Great Experience - Literary Intern Samuel French Employee Review

There is a lot of energy at the company, which comes from the passion of the employees. Everyone loves theatre, and what's more, loves their job and helping people around the world to make theatre. This energy lends itself to having a great company culture, complete happy hours, fun activities, treats for the office and more. Samuel French is also very plugged into the the theatre community and industry; if you allow yourself to open up to the outside opportunities that the company offers, you'll learn a lot about the industry and start making terrific contacts. Management also actually listens to the employees' concerns, and (slowly, but surely) makes changes that positively affect the company and culture. If you are good at your job, have enthusiasm and passion for the work you're doing, and are loyal to Samuel French, there is doubt that you will grow here - and not just within your own department. Since the company is a smaller one, employees who are interested in different departments can apply to available positions and are often moved, if their skill set meets the criteria. It's a very supportive office, with the directors and managers showing a lot of encouragement for their staff to rise up. Also, the work life balance is terrific. Obviously, there are times that are more stressful than others and late work nights can occur. But from my own experience, when I am working late, it's because I want to be there and love what I'm doing.

Sometimes, the "let's have a fun office culture" can feel ever so slightly forced. It's actually gotten quite better over the past few years, but feels like it is still working out the kinks. That being said, in my opinion, it's better to have a fun, if not sometimes stressed fun, culture than no culture at all in the office.

You get to work in the industry. Many former employees have gone on to work for competitors, theatre companies, and literary agencies it can be a good spring board for a career somewhere else.

In the entire office there are only one or two good managers left and if you are lucky enough to work with them you might have a good experience. Unfortunately it's not a big office and you will most likely have to work with all managers in some way and the majority of the managers including the president have no idea how the industry actually works nor how to manage people. A book that was recommended by the president for some employees to read included a statement along the lines of "People don't leave jobs they leave bad managers." Over the past few years several long time employees including managers (some of the good ones) have left to take basically the same type of position they held elsewhere. New employees have a very high turnover rate, they post a new position about every three months. What's sad is when I was hired it was so exciting to be working with one of the most recognized names in theater, we all had Samuel French scripts in our hands at some point. Only to find out in reality they don't care about the arts in the least but only the wallets of the owners one of which is the current president. The way business is conducted at Samuel French is immoral on many levels, not only toward their employees but their playwrights, customers, and other business in the industry.