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Zappos, the online shoe retailer experimenting with the radical self-management system Holacracy, is continuing to hemorrhage employees.

In a post on the company’s website, Arun Rajan, the chief operating officer, said 18 percent of the company, or some 260 people, had left the company since March.

The exodus began after the chief executive, Tony Hsieh, announced that the company was going to adopt Holacracy, which is supposed to promote collaboration and abolish hierarchy. Anyone who did not accept the change could take a generous buyout, Mr. Hsieh said at the time. Within weeks, about 14 percent of the company, or 210 employees, had left the company, an Amazon subsidiary known for its playful corporate culture, convivial atmosphere and ample perks.

When The Times visited Zappos headquarters in Las Vegas last summer, employees were just getting familiar with Holacracy. Some said they were excited about contributing to new areas of the company and many welcomed the opportunity for more autonomy.

But even then, many employees were confused. Who did they report to if there were no bosses? What was expected of them if they did not have a job title? How would they be compensated? At the time, even company loyalists admitted growing pains:

“There’s no putting rose-colored glasses on it,” said John Bunch, who is leading the Holacracy push throughout Zappos. “We’re just taking baby steps.”

“It is really painful and slow at first,” said Christa Foley, a 10-year Zappos veteran.

Even Josh Pedro, who is in charge of managing Zappos’s public relations, did not sugarcoat the situation. “It was a weird transition,” he confessed.



Apparently not much has changed.

The latest departures came from a group of employees who were helping Zappos migrate to Super Cloud, a back-end infrastructure run by Amazon. The arduous, yearslong effort to move Zappos to Amazon’s servers has effectively frozen the company’s website, and employees working on the project were offered more time before taking the buyout.

Mr. Rajan said that the migration to Super Cloud, which he had hoped to complete last year, was still ongoing. Meanwhile, 38 percent of those working on the Super Cloud transition took the buyout offer.

“While we have lost a number of folks, it is important to note that we have a significant group of highly talented individuals who will be staying to help move Zappos forward,” Mr. Rajan wrote.

Zappos isn’t at risk of closing shop. But the latest departures represent another blow to Holacracy and to Mr. Hsieh’s vision of a harmonious, self-organizing company. Zappos declined to comment.