Reputable professionals are finding themselves in a bizarre twilight zone, kind of like an amusement park nightmare. You keep trying different rides thinking maybe this one won’t be so bad, or “it will get better” but then it’s one terrifying clown after the next. Even tenured employees are desperately trying to get off the tilt-a-whirl and find the exit.
Leadership. Doesn’t. Listen.
Let’s face it, they don’t even know what to listen for. They're told what to do by subject matter experts they hire, but they refuse to pay attention or let them do their job unless it falls within their program/blinders.
It is a case of the blind leading the enlightened. The outcome? The enlightened are complacent. Well-respected professionals are waking up daily, dreading the cluster that is Spreetail’s lack of process, direction and vision. They’re guilted into mandatory 8am meetings where they are told fluffy numbers and irrelevant financials which mask the disaster behind the green curtain. There is no inspiration, no incentive and no feeling of accomplishment other than seeing their direct deposit still go through at the end of each month. YES, you heard me: they pay monthly.
Forced into the company’s smoke and mirrors act, employees are pushed through no-so-funhouses full of mantras such as “be relentless” and “act like an owner” which are ultimately used to remove any accountability or direction on the company's end. Employees are expected to stay for late happy hours, room with their managers or direct reports at events (completely not ok) and encouraged not to innovate, but to work double to make up for the lack of automation in archaic systems. Welcome to the show: you are just another butt in a seat in an employee count metric.
The saddest part? These highly rational and tenured professionals were led to believe they had the ability to impact a business. They thought they were going to be a part of something innovative…It is extremely evident the ring leader (Brett) won’t allow experts to do their job unless it is in line with his very immature vision. A vision he has based on having only worked at Spreetail, and volunteered to keep it going because no one else would.
