HarperCollins reviews

3.5

58% would recommend to a friend

(448 total reviews)
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Brian Murray

66% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

HarperCollins has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 448 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The HarperCollins employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

448 reviews
2.0
Jan 9, 2022

They Don't Care

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent benefits and Paid Time Off

Cons

I have never been treated with such disrespect by senior management and HR (or rather, "People," such a joke), who gaslight anyone who raises their voice about pay inequity and/or diversity, writing them off as disgruntled and delusional. The way the HMH merger was handled was thoughtless, with no respect to the legacy and contributions its employees were bringing to the company. More than 50 HMH employees were laid off and the remaining were relocated to other departments in a restructuring that made little sense (employees were promoted, demoted, and/or moved to different jobs based on job titles and no performance/job responsibility information). Many of us have since left due to being fed up with how we were treated, low compensation, and burnout. Everyone else remaining has to scramble harder than they've ever scrambled before in a layoff/acquisition (and I've lived through a few) and it is at a breaking point that HarperCollins is doing nothing to fix. And it's not just the typical growing pains of an acquisition; HarperCollins employees below the senior management level (non-HMH) are also stressed and demoralized, handling unrealistic amounts of work for little pay, which of course means there's low retention there too. People in publishing have highly transferable skillsets that other companies will be glad to compensate fairly for, and it's about time publishers realize they can't get away with overworking and underpaying their employees if they want the industry to be sustainable.

3.0
Jul 8, 2021
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

The team is full of the smartest, kindest people I've had the pleasure of working with. I learned so much working there, and wouldn't trade it for the world.

Cons

If you want to live off ramen and beans for the first 10 years of your career, apply for a job at HarperCollins. The pay is despicable: I was working 50 hour weeks (at least) and barely able to pay my bills. HarperCollins likes to think it is progressive and talk about how it raised the base pay to $45,000 for entry-level employees, but for all of us working at the entry level in New York and San Francisco, that's not far from the poverty line. I started at $39,000 my first year. Also, I'm a woman, and I learned my male coworker (who I trained and who hadn't been there as long as me) was earning more than me for a WHOLE year. The response? They barely cared. A coworker once told me I should marry a rich guy so that I could work in publishing. What's worse is HarperCollins has no incentive to change because no matter how many people quit, thousands of people rush to fill the jobs. Publishing is romanticized so that people think the low wages are worth it. It's not. Financial security is so important, but HarperCollins just wants you to be so hyped about your "passion job" that you forget that. Also, advancement is glacial. Don't hope for a raise or a promotion for at least two years. Do yourself a favor and work somewhere willing to pay and recognize you for your time.

Viewing 7 - 9 of 448 Reviews

Glassdoor has 611 HarperCollins reviews submitted anonymously by HarperCollins employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if HarperCollins is right for you.