Pros
HMP offers a hybrid work environment (2 days in-office; 3 days remote) and free lunch one day per week. There are Summer Fridays, wherein the office closes at 1pm between Memorial Day and Labor Day. Offices typically close at 2pm the day before a company holiday as well. Employees under 5 years' tenure receive 16 days of PTO in addition to the 12 company holidays; greater than 5 years is 21 days of PTO, with an additional increase at 10 years. Benefits are standard high-deductible, with an improvement in carrier/health coverage in 2021, along with vision and dental. They also offer a basic life insurance plan, 401k, and EAP. According to the employee handbook, salaries cover 40 hours of work with 1 hour of paid lunch. This allows for some flexibility with personal appointments. Some positions allow for travel to HMP-run events. Editorial will occasionally travel to external events. Travel expenses entirely paid by HMP. There is some room for growth depending on your position and manager. Editorial positions have an opportunity to connect with thought leaders in their assigned specialty and create a great network. Company hosts yearly Christmas party and, in pre-COVID times, a summer outing to a baseball game.
Cons
HMP would rather invest in product than people. During my years with the company, HMP had multiple acquisitions without adding positions to support the rapid growth. Nearly all departments are at least 1 person short, and when employees express concern about the workload, they're told to "utilize team resources" (ie, push work onto lower-level employees) and "work on time management." Hours can be long, especially in the times leading up to events, print deadlines, or end-of-month campaign goals. As an editor, I worried about audience engagement and brand integrity when mainly publishing sales-driven content to meet client goals. I was told to work on my professionalism and drop the subject when I consistently questioned why the brand and sales did not reflect the breadth of the specialty. Another review that said brand quality are "paper-thin" is 100% accurate. The company does not offer yearly cost of living salary increases, and yearly bonuses are not guaranteed. Recognition seems to only happen for a handful of employees, with clear favoritism for certain divisions. There is a lack of transparency regarding salary bands and promotion/bonus procedures. Diversity is major weakness. The C-suite team are primarily white and male, and there is a clear pattern of hiring women at lower levels to report to men in management positions. Most of company staff is white, and there is little to no celebration of other backgrounds. Multiple office closures are based on Christian holidays plus Columbus Day (but definitely do not call it Indigenous Peoples' Day). C-Suite did not consistently follow COVID protocol (temperature check, symptom Y/N chart) when coming into the office, and they had a weak stance against mandatory COVID vaccination despite working in health care education and communications. Morale is low. The company does weekly anonymous OfficeVibe surveys, but very little change has come out of that feedback. Further, my supervisor would consistently push our scheduled 1:1 meetings to prioritize other work, which was not a great sign I would receive constructive feedback or training. When a company-wide email announced my resignation, several coworkers reached out to me to ask what happened, and two even asked if I was let go. Lastly, management regularly tries to gaslight employees. My supervisor told me they would never promise a certain promotion pay bump and that I misunderstood a conversation (even though I had post-meeting notes stating otherwise). They also hired an additional editor to my team due to managing a "rapidly growing brand" only to eliminate the position 1.5 months later, citing a need to use "shared resources" and see "revenue growth." When I said I was extremely stressed at work and exploring other employment, this person told me I should have said something sooner--blatantly ignoring the written and verbal discussions as early as 1 year prior in my 2020 performance review.
