Superficially brilliant; scratch the surface and divisional senior management is inept and destructive
Pros
Superb London office. Great canteen and roof garden. Friendly staff and some good events for staff. Lots of incredibly dedicated, passionate and talented employees and freelancers. A good overall group CEO - but several heads of business underneath are inept in one or two divisions...and so many people know it other than the Board!
Cons
A good overall group CEO - but several heads of business underneath are inept and are destructive of staff goodwill and are agents of demotivation. Somehow the Board seem not to be aware of what most staff feel. Even the staff survey feels so much like big brother is watching that few are completely honest for fear of the annual divisional witch hunt to fire some staff. I should know - enough people have told me. We then get chastised by our divisional CEO for being the least positive division. Our divisional CEO must be a superb manager of relations above her, as so many staff complain to each other about how demotivating, unhelpful, critical and blame-focussed she is. So much coffee-break time is spent by groups of staff talking about joining rival publishers...all because of a negative culture pervaded over by an inept leader. A large hire and fire culture of middle managers - surely Children's group is setting a record for the number of people who have 'left to pursue other interests' in the last 3 years! I am planning to leave soon due to such superficial leadership.
