Questionable business practices - Product Manager Elsevier Employee Review

* Very unorganized company - didn't get my laptop until three weeks after starting, so couldn't do any work. Didn't get my company phone until about 4 months after starting, so couldn't get calls. You get the picture *Surprisingly poor pay. You'd think with size of the company, they'd pay good salaries, but their original offer was as low as £32k. I had to bargain my way up to £37k, which was still below market rates * Cheap/cost cutting company. On the same theme, they're scrooges with everything. Tech staff can usually expect a powerful laptop, because the role is complicated and demanding on processor power - but they sent me this really budget laptop that couldn't handle anything. It's the same with travel - in my previous company, I had a credit card to pay for travel, but they expect you to pay for it yourself. * Lots of office politics, and a basket case company, in general. I ended up having to leave because a boss I had (during a previous time at Elsevier) was still upset that I had left for a rival company years ago. She decided she was going on strike (I'm not making this up, I promise!) as long as I was working on a particular project that involved her team. You'd assume Elsevier would tell the member of staff to shape up, and be professional, which is what I assumed would happen. But, she was quite senior, and politically powerful within the company - and HR (and my current managers) didn't fancy taking her on. So they shuffled me out instead. It didn't work out too bad, because I moved straight to a rival company, on a better salary - but I'm still confused about the incident to this day. As I said, it's the most political company I've ever worked at. Lots of back stabbing, plotting, bullying, harassment etc etc