Scholastic Employee Review

Former Employee – worked at Scholastic full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – --I worked with some fabulous, talented, smart, fun, committed people.
--Great benefits--not as good now, but still quite good.
--Beautiful offices in Soho
--In some departments, good possibilities for recognition.

Cons – --HR is consistently terrible. They don't listen, don't help, and don't defend employees rights even in the most straightforward of ways.
--Upper management are famous for their in-fighting. They are more interested in defeating each other than the larger vision of the company.
--Bad management at all levels is tolerated even when it is widely known by many divisions, HR, and the CEO.
--The Web site and the Web group are completely dysfunctional. It's been rethought, redesigned, reinvented every year for the past ten and continues to be terrible and problematic for many Scholastic brands and businesses.
--There is a lot of nepotism, favoritism, different rules for different people.
--In recent years, they barely hire. They bring in people on contract to avoid hiring them and cuts have been so deep that work quality has really suffered. Key jobs that are important to a division or group's success are filled by temps who can walk away at any time.

Advice to Senior Management – --Get rid of the dead wood making over 300K. We all know there are quite a few names on that list.
--Treat people fairly
--Make a plan for succession. What is going to happen when the CEO/owner dies or retires?