All the reviews are true. - Anonymous employee Sourcebooks Employee Review

1.0
Feb 22, 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some of the best people work at Sourcebooks. They are intelligent and kind (well, most of them). I hope some of them eventually realize how much better it can be and find a great career elsewhere. Despite the cons, the people at Sourcebooks are its greatest asset. If only they treated them as such.

Cons

Don't do it, just don't. You will do what I did, and look at the Glassdoor reviews and think it can't be that bad, people are just being dramatic or angry. And are some of these a bit dramatic? Sure. Are they angry? Probably. But please listen when I tell you, not one of them contains a lie. The environment and culture is incredibly toxic. They will wax poetic about their thriving and creative culture and how they are changing the industry. Maybe yes, maybe no, but working at Sourcebooks is a lesson in what you don't want in a company you work for. Work life balance is non-existent. Employees are under constant intense stress and anxiety to make the CEO happy. But at least you have good benefits right? No. The pay is below the industry (and they'll justify it by saying they are not in New York, even though they are in one of the most expensive suburbs of Chicago). The vacation policy is laughable (because even when you take what little vacation you have, it's incredibly stress inducing and the CEO does not care for it) and you are micromanaged on your time as if you were back in grade school. Since Covid, everyone is work from home, but that also means you must daily provide a list of all the work that you did. People panic about being away from their laptops for too long, in case someone comes looking for you and you happen to be away. And don't even ask about diversity. Seriously, don't ask.

Explore other reviews about Sourcebooks

5.0
Jun 20, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Incredible managers, great team, genuine openness to growth and learning, meaningful work

Cons

None to speak of at this moment

1.0
Apr 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

In hindsight, I'm not sure if there were any apart from some friendly coworkers.

Cons

I infuriatingly see promotions handed out left and right via LinkedIn, but just know that actually being someone to get to that level means literally grovelling and being lucky enough to be in the good graces of the egotistical CEO. Upper management brown-noses her as their main job, and they will prevent you from any upward mobility if you're not one of her favorites (which seems to be picked based on how much you kiss up to her, and if you keep your own opinions to yourself, and other factors entirely unrelated to your actual performance). Absolutely criminally high monthly healthcare premiums, paired with insanely high deductibles, bare-minimum PTO, and mat leave. HR is a joke and not one HR employee seems to last very long. Salaries are abysmal, even by publishing standards. Most books acquired are bottom-of-the-barrel since they don't pay most of their authors much, and they have to be edited within an inch of their lives to be readable and marketable. I left the industry after this company and have never been happier.

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