Zirtual reviews

An absurd amount of regulation. Feels almost "Big Brother"-ish. You must account for/track how you spend (quite literally) every minute of the day. Client work load varies every day, making it virtually impossible to predict how much actual work you will have to do, yet you are restricted in how much "overhead" work you can have in a day. Flexibility is touted, yet your schedule and response time standards make that non-existent. There is a large dichotomy between the rules/regulations/expectations for ZAs, and the "regular" employees (who all get the luxury of having their own ZA). Pay is pretty terrible for a full-time position with benefits. Some people work 2 jobs to make ends meet. Instead of listening to concerns, more rules and procedures are handed down from people who have never even been a ZA, or supported actual clients of their own. Support will often not back up the ZA when clients have complaints. Clients can really do whatever they wish and Support will, most of the time, back them up, or give in to their whims, even if the client was indeed wrong. The ZA then has to take the blame and salvage the relationship, even though they were made to look foolish and unprofessional, out of no fault of their own. Management has "incentivized" their staff by providing bonus opportunities. The promise of a bonus isn't worth the day-to-day pressure, stress, and hassle of remaining an employee.

Zirtual seems to be selling a personal relationship with you to anyone with a debit card and a couple hundred dollars. While its advertisements suggest the contrary, in my experience its clientele seemed to be more along the lines of random people off the street than off Wall Street; you must nonetheless provide your name and background information to anyone to whom they assign you -- you have absolutely no say with respect to who you work for -- and client assignments appeared to me to be based solely on availability. Services to be provided are specifically outlined on Zirtual's website but I was expected to do things that were not on the list. Individuals assigned to me were in my view often abusive, petulant, of limited intelligence and/or mentally ill and, while management persuasively maintains that it will "have your back" with respect to such clients, I did not find that to be the case. You can be terminated without notice or severance and satisfying the demands of clients and management may require you to work more hours than those for which you are paid. Management seems inexperienced but nice and they talk a very good game, but I grew weary of the excuse that they didn't seem to know what they were doing because the company "was a startup."