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This site exists to serve as a warning to anyone considering employment "opportunities" at Spiration Incorporated in Redmond, WA. For the record, Spiration also goes by the name "Olympus Respiratory America", this alternate name is related to the purchase of the company in 2010 by Olympus.
Note: This site does not contain any information regarding the effectiveness of, or risks related to any of the medical devices produced by Spiration, or their parent company Olympus. Ethical and medical device issues related to the parent company, Olympus, and the 2011 Olympus scandal, are also out of scope for this website.
Here are a couple of links if you are interested in more info on those topics:
I have taken the time to create this site in the hopes that I can prevent anyone else from making the mistake that I did, which was accepting employment at this company. If you are considering employment at Spiration, I urge you to read through the information presented on this site. If you still choose to work there after reading this site, at least you'll do so with the knowledge of what your fate may be. I wish that someone had been there to warn me when I was considering employment with this company. It would have saved me a ton of grief.
The first thing to keep in mind is that no corporation should be considered good, evil, malicious, ethical, unethical, or anything of the sort. Spiration, the corporation, exists to engineer and produce medical devices that ease people's suffering. This is a good thing. Unfortunately, corporations such as Spiration are managed by people, and as we all know people definitely can be described as good, evil, malicious, ethical, unethical, etc. When you accept employment at any company, you and your career can be directly affected by the management at that company. I speak from experience. I found out the hard way that Spiration's management was unethical, deceptive, self-serving, and ineffective as well. Personally, I would like to see Spiration, the corporation, succeed and flourish. In order for this to happen there needs to be a major change in the management at the company. I'll go into more detail about that in a bit, for now just know that until the management issues have been addressed I would have to recommend that anyone who values their career, and who values recognition for their contributions, to not work for this company. That may be a bit understated, let's just say you should avoid this company like the plague.
You may be asking yourself, who is this guy, and why should I listen to his recommendation to avoid employment at this company? Rightly so, these are valid questions. As you already know, I am a former employee of this company, therefore I have insight that only a former employee could have into the inner workings of the company. Second thing to note is that the management at tis company screwed me over to point that I felt it necessary to use my personal time and resources to create this site, the content on it, and to warn other potential victims via multiple methods. Other than the obvious preceding facts, I am an Information Technology Industry professional with over 17 years of experience. That in itself does not tell the whole story. While you may not know me personally by name, if you work in IT in the Seattle area, there is a good chance we have crossed paths. Even if that is not the case, or you work in a different field, just know I am the guy in your company that you usually go to for answers or to accomplish a given goal (escalation point, trainer, mentor, advisor, leader, etc.). I have been all of these things and more. I have worked in, or have interest in many industries and fields. Information Technology, Electronic Engineering, Telecommunications, Manufacturing, Design, Construction, Automotive,... just to name a few. Let's just say that I am the guy that when I speak, people shut up and listen.
You may now be asking yourself that if I am the guy that can help this company succeed and flourish, then why would the management choose to screw me over. That is another excellent question. But, it is makes even less sense when you consider that I accomplished more in 18 months than my predecessors did over the past decade. Under my leadership the IT department met 100% of its objectives for the year, I delivered on all of the original goals that was part of my employment agreement with management when I accepted employment, and an absolute ton of other achievements as well. I brought order to chaos. Well, it turns out that they intended to screw me over from day one, regardless of my achievements or contributions to the company.
network was a bunch of consumer-grade wireless routers daisy-chained to a HUB (yes, and actual HUB, not a switch), and then connected to the DMZ through an obsolete FW. If you could connect to wireless (a manual process), you would still be unable to work. The corporate wired network was a bunch of barely configured switches (basically they just added a password (the name of the company was used for the password btw). All devices in the company on a flat /24 network, with the exception of a few switches in the SAN cabinet, which had its own problems (misconfiguration, manual failover procedure, very limited bandwidth). Since everything was on one /24 network they were basically out of IP addresses (robbing Peter to pay Paul type of situation). They only had a legacy 3Mbps (2 bonded T1 circuits) for connectivity, which was a major bottleneck, it was bad enough that the current/temporary admin was instructed to monitor for Pandora and similar streams and 'speak' to the user to get them to stop so others could get their work done. It was bad enough that loading a simple page like google took 30-60 seconds during normal business hours. All the above hindered employee productivity throughout the company. There were random server reboots almost daily, which was due to overloaded circuits and UPS devices. You see, no one had ever done the power calculations. This lack of planning also resulted in a UPS fire (they let the smoke out) a couple weeks before I interviewed at the company. Speaking of infrastructure, they had absolutely no seismic bracing for any of the cabinets and racks (most of which were top-loaded with equipment). In fact, the server cabinets were still free-wheeling. Zero technology-related cable management. Software license management was a bunch of boxes with employee's names on them, which was always incorrect anyways. They had multiple versions of every major application (Office, Adobe, etc.) which resulted in compatibility issues and was a management nightmare. Asset tracking was a joke at best (out of date spreadsheets and scans). They kept their infrastructure passwords in plain text on an Intranet site (not that it mattered much, they used the company's name as a password for the majority of systems). BTW, they were also using telnet to manage network devices and such, so their passwords were exposed there as well. They were still running Exchange 2003 because no one could handle the migration to Exchange 2010 (they had the license for 3 years). They still used legacy imaging programs with external USB drives for provisioning hardware. Ok, this list is long enough, you get the idea, just know that this list barely scratches the surface.
