This is my Zipstory: Q&A with Zae

In this blog we meet Zae Wilson, ANZ Customer Complaints Manager, and hear how her career with Zip has enabled Zae to find her true calling as a leader and working parent.

Tell us who you are, what you do at Zip and a little bit more about your Zipstory

I am Zae Wilson, the Customer Complaints Manager at Zip. I look after the Complaints & Disputes team, and currently have three direct reports and three indirect reports. We are a very tight-knit team and I feel blessed to lead such committed and passionate Zipsters. Day to day, my role is a mix of leadership, continuous process improvement, implementing regulatory guidelines, risk prevention, data analysis and reporting.

I will have been at Zip for six years this coming November. I started in Customer Experience (CX) as my first full-time role out of university, after studying Communications (Journalism). I had a friend already working here, and I thought I’d just start here until I found my ‘real job’. After a little while in CX, I progressed to CX Team Lead (TL), and found my ‘real job’ was leadership.

While in my TL role, I became pregnant and quickly became acquainted with the benefits Zip has to offer. I took Parental Leave in August 2021 for 12 months. It was the height of the COVID lockdown and my husband and I had moved to Dubbo in regional NSW, where my family is based, for help in those first few weeks of newborn life. What was supposed to be a temporary arrangement became a two-year stint in Dubbo.

Factors outside of our control meant I could not return to Sydney, nor my TL role in CX. I met with Kris (Director, CX) and Alex (Senior Manager, CX Operations) believing there was no opportunity to continue to work at Zip. They floated the idea of stepping into an individual contributor, complaints role on a part-time basis, which on paper sounded disenchanting, but in practice, ended up being more than I could ever have imagined.

All of a sudden I was deep in regulatory guides and legislation, and building processes that met regulatory complaint standards but also provided customer experiences that felt uniquely Zip. This gave me such an immense sense of achievement and ownership. Organically, I transitioned to a leadership role and my scope grew beyond Complaints and included Order Disputes as well. I was able to lead again - my ‘real job’.

The way Zip has enabled me to deliver and make a meaningful difference, despite being a remote, part-time employee, has been enormous for my sense of identity after becoming a Mum.

In your experience, what are some of the opportunities you get working in Operations at Zip that you wouldn’t get working elsewhere?

I genuinely doubt I'd ever be able to find another workplace as supportive as Zip in helping me balance work and my return-to-work journey.

I was treated with such grace and patience as I found my feet and new routine. To be both part-time and remote, and a leader, is pretty unique. It has provided such a healthy work-life balance.

It can sometimes feel a little bit harder to escape work when you work from home, and I do miss out on the face-to-face interaction. But I am happy with the trade-off of having the flexibility and ability to drop off and sometimes pick up my son from daycare, and then spend time with him that I would otherwise spend in transit to work. This time is priceless to me and it would not be possible without the arrangement I have with Zip.

Thinking about the way you get your best work done, how does Zip support your wellbeing?

I believe I work best when I am trusted and empowered to get things done. Sometimes that belief and motivation is all it takes for any self-doubt to dissipate.

Returning to work after 12 months means your brain hasn’t been in ‘work-mode’, it’s been in survival baby mode! So just having Zip believe in me, and want me back at work, was great for my confidence.

I think the core of my wellbeing at Zip is enabled by my leader, Kris. I’ll always be indebted to the way she empowered me, and supported my return to work. Her actions enabled me to do so in a way that eased me back into working life, while still challenging me and pushing me. This gradual transition back to leadership responsibility was also so important to my wellbeing, as I think returning straight back into it when I was trying to figure out a whole new concept, would have been a lot.

Then more obviously, having the benefit of wellbeing leave or even birthday leave, gives me actual ‘me-time’. My son goes to daycare on the days I work, so having the option to have leave for no other reason than looking after my own wellbeing is such a nice perk, and truly feels like it’s for me.

Can you recall a time when you felt supported and included at Zip ? What made that experience stand out?

There was a leadership offsite last year which Zip flew me up to and accommodated me so I could join everyone in person. I was also able to spend a couple of days in Sydney with the team. It was a time where I just felt really grateful to be included, and valued as a leader in Operations.

Another time was when I was chosen for the HiPo (High Potential) development program. Previously I often considered myself as unqualified for things like leadership days or bespoke development programs. However it’s been a pleasant surprise to be included in the same way as other Zipsters who are office-based. It’s more of a ‘entitled to nothing, grateful for everything’ approach.

What excites you most about writing the next chapter of your career story at Zip?

This is a hard one. I think based on my Zipstory, it’s clear I’ve never really known what’s next for me, but it’s always worked out better than I could’ve imagined.

It’s the same now, I don’t really know what’s next. Things are always changing in my current role, and I am constantly adapting. I have realised lately that you don’t always have to be the subject matter expert to be able to lead a team, so that’s really made me think what might be possible.

As a leader, I’ve found that it’s important to have good people around you and to also lean into exploring what development could look like from one person to another. I feel fortunate to be kept on my toes by the ever-changing nature of leadership and Zip itself.

Part of me hates the unknown, but part of me believes things will always work out for the best. At Zip I am sure the best is yet to come.