Inefficient product development and abusive environment - Anonymous employee Scholastic Employee Review

1.0
Dec 7, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Worked with creative colleagues and industry leaders.

Cons

Never was given time to work on developing product. Needed to spend majority of time preparing a polished, 3-hour presentation to management every week describing what we wanted to do. Ideas never good enough. Could not tell management ideas ahead of time to see if they thought they were worth exploring. Always had to provide very detailed, time-consuming presentations, only to have them thrown out. No input given about what was liked (if anything) or direction to try. Verbally abusive environment. At one company-wide meeting, top educators and educational leaders were INVITED to attend to participate on a panel to help educate employees on trends and issues in education. The CEO commented that for about $100 a student, these educators could be providing their students the company's great products. One of the panelists commented that the school's cost for the technology product required the purchase of computers, people to maintain the computers, different scheduling which would require more teachers, etc., so the cost was more than $100 per student. The CEO and President of Education (who popped out of the audience and walked to the stage) proceeded to verbally attack members of the invited panel about their comments!! I never saw anything like it. And then some members of the audience started cheering the CEO and President on. I have never been more embarrassed to be a part of an organization in my entire life. I have never have worked in such an unprofessional, stressful environment.

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Pros

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Cons

In my experience, the company's compensation practices lacked transparency and accountability. When employees asked questions about how their earnings, bonuses, or compensation were calculated, clear answers were often difficult to obtain. Decisions affecting employee pay were made without adequate explanation, and requests for clarification frequently went unresolved. What I found particularly concerning was the apparent disconnect between employee compensation outcomes and management compensation. Employees regularly experienced reduced bonuses or earnings, while management and executive leadership appeared largely unaffected by the same business decisions. This created the perception that the financial impact of those decisions was being borne primarily by employees rather than those making them. After repeatedly seeking explanations and receiving few meaningful answers, I lost confidence in the fairness and transparency of the compensation process.

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