Spiration, by their own admission, were in dire need of someone to come in and correct/rebuild their entire information technology infrastructure and enable their employees to be productive, and allow the company to grow unhindered. They were looking for someone to direct the technology path for the company. They needed to remove the technology roadblocks to their success. This is what they recruited me to do.
At the time I was looking for, and would only accept, a combination role of IT Director and Network/Systems Engineer. I had passed on numerous opportunities that did not meet this requirement. Moving into a Director level role was my objective, and it was the next logical career step. I made this clear from day one (interviews). Since Spiration was looking for someone to direct IT for their company, manage the IT department, and handle all network and systems related tasks, it seemed like a good fit on both ends of the arrangement.
Problem is that they only had an open req for a backfill of the Network / Systems Engineer role, and not one for the Director role at the time. The final arrangement that we all agreed to is that I would cover the Director role, the Network / Systems Engineer role, and 50% of the Help Desk role (HD role for 6-12 months only) for the period of one year. After the initial year I was to be officially given the Director of Information Technology title (and compensation to match) to reflect my actual contribution to the company. Turns out that was just snake oil. BTW, the Help Desk role was shared 50/50 with the existing member of the IT department, Derek (more on him in a minute). Covering the Help Desk position was a limited time thing, per our agreement they agreed to hire a FT Help Desk tech within the first 6-12 months of my employment (another requirement of my acceptance of employment that they never fulfilled). What it comes down to is that they desperately needed someone, who knew what they were doing, to take the reins and handle everything IT related for the company. I was the person that had all the necessary experience to handle every level of IT, and to bring calm to the chaos. I would only accept a position that met my goals. So, they lied to me. They entered into the agreement with no intention of keeping it. They also consistently, constantly lied to me over the next 18 months. Ya, 18 months, they stretched it as long as they could to try and get me to complete as much work as possible (more on that later).
Let's talk compensation for a moment. Adding insult to injury, the Network / Systems Engineer title that I agreed to for the first year had a lower-than-industry-standard base compensation. This was another sacrifice I made to work at Spiration. I accepted $92k/yr base ($12k/yr less then I was making prior, and other offers I had at the time). If you are still considering employment with this company after reading all this, and you can actually support the infrastructure I engineered and implemented, make sure you get at least $104k/yr, although I would shoot for $114k/yr. Note: if you are a good S.E. you can get a contract gig at Microsoft that is only 8-5 M-F and get $50/hr (benes cost you more, but you work less hours over all so it works out). A few recent ones have been up to $60/hr. Compensation was not a goal, so I was willing to take a bit lower pay for the Director title (theory was that after the first year I would have the title and higher compensation).
You are probably wondering why I agreed to this arrangement in the first place. Well, as I mentioned earlier, I was interested in advancing my career. I was interested in the Director of IT title and usually you have to work your way up through a company to obtain this title, or have 3-5 years experience minimum. I have held many titles over my career, Engineer, Lead, Focal Point, Manager, Owner, and others, but not Director. So, a year to wait on the title and pay was a small sacrifice to make for the long term goal, besides, I was planning on staying at Spiration for at least 3-5 years anyways. There were also clearly defined goals/expectations that I knew I could meet without issue.
