Pearson Education Reviews

Pros

The benifit is okay. Employee has stock option with 15% discount (maximum $1000 a month). Flexible working time is allowed for some department.

Cons

Most people work in small cubicles, even for some managers. Growth space is limited for some people.Too much office politics.

Advice to Senior Management

Always learning should not only be a slogen. Learning new technology and use them in real work is a way to success.

Pros

benifit of a large support structure
Inovation driven

Cons

Employee need awareness by management is superficial
In an effort to cut overheads HR bully employees
Made up promotional titles instead of raises

Pros

If you love educational publishing this is the place to be.

Cons

The Educational industry is on a downhill trend, which will improve when the economy returns to better health.

Pros

Everyone in the company is just a phone call away. People are very willing to help (b/c everyone is on the bonus system). Great products that have a great reputation. Selling the actual product is quite easy.

Cons

Busy times of the year can be down right miserable. Management doesn't realize this and just keeps cracking that whip over and over.

Have been told the summer is "great", but I have yet to experience this.

Also, I was never told any information about sick leave, vacation time, or holidays. Too many things are "off the record."

Pros

It's the largest international education company, with very large resources. Smartly managed, environmentally and fiscally responsible, and with respectable top management. The company makes very good investments and usually produces high-quality products.

Cons

Not a creative atmosphere. If you are not into corporate environment and corporate career building, you are not likely to enjoy the culture. Management could be more supportive of innovation and initiative.

Advice to Senior Management

The company needs programs in mentorship, innovation, and corporate entrepreneurship.

Pros

-Good benefits
-Flexible work schedule
-Relatively understanding managers
-Friendly co-workers

Cons

-Ridiculously low pay with paltry "merit" increases of less than 3% per year despite hearing annually how great the company is doing financially. Work increases yearly but salary does not when you factor in cost of living. I could not survive on my own in this area on my current salary if I had to.
-Poor communication between senior management and those of us at the lower level. Don't be surprised if you hear of changes that directly affect you through the general "announcement" email that is sent to the entire division.
-Too many re-organizations. As soon as you're comfortable working with a particular team they re-organize and you need to start from the beginning all over again. Flexibility is a skill every good worker should possess but some continuity would ensure we're all comfortable and confident in the job we're doing.
-Very high employee turn over which is frustrating not only to the authors (who never seem to work with the same people on two consecutive revisions--and oh will you hear them complain!) but to those of us who stick around who are required to train and retrain new hires (when they actually get around to rehiring...) Those who leave aren't replaced in a timely manner so teams are required to function for months at a time with a skeleton crew.
-Work load has increased exponentially in the last few years with the many different versions of texts now required in addition to our online courses. We're required to get an unreasonable amount of work done in an impossible time-frame with as little man power as possible and when it doesn't happen or we produce sub-par results upper management can't seem to figure out why.
-Too many managers, not enough people actually doing the work necessary to produce the books and their ancillaries.
-Summer hours are great if you can take advantage of them as summer is the busiest and most stressful time of the year at this company if you're directly involved in the producing or selling of books.
-Employee moral is extremely low for the most part. Everyone is always complaining about how miserable they are. Not many have a positive outlook. The most positive comment you will hear is "at least I have a job."
-NO ONE will recognize you for doing a good job, even if you get an "outstanding" performance appraisal.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire more people! Our product is getting more complicated and involved on a seemingly daily basis yet we're working with the same number of people we were a few years ago. Also, saying "thanks" to your employees will really go along way in improving moral.

Pros

The benefits package is what was important to me. The work was honorable as it was to created school books for kids.

Cons

Your just a number. Everyone is worried about loosing their jobs. The top management and even your direct manager is not at the site you work at. Communication is difficult.

Advice to Senior Management

It's a good place to work if you don't take it to heart.

Pros

Great benefits, flexibility in work hours, summer hours, raises every year with opportunities for bonuses, company provided tuition reimbursement.

Cons

Pay wasn't great, but that's expected at a publishing company. Felt pushed towards sales.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more career advice for all the young talent you have in the office.

Pros

Very relaxed atmosphere. Great co-workers, good environment.

Cons

Quite low pay for my job title.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the great management.

Pros

Very good benefits if you are permanent (not term-of-project)
Some good colleagues
OK pay compared to some areas of publishing at small firms
Fall Fridays ( as opposed to summer Fridays)

Cons

Most employees are term-of-project, so not permanent. Our contracts were all due to expire on December 31st. We heard nothing, meaning that we did not know whether to come to work on January 1st. We did come in, only to receive our letters renewing employment a few days later. People had not known whether they could afford to travel home for the vacation or how much they could spend on presents, due to the uncertainty of the job.

If you are permanent, you receive a bonus of many thousands of dollars. I was kept term-of-project, only to find out that someone with over a decade less experience than me - that is, only a couple of years of experience post-college, someone very young - had been made permanent, and then specifically told not to tell me. In addition, I had to have surgery and was told that Pearson would not pay me for the time I was off recovering, because I was term-of-project, despite two years of flawless mistake-free service and long hours from me.

If you are just out of college, joining any Pearson company is a superb start, even if it's Pearson Learning Solutions. But if you have over two years post-college experience, this place is more likely to hold you back than do you any favors.

Advice to Senior Management

Do the right thing and resign. The current senior management has been messing this place up for years. The turnover is unbelievable. I left seven months ago and already the team is unrecognizable.