Houghton Mifflin Harcourt – “Don't work here until they figure out how they're going to fully merge the two companies.”

Pros

I worked at HMH for about a year and a half when I was laid off due to the merger (I was originally employed by Harcourt). One of the things I liked the most was the product we were producing. I really believed that we were giving kids a good start through our curriculums. Also, the hours are less than normal (or were), 37.5 hrs/week when I was there because we were first owned by a company in the UK.

Cons

One of the downsides of working there was the politics. Everyone was overloaded with work. It was hard to get our project managers to approve things because they were never there. I've heard that it's been really disorganized since I left, and even though they say that they aren't doing any more layoffs, they have been.

Advice to Senior Management

They need to be open and available. We were often late on projects because we couldn't get our senior VP to sit down and look at something. Also, don't change your mind so much. One minute she loved a blue brochure, the next she was asking why we chose that color and it should be red.