Pros
Co-workers/team members. Free perks (stocked kitchen, free workout classes).
Cons
1. Lack of focus: SPINS has a problem with providing employees with a clear path of the future. Often, team goals (and individual goals) are changed 2-3 times throughout the year because what was once 'top priority' is no longer talked about. The typical life cycle of a product/solution at SPINS is as follows: 1. a leader decides that a cool idea should be turned into an actual solution. 2. the idea is now the top priority and a large amount of resources are thrown at it. 3. solution is finished in a rush and pushed to team members who work with clients. 4. solution is either not relevant for clients or has many flaws and will need significant improvements before going to market. 5. team members are told to 'sell' solution anyway, which results in dissatisfied clients, internal tension, and a waste of time. 6. in the end, this product/solution is kicked to the side because the cycle starts back at 1. These projects that end up becoming a waste of time are only encouraged by the CEO, who also contributes to the issue. This lack of focus directly affects several team’s day-to-day, resulting in constant fire drills and exhausted employees. 2. Poor leadership: SPINS has had its share (and more) of hiring/promoting unqualified individuals, mostly because the leaders hiring them are too out-of-touch with reality to know what they’re even looking for. While there are a very few select individuals who are good leaders, most of them are too focused on their own agenda - leading to zero trust and motivation of their team. They fail to bridge a gap between themselves and the employees who are responsible for the actual work, leading to battling opinions and frustration. Rather than acting like leaders and rolling up their sleeves to collaborate with their team, they continue to ignore thoughts and feedback while also managing to evade any actual work. Aside from this, there are also far too many people with a VP status (or higher) at SPINS. This again leads to confusion and has, quite frankly, become a joke internally. 3. Chaotic work environment: There are multiple people within the company who have had at least 4 bosses. This level of change goes beyond ‘adapting to a fast-growing company’ and speaks to how unorganized and misaligned the company really is. When onboarded as a new employee, you could have a completely different experience than someone else due to lack of structure and commitment to fostering good talent (which SPINS has made several empty promises of commitment to). In addition, and possibly the most shocking, is the level of drama that exists within the company (mostly fueled by leaders). Leaders will openly talk about people they dislike within the company, throw each other under the bus, make empty promises to clients, and attempt to cover issues up.
