Simon & Schuster Reviews

Pros

Free books! Positive working environment, fair allocation of vacation time, holidays, sick and personal days, competent management, great location (subway exits right into the building--no soggy shoes!), and great opportunities for professional growth.

Cons

Facilities and resources not always the best, nor readily available when necessary. The building is very old and not necessarily conducive to effective work; could use a spruce.

Advice to Senior Management

More opportunities for employees from different imprints and departments to get to know one another socially would be ideal; staffs generally feel very isolated from one another.

Pros

Free coffee and drinks.
Free books.

Cons

Long hours and sometimes tedious work.

Pros

Lack of hierarchy
Respectful superiors
Friendly environment
Good books
Interesting people
Ability to take on new projects
Reasonably self-directed
Decent hours

Cons

Lack of advancement
Abysmal pay
Inconsistent rewards
Unrealistic expectations
Opaque management decisions
Corporate bureaucracy
Unfair distribution of responsibilities
Lack of mentorship and training

Advice to Senior Management

Make Simon & Schuster a place that rewards the long hours and intelligence of its employees rather than expecting a lot but drowning it in corporate bureacracy.

Pros

Great digital publishing initiative
Great communication between departments
Good leadership from publisher
Well-respected, quality books
Good office environment - respectful, intelligent, challenging

Cons

Starting pay is a bit lower than other publishers
Managment refuses to pay overtime, despite it being clearly stated in HR policies
Not a lot of empathy from managament regarding work load
Sometimes promotion or lack of promotion decisions seem unfair

Pros

Great atmosphere and everyone one is pretty laid.

Cons

Many cliques, promotions and raises are based on who you know. Very old staff here, so they are not use to change unless it is forced on them. Which is mostly through technology and not people.

Advice to Senior Management

Open to change and maybe your younger staff will stay. Also, this is not high school, cliques went out the door then. Raises and promotions should be based on performance, not who you are swamping life stories with.

Pros

Interesting and varied work, skilled colleagues.

Cons

Various departments had a tendency to play favorites among employees, and to promote based on personal relationships.

Pros

I worked in the Marketing Department where there was plenty of work to go around. The tasks themselves aren't that challenging, but they keep the dey from going by slowly. Plus, I got a chance to write a few ads and newsletters which look nice in my portfolio of work. The coolest thing about working here was the opportunity I received to conceptualize an iPod Touch app.

Cons

The work envirnoment is very dull. People don't really interact with one another, other than on outlook. Most of the staff is also middle aged so it can be hard for a young person to connect with them.

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage more dialogue between employees. They don't have to be best friends, but the office environment should not be so awkward.

Pros

some great books and authors - list has gotten much worse under Reidy
prestige of working for one of the Big Six
competitive pay at the higher levels
good distribution lines

Cons

No place to advance
Publishing too many c list memoirs instead of real books
Terrible leadership
Bonus plans not connected to real world and don't come out until 3rd or 4th quarter.
Senior VP's are at war with each other and try to embarass each other.

Advice to Senior Management

It's time for CEO Reidy to go, relics from a different age of book selling. Upper management has zero regard for the work that actually gets done.

Pros

A leader in the industry, publishes bestselling books, filled with great people, has a great reputation, opportunities for growth and leadership, recognition

Cons

Very corporate environment, resistant to change

Pros

Great list of authors. Some phenomenal editors & publishers. In top 5 of all trade publishers.

Cons

Ship without a rudder. The publishing/book world is changing and fast. Their solution is to work people to death, make them fearful of their job & well, fire a LOT of people.

Advice to Senior Management

Regroup. You had a phenomenal sales force, but you've seem to have forgotten how essential they are to your success. I worked there & was proud to. Since the layoffs, I look at you and cringe. Its a shadow of what it used to be.