What should have been 12 months became 18. Partly, this was due to the review cycle, or so I was misinformed. It is more nefarious than just timing of the review cycle. Since they knew from day one that they had no intention if honoring our agreement, they conspired to get me to complete as much highly-skilled work as possible before the inevitable (my resignation when it comes to light that they do not intend to honor our agreement). Right up until the very end. I should have resigned at the 12-month mark when the excuses and lies started piling up, and making less sense than ever. I was reassured that everything was on track and it just had to be done during the normal review cycle. This was just another lie. The writing was on the wall, but I remained optimistic. After all, the work I was able to complete in just the first 12 months was nothing less than stellar. I rebuilt their entire information technology infrastructure from the ground up, and gave them a scalable, enterprise-class infrastructure that allowed the company to grow, and the employees to be more productive by removing all the technology roadblocks. I thought, why would they screw over the person who has accomplished, and contributed more in the past 12 months than any of my predecessors over the past decade. Besides, I had met, or exceeded all the original goals laid out, and a ton more on top of that. Why would they screw over the person that brought order to chaos? I was in denial.
At the 12-month mark I had a review with my boss, Craig Eudy, the Executive director of Finance. We covered the list of goals pertaining to our original agreement and marked them off the list as complete, we also discussed all the other accomplishments for the year. Which was a good start, then things got strange. He wanted to kick off the phone system replacement project immediately, rather than waiting for the already scheduled Q2 2015 start date. That part is fine, I understand that there are many moving targets in IT and projects are often pushed up in priority, this is normal. The odd part is that he (and Greg, CEO) wanted it to be complete by the end of the year. We were already a week or so into November, which left roughly six weeks to perform a full discover on the current legacy PBX, engage the various business segments for their input, engineer a new VOIP system that integrates with the other enterprise applications, get quotes from multiple vendors, order the equipment, receive the equipment from the hardware vendors or partner, the actual deployment itself, and training users on the new system. Two months is an impossible timeframe for this project, and worse yet was that we were just entering the holiday season. This request was not only impossible, there was no logical reason for it, the current phone system was working and there were only a couple of annoyances with it that could not be corrected (it was a legacy PBX, and the company was no longer in business, so patches/fixes for the firmware were not possible). I made it clear that this was an impossible time schedule, and informed him as to why. I began the phone system replacement project that week with an anticipated 6-month window to complete it. Keep in mind that I was the only one in the company capable of taking on this task, and my time to allocate to it was limited. They still had not hired the full time Help Desk tech (per our original agreement) so I was still covering 50% of the Help Desk duties (Monday, Wednesday, and half of Friday where dedicated to Help Desk related activities, that is 20 hours out of the week right there). I was still covering all standard network and systems admin/engineering work, and still cover all Director level tasks as well. Not to mention all the randomization for things not related to IT.
The end result of the phone system replacement project is that I engineered a highly-available Cisco-based VOIP system that integrated with Lync 2013 via CUPS for Remote Call Control (one-click dialing from within Lync, Exchange, and other integrated enterprise applications), with Exchange 2010/2013 for vmail delivery and management, and that was scalable to accommodate expected company growth for the next 5-10 years, this includes supporting remote offices, and adding in functionality (e.g. the Call Center solution would be of great benefit once the product support team grows (after FDA approval of the primary product)). The solution was comprised of 2 Cisco BE6kHD units (2 for high-availability of critical apps), 8851 and 8841 endpoints (aka phones), ATA190 devices for analog endpoints (fax, analog CR phones), in-ceiling IP paging speakers, and an SBC. SIP trunking was going to be provided primarily through a Frontier 50Mbps symmetrical Metro-E connection. When I rebuilt the enterprise wired network I implemented a stack of five 2960-X 48port POE switches (stacked via FlexStack) in preparation of the phone system replacement project. All client access connectivity was to be handled by this stack of switches, endpoints (phones) connected directly, and the employees' workstations connected to the phone, segregation of traffic via VLANs (voice/data).
