Pros
Yellow Book could be a great place to work if they cared more about their employees and customers. The diversity of a sales job with Yellow Book provides an opportunity to work and get to know people in many different types of businesses. Yellow page advertising has in the past been very necessary but with the advances in technology and more and more people going online, there has been a steady decline in usage. Although Yellow Book still boasts strong usage in most of its markets (most of which is fabricated). In the past earning potential was there for a sales person in yellow page advertising. But YB has gotten greedy and most people have trouble rationalizing the reasons to put up with a high level of stress for moderate to low pay.
Cons
In a press release in July 2008, investors in Yell asked that senior management step down after uncovering that Senior level executives earned bonuses totaling 110% of their salary after the stock value had declined more than 87%. Senior managements explanation for such a decline was that Verizon and other yellow page publishers were to blame. Of course there has been no explanation why senior level execs get 110% of their bonuses while a sales person gets nixed on their bonus because they needed to sell one more new. One of the core values of YB is "Under Promise, Over Deliver". They have that backwards it should be over promise under deliver. Communication from upper and senior management within the company is atrocious. Leadership for YB asks of its people what they themselves are not willing to do. They hide in their offices, far removed from what is actually happening on the street, to make uninformed decisions about how many new businesses must be sold and how to tie those goals to a bonus that saves the company money because they don't pay a cent if you sell 7 and your goal is 8. They also ask for huge percentage of increase on existing revenue accounts. 4% is average rate for inflation, YB asks for 16% and more in some markets. Managing an assignment with puffed up goals, low earning potential and impossible to make bonuses for the masses. Yellow Book USA has taken the strength of independent yellow page companies and made them into another corporate media giant that has a "me first" and "because I say" attitude.
