CAREERS
Fatherhood Changed My Life
How fatherly lessons changed Stephen Spinner’s outlook on life and how to make the best of any situation by boasting positivity, motivation, and selflessness.
When your kids are born, you have unconditional love for them because they belong to you. But for Stephen Spinner, parenthood was a little different. He met Jose when he was 4-years-old after learning that Jose’s mother could no longer support him.
Stephen stepped into fatherhood as a single parent to now, nine-year-old Jose. Stephen’s newly minted relationship with Jose helped strengthen his own relationship with his father, Charles. After a few short weeks of parenting turned into a few months, Jose lived with Stephen for a year. During this time Stephen taught Jose how to be respectful, how to enjoy the treasures of life, including vacationing to New Jersey, sight-seeing and visiting family. Jose also, like any kid, enjoyed video games and took on Karate as an afterschool activity. Stephen admits that during this time he developed a great relationship with his father which made him extremely happy.
“The opportunity to help someone else gave me the greatest experiences of my life,” Stephen shared.
After four years passed, Stephen lost his father Charles and Jose also left to reconcile with his mother. While these times brought a lot of grief, it did not stop Stephen from remaining positive and motivated to keep making a difference.
“There are so many people less fortunate than I am, in more challenging circumstances, and with bigger struggles to overcome. I don’t have a good enough reason to be a negative person,” said Stephen.
That’s when Stephen joined Cox Communications, starting out in the call center working on the retention team or “Saving Our Customers” team as he describes. However, it didn’t take long for him to realize that Sales is where he wanted to grow. Stephen is a part of the Multiple Dwelling Units Direct Sales team in Phoenix, Arizona. He has been working with Cox for two and a half years now.
“I’ve always been more of a face-to-face person, so when I had the opportunity, I searched for different positions where I’d be able to deal more directly with customers.”
Stephen’s experience at Cox has been quite memorable.
“This is an amazing company to work for because my team is full of motivated and professional people. What makes the biggest difference to me is the leadership within the company. Every leader that I have reported to has been available to listen, help, and support.”
Stephen goes on to share how the company has helped him to grow and appreciates the culture of open communication.
“Knowing that my voice matters to the company I work for is a big deal. We are developing and producing services and technologies that are shaping the future of the industry, and it’s important that Cox is a forward-thinking company. We are always looking for ways to improve our products and make our name the industry standard.”
Stephen’s upbeat personality and outlook on his career also carry over to his personal life. He strongly believes in staying positive and motivated in his health too. He is active in CrossFit, enjoys hiking and cycling, and plays basketball. On top of that, Stephen is very selfless and is always putting others before himself best modeling what Cox Stands for – doing the right thing, always and leading by example.
Thank you, Stephen, for sharing your story! If you want to read more articles like this one, view our open jobs or experience a day in the life at Cox? Venture over to our Careers page to learn more about our Sales jobs at Cox.