To get a sense of what it’s like at Spreetail, it’s important to understand a few things upfront. Let’s start with the phrase “Spreetail time.” There’s a common joke around the offices saying that Spreetail works at warp speed and it’s true. When it’s good, it’s real good. But when it’s bad, it’s real bad. I saw both sides of that. Spreetail packs a lot of work into a short time span. 1 year feels like 2 and 2.5 feels like 5 years.
The second important thing to understand is that Spreetail goes through phases. Everything feels cyclical. Whether it’s busy season to busy season or hyper growth to layoffs, it’s all there. Leadership is filled with folks who’ve gone all in with Spreetail. They’re lifers in every sense of the word. They sometimes expect lower rung employees to ride those same waves and carry that same attitude, which is incredibly unfair and unrealistic. If you don’t want to ride those waves, you’ll be labeled “not a culture fit” or that you aren’t “raising your bar.”
Work/Life Balance
Work/life balance means something different to everyone – this is a sentiment you’ll hear at every turn at Spreetail. To an extent, it’s true. Some employees love feeling inundated with work and that generates a sense of purpose. For others, it feels like they can never escape.
Perhaps if you feel compensated fairly and you love your role, you’ll be OK with the expectations and level of constant connectedness. For younger employees/teams that aren’t compensated as handsomely, it’s going to be hard. You’ll be asked to grind hard and find ways to be successful – no matter how hard the deck is stacked against you.
Personally, I was on a team that grinded hard every single day. My team was constantly overlooked, constantly under pressure and often not really cared for by the upper tier of the leadership team. We were also one of the lowest paid, if not the lowest paid. As you might guess, it was tough to keep key talent around.
Management
I’ll speak on two sections of management: direct management and company-wide leadership. Spreetail does a killer job of giving managers resources to be successful and to help grow employees. If you’re a bad manager at Spreetail, it’s because you don’t care.
Company-wide leadership is a different story. Upper management purposefully hid financial troubles last summer and as a result, laid off a significant portion of our workforce. After that deception, they vowed to be more transparent. To an extent, they’ve done that. But there are still areas where they aren’t transparent.
They aren’t transparent about firings and often say recently fired employees “didn’t fit the culture”, which means nothing. It’s a total smokescreen response. They still aren’t totally transparent when it comes to the financial health of the company. Sure, they share figures during Wednesday Morning Meetings, but those can be spun to display false positives.
Growth Opportunities
Remember the phases I mentioned before? Spreetail is in the “grind to a halt” phase of internal growth. Before, it was hypergrowth. Things were too good, like a shot in the arm of adrenaline good. Now, they’re at a standstill. The company is frugal to a fault now, meaning they won’t hire support for teams that desperately need it. This also means they’ll hire internal candidates for roles they aren’t qualified for and ultimately, won’t succeed in.
If you join the Vendor Management team, you’ll have opportunities. They’ll find growth and promotion opportunities for you. If you join the Content team, you likely won’t have those opportunities. You’ll be asked to grind, day in and day out, with no light at the end of the tunnel. You’ll be told you haven’t mastered a role yet and that you should put 2 years in at an entry level role. It’s laughable.
Ever-changing Expectations
Be prepared for ever-changing expectations in your role. One week, your team should focus on quality. The next week, it’s all about quantity. Some weeks, you’ll be asked to lead large projects and manage your reports. Other weeks (or months), you’ll be asked to do the role of 2-3 people by yourself.
The Content Team
The Content team is the best team at Spreetail by a large margin. That group kicks so much butt and does it with little promotion opportunities and pay. Day in and day out, they save Spreetail’s bacon. Pay them fairly. Hire more copywriters. And please, for the love of God, hire someone who knows how to successfully run the team.
Conclusion
I’m not going to tell you whether you should work at Spreetail or not. Every experience is different based on too many factors. What I tried to do was paint a picture for you, prospective employees.
There’s a phrase I’ve uttered countless times in my almost 2.5 years at Spreetail and it’s “the Spreetail wheel never stops turning.” It didn’t stop for me and it certainly won’t stop for you. Spreetail is very set in their ways and won’t change. In all likelihood, Spreetail will survive this pandemic and the wheel will keep spinning. Just know that you’ll have to be willing to bend your expectations and your life to make it work there.
