Do not be fooled by Suzanne's persona of a kind, empathic, or caring person in any way. She wants to play that role, and she does. Even I fell for it (slightly) – and I’m usually quite good at reading people.
The truth about Suzanne is that her presentation is fraudulent. Behind the scenes, she is a cold and ruthless woman, but she doesn’t want to be seen as cold and ruthless – she wants to be liked. So, she has a “leadership team” that does her dirty work for her.
When I say “dirty work” I mean this:
SPM fosters a workplace of fear and manipulation in order to get the staff to “produce great work”. To say the office culture was 'toxic' is an understatement. During my first 1-2 months at the company, five employees left, and while the CEO was off on vacation, a member from the leadership team *literally* SCREAMED at another employee causing her to quit as well.
I’ve never in my professional career had such distorted and malicious words spoken to me regarding my work and who I am as an employee than I did during my time at SPM Communications.
This company and this leadership team does not care about your wellbeing or your personal life in any capacity. I cannot tell you how many nights I was up ALL NIGHT LONG – did not sleep at all – to meet completely unrealistic deadlines.
The CEO would say multiple times "I used to work 80-90 hour weeks why is everyone complaining about being overloaded with work?" she could not comprehend a 40 hour work week or someone having a personal life -- though she will try to sell you on a "great work/life balance" and "summer friday's" and other "perks" during the interview -- just know that once you're about 2 months in, you'll find out they don't follow through on anything.
Oh, and if you are used to taking 1 hour lunches, you will have to make up for that hour because the CEO has "never heard of a company that paid for people to eat"..........She sounds like someone who cares about her staff right??? #NoJerks
After many months, several conversations with “leadership” and the CEO – the company decided to terminate me due to “quality of work” even though I received BONUSES from both my supervisor AND Suzanne for the “great work” I was doing.
Think very carefully before considering joining SPM Communications. There are other companies out there that are better in SO MANY WAYS – but most importantly, there are companies with leaders who REALLY care. There are companies with CEOs who are ACTUALLY AUTHENTIC and care about their staff. Continue searching. Please don’t work here.
