Al Jazeera Reviews

3.3

55% would recommend to a friend

(299 total reviews)

Tony Burman

65% approve of CEO

43% positive business outlook

Al Jazeera has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 299 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Al Jazeera employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

299 reviews
1.0
21 June 2015

A Total Mess Can't Describe It

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free food (but only healthy) Work from home occasionally The list is so small I'm not sure there's anything else.

Cons

If you enjoy experiences such as: Penn Station at rush hour A hobo throwing up on you Being asked if you work for terrorists by basically everyone A comically inept bureaucracy that functions like the something out of the movie Brazil Then this is the place for you. Oh! And they fire everyone all the time for no reason, other than seemingly the price of oil goes down.

1.0
9 Apr 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You will work with some of the brightest people in the media industry. People who want to make a difference in delivering unbiased journalism. The culture and stated mission is infectious, in a good way. Compensation and benefits are top notch. Work-life balance is good. You are plugged in to world-wide events, daily.

Cons

Upper management is either clueless or powerless. Everything (including minute expense reports) goes through the CEO who has no idea what he's doing. There is absolutely NO job security. Work here at your own risk. There have been multiple layoffs in the past two years. Seriously, the sheer level of talent this place has let go is mind boggling. If you do take the risk of working here, be aware that your severance package will be below market-level when you are eventually laid off.

1.0
18 Nov 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-"Al Jazeera" hasn't lost focus on delivering genuine journalism and news versus "infotainment" -Most of Senior Management are veterans of the US television industry, quite knowledgeable, and seem to genuinely care about their employees -Some extremely talented people on staff in all parts of the organization -Probably one of the last bastions of real News when compared to other flailing news networks in the US

Cons

-Unclear vision and long term strategy for success from the CEO, the Director General (DG) of the month, and whomever else is calling the shots from Qatar. I actually believe all shots are called from Qatar, yes all of them. -Senior Executives are not empowered to accomplish anything unless it's only about creating "News" -Company wide meetings called often and then canceled or rescheduled last minute (Who does this?) -Item 7 from the "Code of Ethics" is rarely followed from within the Organization -Many talented freelancers and temps with little or no effort to retain them. They work them until they quit or they lay them off -No emphasis or investment on other critical departments like Digital, Finance, Sales, IT, and HR resulting in dysfunctional and unbalanced company operations across the board -Lack of transparency between business units which results in a lack of cohesion and collaboration -HR highly inefficient and borderline abrasive. Operates with an emphasis on protecting the corporation and it's interests, not it’s own employees -Eerie cultural similarities in terms of how Qatar has virtually no labor laws and how it's known to treat its foreign workforce to how Al Jazeera America treats their employees here in America (while learning to stay within the bounds of US labor laws).

Viewing 1 - 3 of 299 Reviews

Glassdoor has 430 Al Jazeera reviews submitted anonymously by Al Jazeera employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Al Jazeera is right for you.