Pros
My manager is excellent. He is hands off, respects his reports' autonomy and understands and is accommodating to external demands. He regularly checks in but generally stays out of the way unless we need his help. To his credit, he's built a cohesive team of highly independent reports who are self managing so they require minimal oversight. Work-life balance is very good and benefits I find to be good as well. For the most part I've found the work here doesn't get in the way of life, but is rather a well incorporated part of it. The work environment is casual and relaxed yet challenging, but seldom uncomfortably demanding. When we are here, we work hard, but we all "leave work" at the end of the day. The product teams I interact with are understanding and respective of our workload and very collaborative. Contractors in my group (many of whom have been with us for a long time) are regarded equally as peers. The office space is comfortable and relaxed with a number of social activities throughout the year. Much of the staff in this location occupy private offices which is a significant contribution towards productivity (particularly to engineering staff). I have worked in both a cubical and had the privilege of a private office and I personally feel much more respected having an office. Given the breadth of disciplines for which we produce products, the projects we work on can vary greatly in topic. This helps to keep things interesting. The company encourages us to seek out areas of personal interest to which we can contribute.
Cons
It feels like the technology organization within the company is still finding its footing. There have been several rounds of structural reorganization as they try to figure out where roles fit. Some individuals responsible for product development are still struggling to "think digital". -= Process =- The biggest problem I've experienced is the epidemic of subjecting digital product creation to the same work flows used for creating books. Many (probably most) of the systems and processes originally developed for the production of book products simply do not fit with digital product development and are considerably more of a hindrance than anything else. The company needs to put more effort into streamlining the process of "publishing" digital products. We can't produce rapidly using these old methods. Time to market is always an influence but is hampered by process. -= Tools =- Similar to the problem with product creation work flows, some of us aren't producing books, we're building software. We need appropriate tools to do so. Information workers need computers that can do more than run the MS Office suite and the minimally demanding line of business programs. Graphic designers get high end Macs with huge displays. The software engineers should be getting powerful computers with lots of CPU horsepower, memory and disk space. We shovel a lot of bytes around. -= Talent acquisition =- On several occasions we have lost very good candidates due to limitations that just shouldn't be. A great software engineer is many times more productive than a mediocre one, but very seldom costs many times as much. Reasonable salaries that are a bit outside the norm shouldn't be preventing us from obtaining the best talent we can. Off site employees also should be an option. While I recognize that on premise is often best, remote excellence beats out local mediocrity any day. -= Hub office gravitation =- One of my fears is the future of the smaller offices that exist outside the big metro areas. There is a clear intent to grow the Boston and San Francisco offices. While I'm all for expanding those since they are surrounded by such great pools of talent, don't discount talent in the outlying areas. Some of the best work (as recognized by upper management) has come out of the smaller locations. -= Skill and performance enhancement =- Every year, the sales departments have conferences to boast about their performance and learn from each other. The technical departments don't have these kinds of gatherings, nor does the company send technical staffers to appropriate technical conferences to accomplish similar things (learn and share).
