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Penguin Random House

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Penguin Random House reviews

3.9

75% would recommend to a friend

(1,188 total reviews)
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Nihar Malaviya

87% approve of CEO

73% positive business outlook

Penguin Random House has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 1,188 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Penguin Random House employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
2.0
Jul 20, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent benefits, especially vacation time if you can get in Full-Time. If you love books, PRH is the greatest in the game. The best authors, the biggest books. For aspiring publishing professionals, this is the dream. You'll never work on better books anywhere else in your career. Many employees form lasting, lifelong friendships here.

Cons

The company preys on your passion for books and the industry and exploits it to make you feel like you need to stay and that you have no other options. Most entry level employees are on three-month contracts that renew perpetually for years, but offer no benefits, vacation, or sick days. Career development opportunities are nonexistent. Raises small, few and far between. Promotions often long overdue. Many junior and mid-level employees have resigned in the last year because they can't keep waiting around for a minuscule pay bump and a pat on the back when they could take an entry level job in another industry and make 2x as much money. Expect to work evenings, weekends, early mornings and late nights, get emails expecting replies in the middle of the night. No overtime, no lieu time, no reimbursement for mobile costs or home internet even if you're working on your own time and device. HR is a laughingstock. Lip service is paid in big townhall meetings to diversity and employee mental health/work life balance but nothing is ever done. It doesn't appear that managers whose employees report mental health concerns or take stress leave are ever evaluated on whether or not they are fit to lead a team. Clique-y upper management closes ranks and fearful middle managers aren't empowered to stand up for their employees.

2.0
Sep 20, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Industry exposure is unmatched; you learn a ton. You make friendships that last a lifetime based on mutual love for books.

Cons

Low pay and very poor company culture surrounding pay transparency. Approval hoops for projects of actual interest are horrendous, and in some cases, years long. Requests for support go unanswered. Development meetings with superiors only occur when you're at your breaking point or have submitted your resignation as a means of situation control. Very little proper training -- very much thrown to the sharks. There is a "just be happy you work here and stop complaining" attitude whenever you bring up concerns about company culture or your own development. Performative allyship to all causes, but particularly in their anti-racism standpoint, which is absolutely not reflected in internal relations. Pay is abysmal, as previously mentioned, and does not get better (or so I assume; pay transparency discussions are heavily discouraged). I lived with my parents during my time at PRHC because I could not afford rent on the poor salary. Junior employees are worked to the bone, often upwards of 60 hours a week for no extra pay, and told it's "part of the role expectations." Time in lieu is impossible to actually take. All this to say: I dedicated my entire life and education to books, and it was not an easy decision to leave an industry I was so passionate about. I sincerely hope Penguin Random House Canada will address the mounting concerns so that future book-lovers like myself can feel like they're working toward the enrichment of this community rather than breaking their backs to keep upper management's boot from breaking it for them.

1.0
Aug 21, 2023

Proceed with caution

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Free books. Some great, hard-working, talented people.

Cons

Toxic work culture. Burnout inevitable. Blatant favoritism. Ableism issues, particularly for Neuro-divergent folks. Little to no path for promotion. Abysmal compensation.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 1,188 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,550 Penguin Random House reviews submitted anonymously by Penguin Random House employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Penguin Random House is right for you.