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      Chronicle Books

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      Chronicle Books reviews

      3.7

      67% would recommend to a friend

      (75 total reviews)

      Nion McEvoy

      98% approve of CEO

      61% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Chronicle Books has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 75 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Chronicle Books employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      75 reviews
      1.0
      Nov 1, 2019

      Salary + Benefits package + minuscule raises = paycheck to paycheck living

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The company does a great job promoting what a great company this is to work for. This leads to great employment opportunities...elsewhere.

      Cons

      High sales and marketing turnover and little to no training means you'll hit the ground running with lots of room for failure and a huge learning curve. Impossible to transfer to a different department so don't take that Receptionist job thinking you'll get you get your foot in the door in the Editorial department. Middle Management generally needs to take some serious classes on how to manage people without massive freakouts and inappropriate messaging. Compensation package is a joke (don't buy into that profit sharing propaganda they try to feed you as you still won't be paid enough to afford rent in the Bay Area), and don't expect any decent cost of living increases. Any legitimate, documented concerns brought to HR result in gaslighting, witchhunts, and coverups - you know it's bad when it's better to leave than to bring a concern to the HR department. There's a diversity initiative going on, but it's not reflected in the book lists, and the Diversity and Inclusion Meetings are a joke - when it's majority Caucasian cis people in the room there should be an active discussion re: why there aren't more persons of color/diversity in the room?

      avatar
      Chronicle Books Response
      6y
      It's always difficult to speak to an individual's specific experience and the factors involved in their time at the company. Nevertheless, we continue to be proud that our average tenure is over 7 years and, while we do expect turnover, it's in line for a professional organization, and we work hard to retain and develop the employees who want to stay and grow and contribute to Chronicle Books. For the vast majority of our staff, a career in publishing at Chronicle Books is something they are proud of and passionate about, and we couldn't make our amazing books and gift products without them. Compensation in the Bay Area is an issue of concern among many non-tech industries, and we received incredibly valuable feedback from our staff in our 2019 engagement survey which we have discussed openly during all-company meetings. Our long-standing annual profit share bonus continues to be a very popular part of our total compensation package and, contrary to the reviewer's feedback, our cost of living increases are aligned with national and regional COLA data. Our diversity initiative is being led by a group of highly motivated and invested employees who are eager to learn, share their learning, and effect the change that we know we need to make across the publishing industry. As a founding participant in the Publishing Diversity Baseline Survey, Chronicle Books is committed to making progress in this area. As for our list, we would let it speak for itself and encourage readers to peruse our frontlist and backlist catalogs.
      5.0
      Aug 28, 2019

      Company culture is great, job is challenging, and location is prime.

      Sales manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      I love working with a diverse team of individuals with loads of experience to draw and grow from.

      Cons

      There's a lot of emails -- things could be settled faster in-person.

      avatar
      Chronicle Books Response
      6y
      Thanks for the great feedback. We agree that our "brown bag" meetings are valuable and give more people across the company an opportunity to talk about what their working on. Groups like Chronicle Connects and the Diversity and Inclusion Group are working hard to recruit presenters from inside and outside the company. Stay tuned!
      4.0
      May 3, 2019

      Fun place to work

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Very talented employees, beautiful building, fun titles to work on Environment is very collaborative and everyone’s opinion is welcome & respected Management recognizes salaries are low so they find other ways to reward employees Work/life balance was very manageable

      Cons

      There wasn’t a lot of room for growth for me. I was hired at a lower job title than I held previously, stayed for 2.5 years and my manager said I wouldn’t have gotten promoted for at least another year even though I overperformed every review cycle. That was disheartening. It seems like Management wants to really prolong promotions to incentivize you to stay & that doesn’t really work for millennials. I understand that publishing pays low as an industry but some of the salaries are embarrassing. I had friends getting paid 2x and even 5x what I got paid.

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      ReviewsChronicle Books reviews

      Glassdoor has 86 Chronicle Books reviews submitted anonymously by Chronicle Books employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Chronicle Books is right for you.