I had the quote for the phone system on the CEO's desk for approval in the February/March timeframe. By the time I resigned in May, he still had not signed the PO. This was normal for the CEO though; he would sit on things indefinitely, and either not make a decision, or just not convey the decision. I was once told by the Executive Director of Finance that if a proposal/project was submitted to the CEO for review and approval, and if the CEO will not provide a decision/answer when inquired on 4-6 occasions over a period of 4-6 weeks, that means the answer is most likely no and you should try something else or just move on. Never before had I worked for a company where the CEO could not make or convey a decision to his own management staff. Anyways, despite the fact that the CEO had not signed off on the PO for the phone systems, I was actually forbidden from taking a vacation in April with the reasoning that, if the CEO signed the PO, and if the hardware could be delivered in time, and if the partner we chose for installation of the phone system could had the free-cycles, I needed to be available for the phone system installation in case there were questions or I needed to perform some work related to the install. I let him know that was a very unlikely scenario, and that I would just schedule the phone system install after my vacation, after all there is no pressing immediate need to replace the phone system overnight (current phone system was working, it was just close to be maxed out, but not maxed out yet). He was actually flustered at this point, he stated that it was unacceptable to push it out further and that I was forbidden from taking a vacation. At that moment, his irrational attitude made no sense to me. Till after that meeting. You see, April is the beginning of the new fiscal year for Spiration, it is also the time that employee reviews are completed. In my mind, there was no rush because I planned to be at Spiration for another 3-5 years at the minimum after officially being assigned the Director of Information Technology title. In his mind, he knew I would resign as soon as it came to light that they were not going to honor our arrangement. He (and Greg) wanted me to complete as many projects and high level work as possible before my inevitable resignation when they inform me they were not honoring their end of our arrangement. To this end, they even pushed employee reviews out for weeks in an effort to extend the time.
Review day finally arrives, and it is worth noting that my review was the last one that needed to be completed. They had delayed it as long as they could. The day was Thursday, and my review was scheduled for Friday. Thursday afternoon, Derek, the other half of the IT department announces that his mother is in the hospital and he has to fly to Ireland immediately. He will be gone 10 days. Late Thursday afternoon, my review gets pushed out 10 days. Enough is enough, I confront Craig Eudy, the Executive Director of Finance, my boss, and also one of the parties I had the agreement with. He lies once again, says that he is just too busy and he needs 10 day before he can do my review. I ponder if anything this guy ever said or says is actually based on truth. The gig is up at this point and I get it out of him that he, and Spiration, will not be honoring our agreement.
I wrote my resignation that afternoon. I should have actually resigned that afternoon and never returned. I felt bad for Derek, who would not be allowed to travel to Ireland to see his mother if no one could cover, so I stayed the 10 days until he returned. Worst 10 days of my life btw. Nothing like having to be in an office with people who decieved you and lied to constantly over a period of 18 months.
Since we are talking about Derek, I might as well elaborate on his role a bit. One of the surprises early on was that Derek was the former IT Manager for the company, and he had a Systems Admin to assist him. Greg and Craig were not happy with his performance, so they stripped him of his managerial duties. He was able to keep 'manager' in title only, and "Systems" was added to it. In essence, he was now a manager of systems only, specifically it was legacy, in-house applications/systems that he coded. They took away his office, removed him from all management DG/DL, and was no longer allowed at the managerial meetings. I was not aware of any of this until after I accepted the job. Since I was recruited to run things, correct all his mistakes, and direct IT for the company, this made for an awkward atmosphere in the office. First, I'd like to say that Derek is a decent guy in general, was is not a good manager though. All of the existing issues that were present when I started there were the result of his lack of knowledge and skills. He is a pretty good programmer/coder, but falls short on what it takes to be an effective manager, and what it takes to direct the technology path for an entire company. So, if you are actually still considering employment at Spiration, you should be aware that after I resigned they put him back in control of the IT department. I taught him a ton of IT infrastructure/systems related items/skills while I was there, but he is not qualified to even support what I engineered and implemented. That is not the biggest issue though, he lacks the vision and skills required to effectively direct technology at the corporate/enterprise level. Spiration is doomed to revert to its prior state of chaos under his rein. On the bright side, at least they finally hired the full time Help Desk tech to assist him (they basically were forced to once I was not there to cover 50% of the duties).
Conclusion: My advice to you is that you avoid this company like the plague, until the ethical issues with the management are addressed. If Greg Sessler - CEO, and Craig Eudy - Executive Director of Finance, are still running the show, you should not take the chance with your career. I did amazing work for the company, corrected a decade worth of neglect and incompetence by predecessors, provided them with a robust, highly-available, scalable enterprise-class infrastructure, implemented Office 365 with Azure DirSync, Lync 2013, and so much more,... and my reward for my dedication and hard work,... they screwed me over. My constantly-progressive 17 year career in information technology is now effectively over, or at least set back 3-5 years, which is the same thing in my book. What do you think you can contribute to the company that will exclude you from suffering the same fate as I.
keywords: spiration, spiration.com, www.spiration.com, spiration careers, spiration employment, spiration company review, spiration network / systems engineer, spiration ethical issues, beware of spiration, craig eudy executive director of finance, greg sessler ceo, redmond wa, 6675 185th Ave NE, Redmond,WA 98052, medical laboratory, 425-497-1700.
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