Toxic culture and low pay overshadow friendly coworkers - Editorial Assistant Sourcebooks Employee Review

1.0
Apr 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

In hindsight, I'm not sure if there were any apart from some friendly coworkers.

Cons

I infuriatingly see promotions handed out left and right via LinkedIn, but just know that actually being someone to get to that level means literally grovelling and being lucky enough to be in the good graces of the egotistical CEO. Upper management brown-noses her as their main job, and they will prevent you from any upward mobility if you're not one of her favorites (which seems to be picked based on how much you kiss up to her, and if you keep your own opinions to yourself, and other factors entirely unrelated to your actual performance). Absolutely criminally high monthly healthcare premiums, paired with insanely high deductibles, bare-minimum PTO, and mat leave. HR is a joke and not one HR employee seems to last very long. Salaries are abysmal, even by publishing standards. Most books acquired are bottom-of-the-barrel since they don't pay most of their authors much, and they have to be edited within an inch of their lives to be readable and marketable. I left the industry after this company and have never been happier.

Explore other reviews about Sourcebooks

5.0
Jun 20, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Incredible managers, great team, genuine openness to growth and learning, meaningful work

Cons

None to speak of at this moment

2.0
May 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Working from home, kind and dedicated colleagues

Cons

completely unrealistic workload and expectations. Cult-like atmosphere. The healthcare premiums are outrageous. Several pointless 2+ hour long meetings a month that basically serve no purpose but inflating the CEO's ego. Everyone is expected to manifest extreme joy like they're at a megachurch in the meetings but when you talk to them individually they're miserable. The books are total garbage and we are actively making people stupider by publishing them. AI is aggressively being pushed onto the staff. Mean girl cliques. I left the industry after leaving this job, thank god.

3
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