Really, the best place you've ever worked? - Graphic Designer Sourcebooks Employee Review

1.0
Aug 6, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are good opportunities for building your portfolio and you get to touch a lot of things. They are a growing company and are working on expanding their company. They have good health insurance. Depending on your position its a lower stress environment.

Cons

They pay you next to nothing and expect you to work 40+ hours without overtime pay. I had to work two jobs just to live on my own. I was constantly micro-managed and told that if i needed to work a few extra hours after work to get a job done that was perfectly fine. I'm sure that was perfectly fine for the upper management who would work when they felt like it. Half the time I couldn't even get ahold of my manager when I needed to because they didn't respond to email and was rarely in their office so I would constantly get yelled at for things not being done and when I did do something without their blessing I would also get yelled at so it was no win situation. Along with all that the turnover rate is insane. In my first year over 20 people left. The next few years it was higher. In just the month that I left over 10 people left the company. Many found better pay and others decided freelancing would pay them better than Sourcebooks. Lastly, anyone who says its the best place to work was clearly asked by the company to put up that review in order to bring up their ratings.

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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