Morale is rapidly declining - Developmental Editor Pearson Employee Review

3.0
10 Apr 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- The benefits are good: great health and dental coverage, good pension plan, good work-life balance - I've worked with great people across the organization who are eager to help you even when what you them to do is not in their job description. - Your work affects teachers and students you have personal connections with, so it is meaningful and rewarding when you produce something that is appreciated. - Upper management realized that change was needed in the education market, and they're trying to make the necessary changes to transition from a publisher to a "learning company".

Cons

- The restructuring is taking years. In the meantime, work projects aren't being approved until the restructuring is figured out, which means many people don't have enough to work on, which means there isn't much to sell, so people are let go because profits weren't as good as hoped. Retiring people aren't being replaced. People who quit aren't being replaced. People who go on maternity leave aren't even being temporarily replaced. There is no (or very little) infusion of fresh blood and energy. It's depressing. Walking down the nearly-empty hallways can be spooky - a stark contrast to the past, when the atmosphere was more vibrant (although never an extrovert's paradise!). - It is a very conservative company, with upper management in the same positions for 15+ years, and doing the same things for 15+ years. - It is hard to grow and get promotions, even with outstanding work. You may get verbal praise/thanks, but eventually you'll want more opportunities, a performance-based raise, a promotion...something! Right now, you get extra work from all the people who are quitting/being let go, but you're not rewarded for doing the extra work. - Bad managers are not dealt with at all...the company pretends they don't exist OR acknowledges that they exist, but does nothing to improve the situation. There is one middle manager in particular who is notorious, and she's held the same position for years, while her direct reports continually change because no one can take her verbal abuse for very long. Perhaps managers aren't receiving support/training on how to be good managers? There are too many who feel that micromanagement is the way to go... - I've found that my recent projects require less mental engagement than before. This is partly because of where government funding and curriculum cycles are at, but I feel like I'm doing a lot more data entry and file management type of work than content development. -The digital platforms that have been developed are ungainly, unfriendly beasts that frequently crash or break. The exact OPPOSITE of what teachers want/will use. It's demoralizing developing content for something that you know the end user will hate....if they use it at all.

Explore other reviews about Pearson

5.0
20 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

> Good flexibility and work enviornment

Cons

> Hours force you to stay late sometimes

2.0
31 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Remote, $2300 a month for not that many hours of work.

Cons

The widespread incoherence of Pearson is irritating me to a significant degree. -the hiring committee mentioned the wrong pay rate so I spent a month worrying about money -the payroll agency shared the actual pay rate which was sustainable ($2,300 a month, my bills are $1,800, $2,100 with your fee baked in. - I procrastinated this week because I didn't know how to read the bureaucratese on the assignment - I figured out how to read the bureaucratese and went back to K. saying, I think I've developed something genuinely useful as a reference material for new employees. I had to synthesize information from 100 pages of PowerPoints into a two page document which cleared up the anxiety I had about how to start -can't believe K. and other managers worked as Classroom Teachers because the way they scatter information has no coherence. I had to peruse numerous documents in the SharePoint "cloud" folders, take notes, and develop a master reference document before I could interpret how to develop questions based on the bureaucratese. -I was never the most organized classroom teacher but my students knew what was expected of them. I put dates on assignments that were linear and in a consecutive sequence of beginning of week, midweek, end of week. If students had a test, I made a review sheet that was a consolidated 2-7 pages. I would never expect even my Honors students to consult dozens of pages in order to study. -I told K. about the reference document I developed and she met me partway: she recognizes one aspect of the process could be better done, new employees could be more adequately trained on the acronyms we use. That's like 25% of the way to completion. I had to figure out that "Administration 2" means the second half of a course AKA Economics for 5th and 7th graders, and 11E just means 11th grade Economics. But instead of the standards being sorted by subject, they are sorted by grade. Since the standards start with 5 for anything 5th grade, 7 for anything 7th grade, 11 for anything 11th grade, it would be coherent to just combine the standards into one document and organize by subject. -Some companies are smart, caring people trapped inside of bad systems. Like classroom teachers. Pearson feels like a repeat of my last company in its poor design and incoherence but less abusive. H) Pearson assigned us 11 questions in a spreadsheet. I think fewer mistakes would be made if they paid a college student Education major $15 an hour to type up our assignments with the criteria they want for each question. Our time is worth $30-$100 an hour. We are subject matter experts. But comprehending the bureaucratese drains cognitive energy. -I had anxiety about getting all 11 questions produced then K. said, oh you only turn in one question for the first week. Something they never said on the Microsoft Teams meeting we had last Wednesday for onboarding. If I received a sheet with 11 questions in the cloud and my name on it that's what I'm going to think I need to accomplish. But K. put in another email, only submit one question for a week. Email should be subordinate to the cloud, the cloud should supersede email ex. The federal government supremacy clause: federal government has greater authority than state governments. -Spent an hour trying to save the questions I developed in Abbi, only for them not to process and upload. Abbi feels clunky with technical failures of the early internet

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