Scholastic Reviews

I worked at Scholastic

Pros – The book store was great and they had decent benefits. OK for a first job for graduates. Gave employees Harry Potter books and had B-day breakfasts.

Cons – Pay was terrible. Upper management very poorly handled. Changed policy everyday and if you did anything wrong they would find a reason to fire you. The supervisors knew nothing about what was going on. I watched all this plus for over 15 years and when I left I never cared to go back. Very confusing place to work...I guess the partiallity is what I detested. People got promotions that could barely spell and knew nothing. IT depended on who you knew and what your name was.

Advice to Senior Management – Check into your management and make sure they know what they are doing. Show your employees some respect and when they do something good for the company. Recognize their efforts. Be more understanding with your parents with little children. They have to have time off to care for their children. Quit giving them points they don't deserve. And no Scholastic management, the company does not come first in my life, my family does! Why did you keep trying to lock that into my brain? When my husband had a heart test and I had to be there with him, you woudn't give me the time off when I had 80 hours of vacation and plenty of sick time. Sad I had to take a point...You are a very unfair company. I was told the company comes first by my manager. Sad!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Scholastic

Pros – You can work on some fantastic and exciting projects. OR...

Cons – ... you can end up working on some disjointed, poorly managed and under-supported projects. It varies widely by department.

Advice to Senior Management – I've seen Scholastic make huge reductions, and I've seen Scholastic go on crazy hiring binges. The organization seems to be a series of individual fiefdoms. Senior management needs to be more focused on setting a steady and predictable course. Middle management needs to be more focused on seeing the whole picture and working together as a team.

I have been working at Scholastic

Pros – Hours are great if you want the summer off,

Cons – If you wanted to be treated like a child, be disrespected, play mind games, have sales taken away from you or lose commission for some silly thing, Then this is the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management – learn to respect your employees, Look at your turn-over.....ask yourself why in this economy so many of your good people are leaving...Something is definitely wrong...One last thing ...get rid of some of the supervisors, they are out of touch, put them back on the phones

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Scholastic

Pros – The material you work with is always interesting and varies quite a bit. Coworkers and management are for the most part decent and fair people to work with.

Cons – The Soho location is an old building with very cramped working quarters for proofreaders. It is sometimes difficult to focus due to background noise.

Advice to Senior Management – more professionalism

I have been working at Scholastic

Pros – You do get the summer off if you are a 10 month employee. This season is was 9.5 weeks. But not enough over the 2 months to file for unemplyment. Closed at Christmas but can no longer carry over.

Cons – No notice about having to cram all unused vacation days into 2 months time since they decided (overnight) to change poicy and then put a freeze on the last two months of the year. Everyone in my department (and many others, due to management) walk on eggshells everyday. There is NO, absoultely no fun to be had. Forget about having relationships with your fellow employees, there is no one I know that works harder anywhere. There is no time extra... they make sure of that!

Advice to Senior Management – Treat people like humans and not robots!!!! We work so so hard and make this company SO much money yet we are expected to do more and more!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Scholastic

Pros – Diversity in terms of men vs women in all ranks is pretty solid vs. other companies. Women excel in this publishing arena from sales to finance and get their fair share of promotion opportunities

Location in Soho is pretty cool for young folks particularly. Creative and energetic atmosphere.

Theme of business is education of children thru reading. Offer a lot of classroom orientation discussions in their meeting rooms on topics like strategies to get children to read more, read better and so on conducted by educators and doctors in the field.

Great benefits and fair pay vs the industry. Hours can vary but leans towards fair in most departments.

Beautiful building and most managers and above had separate offices

Cons – Finance driven culture
Layoffs can come in waves
Heavy reliance on part time or contract workers with no benefits
Cramped quarters for non-management workers
Communication bw mgmt. and workers could use some improvement
Diversity of ethnicity was very weak with no signs of improving
Quoted bonus offerings rarely met due to less than planned performance business wide

Advice to Senior Management – There should be more transparancy in how senior management behaves toward its employees. Change tend to start at the top and filter down the ranks with no real connection to employee performance. Thus politics plays too much a role in how people get ahead. It is who you know and not so much as how well one performs in Scholastic's culture.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Scholastic

Pros – Wonderful working environment: smart, fun, interesting, creative, and well-meaning co-workers; supportive, kind, and understanding senior management. Excellent mission: creating good books to encourage reading in children; supporting the careers of authors and illustrators. Respected and well-known company. Many women in senior roles.

Cons – Convoluted processes to move projects forward. Poor analysis and application of sales. Poor planning for future. At times, unclear goals and expectations. Salary disparity between people of same level of experience in marketing, sales, and editorial. Salary disparity between people of same level of experience in different business units. Poor management of unchecked egos.

Advice to Senior Management – Improve Standard Operating Procedures.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Scholastic

Pros – good environment, many of the VP's are very down to earth

Cons – HR department seems to be a bit disorganized, communications from the Director level downward are often times far delayed leading to uneasiness in the cubicles, business operating procedures seem antequated and need improvement, the business as a whole is good but the management is lacking in their communication skills

Advice to Senior Management – none

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Scholastic

Pros – Materials that really can make a difference in the lives of teachers and children.

Cons – Employees are bullied on a daily basis. Tone of voice is not respectful.

Advice to Senior Management – Rethink how materials are offered to the schools and teachers. Aculture of encouragement creates outstanding children - and employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Scholastic

Pros – great company mission, dedicated to helping teachers, children, and other education professionals learn, great maternity leave

Cons – difficult to advance and get a raise

Advice to Senior Management – recognize talented individuals who work hard and don't wait too long to promote them.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend