Merion Matters Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Merion Matters full-time

Pros – The only positive is flexible work schedule

Cons – Management is terrible. All about power trips. No organization.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Merion Matters

Pros – If you want the real deal, please look up Merion Publications, the former company name.

Cons – The cons are virtually endless. If you are supporting anyone besides yourself (while you live with your parents) this is probably not the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management – SELL, SELL, SELL THE COMPANY! You should have done this 5-6 years ago before the economy failed and you failed at adapting.

Former Employee – worked at Merion Matters as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Great experience
great atmosphere to work in
employees are very kind and helpful
Got to learn a lot.

Cons – I couldn't find any , I loved working for them

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Merion Matters full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Flexible hours/work from home eventually--which is why many people are still there (editorial allows people to work from home after five years a few days a week). In addition, if you've accrued enough time, your salary is usually quite good--but it also has you constantly looking over your shoulder to determine if you are being invited to the next meeting to exit left. Good for new grads. If you are in editorial or art, you can usually work on some really creative projects. . .

Cons – Layoffs every six months or so. . . sometimes folks that were just hired. . . Used to be a great place to work, but since 2008, they have sent most of their talent packing. They can spend an entire month planning an issue and decide the day it goes out, that they will no longer be producing the magazine. . . or that the magazine is going online. You may be moved to another magazine or you may not. . But you are so shell-shocked, productivity and creativity is halted. .

The middle managers act as nothing more than puppets. They are trained to do exactly as told; even if the direction they are steering is in circles. . (You have to feel a little sorry for middle managers since any dissent is not favorably acknoweldged, and you get the sense they are in the dark as much as employees. They are paid well and you almost believe them when they tell you the next great idea.)

It's a real shame because this place used to be a family place. I feel sorry for the long-standing employees, who have been sent in so many conflicting directions, they do nothing but keep their heads down and try not to be affected by the chaos around them. Be careful. Take the company for what it is worth. . . and that is not much.

I hope they start turning it around, but it doesn't appear they will.

Advice to Senior Management – I don't think they'd listen--so I won't waste the typing.

– I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Merion Matters full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great work-life balance; solid products; Great for those seeking a career in Art, Editorial, Web Design/Development; Team atmosphere and overall great staff to work with.

Cons – Leadership/Executives lack trust in employees at all levels, even those that are hired to execute a particular function, making it difficult to actually accomplish anything. They should be more open to the ideas of the talented people who they have hired for a reason! The company also lacks resources to help you to do your job successfully (and training is poor in particular). The company also could benefit from managing change better and effectively communicating change to employees (what you did 25 years ago to make the company a success isn't necessarily going to work today...) Also, salaries are overall low and the company seems to be "penny wise pound foolish." They should be open to movement from within and not discourage employees to internally apply to other opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management – Sell the company or invest in hiring a CFO and actually listen to their opinion. This organization has so much potential but are inhibiting their own growth by only listening to the ideas of 4 people. Be open to employees making movements from within. Why are you so opposed to someone wanting to see another opportunity within the organization? You should be flattered that they want to continue their employment with you!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Merion Matters full-time for less than a year

Pros – Flex time, and the ability to work from home two days a week after five years (this is in editorial, unsure about other departments).

My manager was kind and caring.

Health benefits were alright.

Cons – Company culture is... non-existant. It's sort of like being in line at the post office. You're all human beings sharing the same space and similar frustrations, but no one is speaking to each other and there isn't a real sense of camaraderie. Even the HR rep that hired me admitted the culture is "weird" and unfriendly.

They do not care about employees. Everyone was expected to report to work during Hurricane Sandy. If you felt unsafe driving to/from work *in a hurricane*, you were allowed to use some of your vacation time. How thoughtful! The only reason the office closed at all during the hurricane was because they lost power for one day.

The company is 5-7 years behind in terms of technology. If you're looking for a place where you can utilize the latest technology/equipment, keep looking. However, if your ideal environment is one in which you'll need IT at your desk twice a week, consider Merion Matters your new home.

Finally, in 2013, they realized they needed to start to try to compete with online job boards. A major source of revenue for the company is job postings, and yet they're only just now trying to compete in this crowded space.

Don't bother trying to bring new or interesting ideas to the table. They're not interested in hearing them. The go-to excuses for shooting ideas down is that the in-house technology cannot handle them, or that there is no room in the budget.

Speaking of the budget... As mentioned in previous reviews, layoffs are common. This company does not react until it is far, far too late to do anything. This is why publications limp along with too little revenue until, almost on a whim, they are discontinued and people lose their jobs. But all the while you are being told things are fine and there are plans in place. Don't believe them when they tell you this. The "plan" is that the magazine will go down, and so will you.

Nothing is done with efficiency. Why be allowed to handle a project yourself when you could involve 2+ more departments and have it take twice as long? Want to resize an image for use online? Better budget 3 days for that! The red tape here is endless and meaningless. I hope you like meetings, because you'll be going to a lot of them.

There is no room for salary negotiations with the initial offer. You are told, "This is what we offer".

All in all, this is a dreadful place to work. I regret taking the offer. I would only recommend this place to new grads looking for some experience to get a foothold in the industry. Get in and get out.

Advice to Senior Management – Why bother? They've made it abundantly clear they're not interested in change.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Merion Matters full-time

Pros – Flexible hours, uncapped earnings, niche market, deep database of contacts

Cons – Lack of leadership from an executive level. There is no CEO/CFO or VP/Dir of Sales making decisions and driving the company forward in a cohesive manner. Continued lack of executive transparency and communication. Sales compensation plan does not reflect current market revenues.

Advice to Senior Management – Put in place quality executives, build a well thought out, researched and cohesive company vision, then share it among your employees. Trust your employees, develop your employees, value your employees, invest in your employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Merion Matters

Pros – Flex hours. Be in by 10 am, leave no earlier than 3 pm, as long as you get your 40 hours in, it's all good. But don't dare work a minute over 40. They frown upon overtime.

Cons – I've been told on several occations that I should "just not care so much", by supervisors. I think that pretty well sums it up.

Advice to Senior Management – Get a clue. COMMUNICATE WITH MORE THAN JUST YOUR LITTLE CORE GROUP OF ORIGINALS.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Merion Matters

Pros – The company provides great benefits including free health insurance for all family members. The downside of this is that the benefits keep a lot of dissatisfied employees hanging around. Before the company was facing financial troubles, raises tended to be high, although salary levels are usually below average. If you are a successful sales rep, it's a good place to be, but most positions are not given much respect.

Cons – The company has no real strategic direction. It tries to follow market trends, but is usually behind. There is a small inner circle of people who make all the decisions, and these are not usually the best qualified people. Since the company started laying off lots of employees in 2009 morale is very bad. Many people stay at the company only because there are few opportunities elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management – Honestly, sell the company. More capable ownership and management could better utilize the assets at the company's disposal. The company will never be a leader in this badly declining industry.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Merion Matters

Pros – 40 hour work week. You can't work a minute more.

Cons – Low pay. I made 30k / year base salary.
Unreasonable goals. I was happy to be 50% to goal. This ensures that they can pay you next to nothing.
Senior management doesn't adapt. Sorry, print advertising is going nowhere. Web ads aren't effective when there are 80 of them on every page. Selling pens doesn't put food on my table.

Advice to Senior Management – Get it together.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend