- HORRIBLY low pay. Lower-level employees are paid a laughable salary that is far below industry standards. It's ridiculous and almost offensive how poorly lower-level employees are paid, especially considering how they are often doing the work of 3-4 people for months and months on end. Many of my colleagues live with multiple roommates and some can barely even afford to feed themselves.
- During my time at OUP (less than a year) I watched over 12 people in my department leave. Lower-level staff is basically treated as disposable. Hiring freezes and upper-level management’s extreme slowness in actually hiring new people result in the remaining employees struggling to balance the work of 3-4 people at one time. One of my colleagues did not have a manager for the majority of their time at OUP and was forced to play the role of both assistant and manager (and sometimes even editor). There are no bonuses or any incentives at all for balancing additional positions on top of your own responsibilities.
- No room for growth whatsoever. During my interview, I asked what the opportunities for growth were within my role and department and was told that my only option was to become a sales rep. Lower-level employees are told that there’s no way for them to move up to a manager position unless they have sales experience—and then upper-level management goes and hires people from other companies who have NO sales experience. There is no path for upward mobility here. There are no mandatory check-ins or performance reviews. It seems like OUP couldn’t care less about retaining talent.
- While my manager was fantastic, I can’t say the same for the majority of mid-level and upper-level management. Some of my colleagues are more like baby sitters for their managers rather than assistants. Upper-management seem to have very little EQ and don’t know or even care to understand what it is that lower-level and mid-level employees do; they just keep force-implementing new processes without taking the time to see if they are feasible.
I witnessed an editor belittle my colleague over emails and harass them in person. When confronted about his behavior, the editor just laughed. I reported the editor to HR and Compliance, but given how little has been done about other editors who have sexually harassed employees in the past, I doubt anything will come of my report. This same colleague went to HR in the past, in tears from stress and mistreatment, but received no follow up. When they brought it up to HR again, the only response was, “Oh yes, I remember that.”
- Outdated systems, incompetent IT support, and unreliable internet. Many of OUP’s systems are horribly outdated (if you try Googling them, nothing shows up) and oftentimes don’t work. I had an issue with a system for months and was shuffled back and forth between IT support providers who, although were very nice and tried to help solve my issue, were unable to fix it and actually made things worse for me. Even the people who created the system refused to help me and just shoved me back to IT. The internet connection in the office is shoddy and there were periods of time where no one was able to access their email or the internet.
Do yourself a favor and listen to the negative reviews. I was one of those people who thought “Oh it can’t be THAT bad”. It really is that bad.
