This company does not care about you - Journal Manager Elsevier Employee Review

1.0
25 Mar 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

•When we were in the office there were pretzels the first Wednesday of each month •cookie day, pizza day •the holiday and spring parties were always cool.

Cons

Where to begin? This company is making a lot of changes over many different systems, and they are not being transparent about any of them. When I left, people were quitting left and right because the raises had been offensive, corporate wasn’t being honest about job security, and management cared more about the bottom line than they cared about their employees. We were simply cogs in the machine, barely humans. This company has a bunch of “wellness” initiatives (conveniently rolled out around the time that these changes were announced), but they don’t make the changes that would ACTUALLY improve people’s mental health: paying more when you are expecting more work, not taking away PTO time (that was a fun announcement), and constantly demanding faster turnarounds. I found myself genuinely hoping I would be laid off. I finally left at the end of 2021 and if I saw my manager on the street, I don’t think they would recognize me, know my name, or bother to say hello. It’s all about money. People are losing their jobs to consolidate more work on other people (who remain at the same pay grade), and the people who take on the work are doing 2 jobs, not trained well, and frankly, exhausted.

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Elsevier Response
4y
We take your review seriously and there’s a need to delve more into the issues you highlighted. However, our recent employee opinion survey shows strong positive momentum in how people experience working at Elsevier, but it appears that hasn’t been the case here. We want to ensure that Elsevier is a place where all employees trust leaders and feel supported by our HR team. We want our organization to continue to be a great place for all our people to work, where our employees feel valued and have equal opportunities regardless of where they’re located. If you prefer, feel free to reach out to us at elseviergdrev@elsevier.com to provide more information. With the business world changing constantly and so rapidly, virtually every established business feels the imperative to continuously improve and innovate. Executives, managers and employees across our business work hard to figure out how to best and strategically address the genuine needs of our customers and partners globally. Our leadership team in tech, led by our new CTO and employees are aligned in striving to create a great work environment for everyone. We are unified in our efforts to continue to build an environment that is connected, supportive, nurturing and good for business. Compensation is always a hot topic in any industry. Here at Elsevier, we benchmark our salaries externally, we use both a general benchmark and Technology specific benchmark to ensure we stay competitive. Again, thanks for your review. We look forward to you getting in touch so that we can investigate things further.

Explore other reviews about Elsevier

5.0
11 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Industry leader Great benefits Incentive trips Invests heavily in its employees

Cons

Processes can be burdensome and clunky at times

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Elsevier Response
3w
Thank you for this balanced and thoughtful review. We're glad to hear that our benefits and investment in people are making a positive impact, those are commitments we take seriously. On the process feedback: Leadership is actively reviewing operational workflows, and the advice to listen more closely to employee feedback is something we're holding ourselves accountable to. If you're open to it, we'd encourage you to bring specific examples forward through your team or people and culture contacts. Change is most effective when it's grounded in the real experiences of the people doing the work, and that means you. Feel free to reach out to us at elseviergdrev@elsevier.com to provide more information Thank you for staying engaged and for caring enough to share this. It matters.
4.0
9 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Every direct manager I've had has been excellent: supportive, positive, and trusting me to deliver good work instead of micromanaging. Employees tend to stay, which suggests stability even if not everyone gets promotions or significant raises.

Cons

The pressure to outsource as much as possible, which is common at every publisher, leads to frustration. Because promotions or significant raises seem to be rare, you may be stuck in neutral unless you're very openly ambitious.

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