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Holland America Line

Engaged Employer

Holland America Line reviews

3.5

58% would recommend to a friend

(649 total reviews)

Beth Bodensteiner

80% approve of CEO

61% positive business outlook

Holland America Line has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 649 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Holland America Line employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Hotels & Travel Accommodation industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

649 reviews
2.0
Feb 29, 2016

A sad decline...

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

For many years Holland America provided competitive wages and benefits. Salary increases and yearly bonus were small, but they did happen. Travel benefits were difficult to use, but they were nice. The company is probably still a good place to work in 'Reservations', particularly if you want to work from home. Reservations tends to work like a well-oiled machine for the most part.

Cons

I recently left Holland America after a decade of service, along with many others I know. The pressure over the last 2 to 3 years has been unbearable as the company goes through a "re-org" with Princess. My department was left with no job security for almost a year (with the threat of the job just disappearing), then one day it finally did happen, the whole "interview for your own job" scenario. Very poorly handled by Management with many team members not staying with the company at all, or even choosing to interview. Cannot recommend the company to anyone at the moment until they get organized. And while some departments are better to work in than others, the dysfunction within the company is spreading far and wide. Everyone is overworked, underpaid for what they do and fearful for their job. Backstabbing is rampant, as everyone is scrambling to prove their worth in case of layoffs. When layoffs do happen they are implemented very poorly and the company is losing people who have 20 years or more of invaluable experience. Maybe these company changes will be good, who knows, but it will probably be several years before all the kinks get worked out. In the meantime, it's very difficult to determine which departments are *less* dysfunctional than others, but it almost doesn't matter. Finally, for bus commuters the location means an extra half hour to get to the company's lower Queen Anne location.

1.0
May 18, 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Within the bounds of certain teams and with luck a caring supervisor, a career driven employee can take advantage of the culture of dodging responsibility to take over new challenges and rapidly grow their skill set, then leave before being corrupted by the environment. As a place where no one is fired for not doing their job, and employees can take up an employment position and draw a salary without doing anything while deflecting responsibility, Holland America is a decent retirement option for non-career minded people without passion, drive, or morals. 9/80 schedule (every other friday off)

Cons

Cross-team/department interaction is a mess of dodging responsibility and political backstabbing. Leadership condones inaction when issues are escalated; employees who don't do their job face no consequences. Lack of clarity on team roles and missions encourages silos, squabbling, and teams/departments working against each other. People gain employment here and sit on their titles, blocking other people's progress to avoid work while drawing a salary doing the absolute minimum. Pay is awful and well below market rate. Leadership will tell you one thing and do another the instant they get out of sight. The culture of dodging responsibility exists quite far up the chain of command. On the other hand, when things go well due to the hard work of lower level employees, leadership is quick to get themselves involved and take credit.

1.0
May 24, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Office has a pretty view of Puget Sound -Free ship visits when ships are in port in the Summer -9/80 schedule is nice (work 9 hours per day, get every other Friday off)

Cons

-Not much of a vision or mission to get behind -Very high turnover (60-70%), lots of office drama, blaming and gossip -Outdated and badly run technology. Will take weeks and sometimes months to get your computer working properly when you start. If you have issues with different programs/access, you have to call a call center that isn't very helpful and just hope they can assign your ticket to someone on the onsite team who can help you within a couple days. Upper management gets instant IT assistance though, funny how that works. -Expensive benefits and subpar pay for Seattle area (are we really thinking we're going to retain people when they keep telling us they're getting 20-50% more money in their new jobs?) -Short term mindset and no growth. The priorities always seem to be just surviving to the next month/quarter/year, and never stepping back to consider if the way things are being done are how they should be being done. The phrase "this is just how we've always done things" rules here. -Office is really tough to commute to This is the kind of company that will tell you they're a great employer because of "lots of growth opportunities" (because the turnover is so high, no one wants the opportunities that are available since they're more increases in stress than they are pay or position), "we're in a cool industry" (makes no difference really, industry isn't what makes working in HR good or bad), and "free cruises" (hard to actually get approved, one year waiting period, perk only covers base cruise fare so you have to pay gratuities, taxes, port fees, airfare, extra food, and a fee if you want anything other than an inside cabin). In reality, the corporate office is a pretty disappointing place to work. I was excited when I started, but the technology issues, toxic office environment, teams just blaming each other and not taking responsibility for things, horrible commute, constantly having to train replacements and lack of good opportunities really gets to you.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 649 Reviews

Glassdoor has 955 Holland America Line reviews submitted anonymously by Holland America Line employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Holland America Line is right for you.