Great Coworkers, But Toxic and Chaotic Management - Anyonymous Employee C Spire Employee Review

- Mid-size company that is growing at a rapid pace. - Relaxed work environment, low stress. - Flexible work schedule/management works with you. - Good pay for the level of experience/education required. - Good health benefits. - Company covers costs for travel for work. - Incentives to pursue further training/education related to your field.

- Limited overtime opportunity depending on work volume. - Occasionally long days/weeks with considerable travel. Depending on your situation neither of the above may be cons for you.

For developers, the work culture can vary depending on your manager, but it ranges from acceptable to very positive. The developer experience is noticeably different from other parts of the company, especially areas that interact more directly with senior leadership. Developers are somewhat insulated from the more difficult parts of the broader company culture, and many development managers and project managers do a good job of shielding their teams from unnecessary pressure or dysfunction. Work-life balance is generally very good. Most of the time, if you complete your work, you can leave on time without concern. There are occasional periods of crunch for certain projects, and developers may need to handle on-call issues every few months, but these situations are usually manageable. For new employees, there is usually someone willing to help explain systems, processes, or technical details. People may not always have immediate availability, but help is generally available when needed.

Although the company can offer stable employment, career growth will eventually slow down. Promotions and raises often require significant persistence with management, rather than happening through a clear or consistent advancement process. Recent CEO and leadership changes have created some concern. Since the change, there have been decisions that affected employee confidence, including reduced promotion opportunities during the year, the removal of the employee stock program, attempts to accelerate project timelines by removing or shortening key development phases, and a round of layoffs after the company had historically emphasized avoiding layoffs. One major project period involved compressing the development process and reducing time for important phases such as integration testing. The projects were completed, but the releases were unstable and had to be delayed multiple times over several months. That approach has not been repeated since. The layoffs were concerning. They affected a relatively small number of employees, but they were still notable because layoffs had not previously been part of the company’s history. Layoffs were focused on work-from-home employees, and from what was visible internally, they also appeared to disproportionately affect developers. The timing was also concerning, as the layoffs occurred shortly the demanding project crunch period referenced above. There were mixed signals afterward, as some work-from-home employees were promoted soon after the layoffs.