Bureau of National Affairs Reviews

Pros

Stability. Good benefits. Collegial atmosphere.

Cons

Modest compensation. Limited resources to take risks.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work

Pros

Great benefits with flexible work schedules

Cons

No room for advancement .
To much nepotism

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up with current technology.

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.

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.

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.

Pros

Great work life balance because you get amazing amounts of leave - more than you can possibly use. Employee ownership gives most employees a sense of pride in the company. The company is extremely stable and provides unbelievable job security. Excellent performance review/feedback mechanisms - tedious for managers but very thorough if they do it right. If you have an idea and want to pursue it it's easy to get support and encouragement.

Cons

Top three worst things about BNA are 1) The union. 2) The union. 3) The union. They are not BNA employees and have created a very adversarial relationship between employees and managers. In units where the union is weak, the employees buy more stock, are prouder of the company and are much more satisfied with their jobs and work. In places where the union is stronger, the atmosphere is terrible. As other reviewers here point out, the union forces managers to promote the most senior regardless of performance and when layoffs occur they have to get rid of some good employees and keep bad ones because they're more senior.
Also, most of the Pros above can also be Cons - stability means slow change and although you get encouragement for ideas, it takes a very long time to actually get an initiative funded and implemented. It is also much too common to hear employees say, "because that's the way we've always done it."
Lastly, BNA has had great benefits for 30 years. However, 30 years ago they were ahead of their time. Now the rest of the world has caught up and the benefits are roughly comparable to any other company out there. So when you hear an employee say we have great benefits, take it with a grain of salt because they probably haven't looked at another company's offerings in 20 years. Furthermore, BNA pays at the low end of the scale because the employees think they have great benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Just want to confirm what others here have said: phase out the old guard and bring up some of the bright new talent you've been cultivating inside. You've done a good job of bringing in new ideas by hiring from the outside but that has further hurt the loyal employees who have patiently waited for their turn at leadership. Much of the young talent has already left and more will continue to do so.

Pros

Benefits package is very competitive.
Work / Life balance is encouraged.

Cons

Longevity is valued over merit.
Little room for upward mobility.

Advice to Senior Management

This is a good company and could be a great one, but if you don't value your new talent as much as your long term employees, the new folks that are less wedded to the company will leave.

Pros

One of the best benefits package.

Cons

Things tend to change very gradually.

Advice to Senior Management

Think of employees before counting your shares.

Pros

Excellent Benefits and the best products available int he industry.

Cons

Travel and the continuos re-orgs.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the re-orgs! Make a plan and commit.

Pros

good professional atmosphere, very high quality products that employees are very proud of.

Cons

some managers and staff need to go--been at company since beginning and oppose change. I don't undersatnd why they don't leave

Advice to Senior Management

get rid of the people who don't help contribute to moving the company forward, no matter how long they have been working at the bna. a few senior managers should also go--there too long.