Bureau of National Affairs Reviews in Arlington, VA

Current Employee – been working at Bureau of National Affairs

Pros – Very good health benefits, relaxed workplace and dress code, short work week, very good holidays and annual leave, no micromanagement.

Cons – Low salary, virtually no feedback (haven't had an annual review in years), Health benefits used to be free, unfair promotional policies, little opportunity for advancement.

Advice to Senior Management – Consult with the people who have to do the work before instituting changes. More emphasis on quality not less emphasis on quantity or speed in completing work.

Current Employee – been working at Bureau of National Affairs

Pros – Good Benefits. Decent pay. Good reputation in the information publishing business for quality products.

Cons – It is very difficult to progress or get promoted within BNA. One day, I began talking to a fellow supervisor about moving up in the company. His response, "Where do you think you're going? He said he had been in his supervisor position for 8 years. Then stated that the Asst. Mgr. had been in his job 10 years and the Dept. Mgr. in his position for 20 years. And finally that the Director had been in his position for 30 years!" Then I was told that I not done any time with the company, though I had been a supervisor for 5 years!"
The day I began my employment, I was taken into the Dept. Head's office and told, "It's us against them." I had no idea what the Dept. Head was talking about. Then he said, "We're management and it's Us against the Union". If I had known that I was going to take a job in a contentious "Union vs. Mgt." culture, I would declined the position.
BNA has a very evident stick-in-the-mud aversion to business change. Many managerial staffers have been in their jobs 20 - 30 years, and many past 30 years. New hires either adapt to this old guard, aversion-to-change mentality or they leave within a short period of time.
BNA has a habit of not standing behind their managers. Executive management bends over backwards to avoid conflicts with the Union. Managers learn very quickly to avoid all confrontations with the Union, no matter how bad the issues with problem Union workers such as absenteeism, insubordination, or substance abuse, to not draw executive management attention and scrutiny, and risk their own tenure at the company.
BNA executive management has a practice of terminating managers if they don't feel as though a manager culturally fits into the old guard glove of the company. Managers lose their job with a tap on the shoulder. The main reason given: Your job has been eliminated. The most likely real reason -- they did not fit into BNA's stodgy management culture. If you are hired into BNA as a manager, either you immerse yourself into their old boy culture quickly or you have a short shelf life.

Advice to Senior Management – Senior Management needs to sit directly across their managers and listen to their needs and ideas. Not bring in high paid "psychological" consultants to put managers in group therapy sessions where they are encouraged to bash their fellow colleagues, with consultants reporting back to executives that managers are now going to work better together. We criticized the President of Egypt for being in his position for 39 years and that he had to go. Mr. Wojcik has been with BNA in various senior management capacities for 39 years. He needs to go as well.

Current Employee – been working at Bureau of National Affairs

Pros – Employee owned, great benefits, good work/life balance

Cons – There isn't a huge amount of room for advancement. Once you hit a certain level, you're just kind of stuck. The experience you get at BNA isn't easy to sell outside the company and the pay isn't enough to want to stick around.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay people more.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bureau of National Affairs

Pros – This position allows for very flexible hours and generous hourly pay. I received my own desk, computer, etc. Very friendly co-workers and casual work environment.

Cons – No room for advancement. Almost too laid back. Little supervision and guidance.

Advice to Senior Management – I do not have much interaction with management.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Bureau of National Affairs

Pros – I'm just talking the software side---BNA Software---division management is weak, hypercritical and disrespectful of employees. The only place I've ever worked where the chairman hires an outside consultant to interview employees in the software group about the competency/management style of division management----then has that management publicly apologize to employees.

Cons – Very ‘silo’ driven culture with no sharing of information between groups. If you’re in the mainline publishing side, the business is stable and most everybody you meet has been there 20+ years. The Software division—forget it---too many negatives to detail, but with the exception of one individual in product management most of the individuals in marketing, sales and division management are impossible to work with.

Advice to Senior Management – Consider selling the whole software business to a competitor that is more adept at providing software solutions in this space. That organization can deal with some of the management issues.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bureau of National Affairs

Pros – Fully paid comprehensive Benefits package. Fully paid tuition reimbursement. Job security backed by a union.

Cons – Hard to get promoted within the company unless you work in a high grade position.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat emplloyees with respect, do not be elitist towards them. This is especially true to friends at our Rockville facility. The management at the Rockville office needs training in how to manage employees, especially in their OP and Customer Relations departments.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Bureau of National Affairs

Pros – Great work life balance and benefits. The work is challenging and the people are very good to work with. It's an employee owned company so the employees take a lot pride in their work and are very passionate about the company. People tend to stay at the company for a long time because of the environment and benefits.

Cons – People can be slow to adjust to change. Because it is such a great place to work, people stay for a very long time so you don't get a lot of fresh faces and new ideas.

Advice to Senior Management – Communicate, communicate, communicate!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend