Simon & Schuster Reviews

S&S has been using the same internal systems for decades. They have no idea how to upgrade systems and get up to speed where other industries are. Publicity doesn't even know what digital publicity efforts look like yet. It's insane how behind the times this company is. There is a huge lack of diversity at this company like any publisher - nearly everyone is blonde haired and blue eyed. Corporate is attempting to diversify by hiring a lot of Asians in lower level positions which is hilarious because that isn't diversity. Now they claim they will look into ways to support black people entering the industry which is laughable because the best way to attract diverse talent is by having attractive pay. No INTELLIGENT self -respecting college graduate is going to just sit there and accept a 1% annual pay raise and a starting salary of 37k without a bonus or incentives. After 5 years I have yet to break 50K in this company and I've been in publishing 10 years. We work too hard for too little. S&S also gives less time off than any of the other big 5 publishers. Why stay here when we could at least get more time of elsewhere? If you have issues relating to bullying, sexism, harrassment, etc, HR will not back you up. My supervisor enjoys tracking my lunch and bathroom breaks and has been doing so for at least a year. S/he eventually came out and accused me of a two hour lunch with zero proof - s/he confused a bathroom break with my going out to lunch since s/he never bothered to walk by again with his/her side glance to see that I came back from the bathroom and then later left for a lunch break. When I proved I didn't take this lengthy lunch s/he imagined up, s/he didn't apologize. Apparently butt and seat time is more valuable that the revenue I've generated for an ailing dinosaur company. I have heard similiar nasty stories from others who work in the company - bosses making them do things unrelated to actual work, bosses that say racist (cough subconscious bias as HR is now calling it) things to their staff, etc. This kind of atttude is not isolated - you'll find it throughout the higher levels of the company.

A craven and small-minded senior management team whose true colors presented themselves when sales slowed down (i.e., when the chips were down, they effectively stopped being leaders, burying their noses in spreadsheets). Bonuses for execs have been and will always be prioritized over jobs with the current senior management in place. Some business strategies: reducing xeroxing and making price points for books end in .99 cents vs .95. You can see where the Big Thinking is. Layoffs are a reality in this biz now (no getting around that, its everywhere) but S&S's inept, bloodless and insensitive handling of firings is so demoralizing it has corroded morale in the worst way. Are the people that work there motivated? No. They are scared for their jobs.