Pros
The people I worked with on a day-to-day basis were extremely passionate and all-around great human beings. They were the reason I stuck around as long as I did. There were also many opportunities to socialize.
Cons
Where do I start? The CULTure? The inexperienced management? The promotion of those with no qualifications? The micromanaging CEO? You’ll see recent reviews covering all these things, but none of these problems started just recently – this is what Spreetail has always been. I’m glad I bailed when I did. Even a couple years ago, highly experienced hires didn’t stick around long. One former leader with a fantastic resume of outside experience made it only a few months before realizing he just couldn’t work with the CEO (Brett). Brett’s leadership style has one element – micromanagement. He doesn’t trust anyone to do their job well. He’s got his hands in everything. He demands numbers to back up claims or proposals, but when you show him data that back you up, he doesn’t believe them unless it all perfectly aligns with his preconceived notions. He has zero people skills. He’s much too confident while lacking the corresponding competence. None of the upper management, including Brett himself, have any real experience outside of Spreetail. Many of them started at the company soon after college, working for the incognito/absentee majority owner – Vitali Lapko – and have never known anything else. They don’t know how good companies operate. They think their silly little leadership books and cult-ish leadership retreats can give them everything they need to run a company, but as it turns out, Deepak Chopra doesn’t really teach you much when it comes to business. The culture…ahhhh the culture. Surprise! It’s a fraud. If you’re not drinking the kool-aid (see: dedicating your whole life and self to Spreetail), you already realize how awful it is. There’s no such thing as work-life balance. Even if you execute extremely valuable and profitable work, don’t expect to be promoted unless you’re in the office 60+ hours a week (as if hours equal productivity and value). They’ll sweep that under the rug with their favorite quote – “Spreetail is not for everyone”, but what that really means is they don’t care about employee well-being and they have no intent to change that. But hey, if you ARE drinking the kool-aid and ignoring all the other aspects of your life that make you a real person, then you can get promoted even if you are severely under-qualified! More than one of their department heads had been at the company for less than 5 years (at least one less than 3 years) in entry level roles…but they drank enough of that sweet, sweet nectar to somehow land a role that would be at least VP, if not C-level, status in any other organization. If that’s not a recipe for disaster, then I don’t know what is. But if you’re looking for your own heaping dose of impostor syndrome and are willing to evangelize for the cult, look no further! With all that said, if you still feel like working for a company like this, whose mission is nothing more than a rip-off of a Steve Jobs quote, go for it. Go make your “dent” in the universe! Steve said it was a “ding”, but whatever. Switch out one word and it’s original, right?
