitment and loyalty; however, in total contrast they've perfected the art of playing on individual weaknesses to alienate a recipient's trust and further demotivate each team in the company. • Absolutely no career progression and no incentives to remain with the company. • Middle-management have the authority to virtue signal and make irrational / absurd claims against employees, providing themselves with additional time to manipulate and exaggerate any incident they deem fit. • Other reviews seem to commend the introduction of irritating, unwanted, gimmicky items, such as a pool table, wireless sound system and Space Hoppers!     » Some of the TV Monitors plastered around the open-floor office just show ambiguous numerical values to give the perception of attentiveness and organisation for the occasional customer that is invited for a visit to the office; although admittedly some of these stats are very useful for the staff. (As stated in the pros)     » The wireless speaker system forces everyone to listen to the same mundane orchestral covers of popular songs, intended to give the work environment some "flavour." It's highly unprofessional to have music playing in the background of a phone call, made even worse by not having any control over it.     » The recent introduction of a games table (pool, table tennis and air hockey) seemed like a nice idea for the first few hours; then it became very apparent that this is exactly what the company needed to avoid at all costs. Now it's just a reason for certain people to ignore their work, make an irrational amount of noise.     » Space hoppers, scooters and bean bags; the office space has been made to feel even more like a playground with the introduction of adult-sized children's toys. From one perspective it's a nice distraction; on the other hand, it's just plain childish with the occasional risk of being ran over by someone heavier than 10st on a scooter.