Pros
There are/were phenomenal people who work(ed) at SPAN. They became lifelong friends. They taught me everything I needed to know to make it in the real world and leave SPAN.
Cons
Behind the facade of shiny airplane parts, fancy office space, Panther tickets, and casual dress code is a rotting interior of a fake technology company. For those interested in working at SPAN, whether it’s in sales, customer support, or marketing, please find something else. Your experience, knowledge, and time are worth so much more than this place. Just like a reviewer before me, I took my time researching SPAN, reading through the founders’ blogs, and scoping out the social media pages. I wanted to ensure this would be a good place to work. And from everything I read, SPAN sounded amazing. They offered Friday celebrations, had a casual, relaxed working environment, and even had a CEO that seemed to really embody good ethics and who knew how to have fun. On my first day, I should have realized something was amiss when I was given a different position than what I applied/was hired for—which happens much more often than you think. But I shrugged it off because this place seemed cool. However after two months of a honeymoon phase, things took a turn for the worse. Rumors and secrets were beginning to come out and certain occurrences happened that made me question the ethics of the company—and more importantly, the CEO. We were berated for small things, singled out, yelled at, and embarrassed in front of the whole company, and we were constantly under surveillance by the CEO, his inner circle, and fellow co-workers. You couldn’t express an ounce of objection to the company’s strategies/tactics, or offer input and suggestions without the CEO finding out. And when he did find out, you were instantly placed on the “watch list” and treated poorly. I remember spending over two months on the CEO’s “watch list”—similar to a high school bully who blatantly ignores you, talks about you behind your back, and makes you feel like an outsider. From then on out, I was seen as disloyal, ungrateful, and a hinderance to the company. But from that experience, I realized it wasn’t about how hard I worked, what new ideas I brought to the table, or the extra effort I put in—it came down to the CEO’s perception of who you were as a person. I lost all respect for the company and the CEO. Some examples: 1. At SPAN, you are not to take the complete lunch break you are given. If you do, you do not have the “company’s best interest in mind” and are “selfishly abusing the system.” If you finish your lunch within ten minutes of your break and you are then caught reading or watching something on your phone, you will be placed on the “watch list” because you decided reading, etc. was more important than making the company money. And, “you do not have to be given a lunch break at all.” 2. You’re having a rough day, or you’re really looking forward to the weekend, whatever you do, don’t say these comments out loud. If so, you will be yelled at by the CEO. Or even worse, he’ll send you home because of your negative attitude. When you’re at SPAN, you do not complain, you do not speak in common vernacular phrases—you proclaim your absolute appreciation for SPAN. How does the CEO find out about these things? By using not-so-incognito spying techniques. No room in that office is insulated, allowing noise and voices (even low ones) to travel between walls and floors. If you talk in the kitchen, you can be heard by the CEO’s right-hand man, whose office conveniently sits above it. Any messages you write or anything you type on the company computer will be read. And there are plenty of co-workers who will willingly spy on you and report your conversation back to the CEO to get in his good graces. Among other things, this company falsely promotes the motto, “big things happen in small towns” because most of its employees (80%) live and work in India. The idea of bringing technology jobs to small towns instead of places like Silicon Valley is a veneer that the CEO flaunts in front of investors and the town of Rock Hill. In actuality, there are no jobs for programmers, graphic designers, digital marketers, etc. The longer I stayed with the company, the more the layers of paint hiding the true ugly nature of SPAN peeled away. The CEO began assigning lunch times to prevent people from taking lunch with friends—although he said it was to ensure the phones and customer support was covered during lunch. He believes that the only friend you should have in the office is him, and that when he texts or calls you after work hours to “chat” you should always answer and respond. If you don’t, you risk succumbing to terrible treatment, or worse, losing your job without notice. But probably the biggest event that revealed the CEO’s true colors happened during the company retreat in September of 2015. The company took a trip to Murrell’s Inlet with the goal of building better bonds and friendships to improve teamwork back in the office. The plan was for everyone to participate in beach games, award ceremonies, and family dinners so that you could spend time with people you usually don’t get a chance to talk to. Honestly all the employees had fun being around each other, with everyone in complete agreement that this brought the office together. We felt like a team afterwards! Unfortunately, the CEO did not have the same opinion. During the trip, he publicly made distasteful comments towards female employees and created an extremely awkward environment. In return, out of his own embarrassment, the CEO placed blame on his employees, insisting that their ungrateful behavior ruined the company trip. We learned of this blame during the team meeting the following week, where the CEO proceeded to yell about our lack of appreciation, assistance, and participation. Among his examples, he referenced our failure to set up the volleyball net and how every employee believed they were entitled to watch instead of help. However, he failed to mention that while he fretted over the volleyball net, the company pop-up tent came loose from its stakes and hit an employee’s guest. While we tended to her and the tents, he proceeded to continue to set up the volleyball net and didn’t check to see if everyone was hurt. He also noted that we were ungrateful to the people who cooked the meals that weekend. But he didn’t realize that on countless occasions, multiple people asked to clean the kitchen, help prepare the food, and offered to carry it down and serve. Each time, they were met with a “You guys go have fun. We have this all taken care of.” As for ungrateful, from the extravagant gift we all collected/saved money to purchase for him, to the multiple thank you’s and complete appreciation we showed to everyone—he failed to realize that we did care a lot. The beach trip wasn’t suppose to be about who won the beach games. It was suppose to be about learning a little about each other so that when we got back in the office we had a deeper appreciation for our co-workers. Unfortunately, a good memory and a good trip was ruined by the poor perception that the CEO had of his employees. He vows to never host another company trip—and it honestly, it is for the best. While working for SPAN, you’ll experience a honeymoon phase where everything is how it is promoted online, before moving into a tension-building phase where things begin to get a little stressful and tempers flare, until finally you reach the explosive phase with multiple firings, constant yelling and an unstable work environment. You can see it with the events of the beach trip. Before the trip, there a lot of fun buildup and excitement, during the trip there was tension, and then when we got back an outburst of anger. And the cycle repeats! If you’re there long enough you can start predicting when the phases are about to change. (And for those who think they can ride out the honeymoon phase, it doesn’t last that long—anytime the company isn’t making sales the cycle speeds up.) Think you can make a difference or handle this workplace because you’ll “stay out of it”. Hate to tell you, but this atmosphere affects every single person. Want a job here? My advice, become a good actor/actress and learn how to politician your way into the CEO’s inner circle. So where do those blogs and exciting things you read online even come from, and how do so many people get tricked into working here if it’s so bad? All I can say is that SPAN has a great team of people who can make even the worst situations appear really awesome. tl;dr — Don’t work at SPAN Enterprises. Not now. NOT EVER.
