Dysfunction Dressed Up as Innovation - Anonymous employee Sourcebooks Employee Review

1.0
May 21, 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

There are talented, passionate employees who genuinely care about books, authors, and each other. Opportunities to work on major campaigns--if you're in the right clique. Remote flexibility.

Cons

The company loves to market itself as "innovative," but beneath the surface it's the same old corporate dysfunction--wrapped in toxic positivity and buzzwords. Leadership plays favorites constantly. Visibility, promotions, and resources are handed out to those who flatter, not those who perform. Incompetent managers and leaders protect themselves at all costs, even if it means throwing their teams under the bus. The CEO is more interested in curating a fan club than cultivating strong leadership or fostering a healthy workplace. Mental health support is performative. Publicly, they'll champion it. Privately, you're punished for needing it. Burnout and turnover are constant and quietly ignored.

Explore other reviews about Sourcebooks

5.0
Jun 20, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Incredible managers, great team, genuine openness to growth and learning, meaningful work

Cons

None to speak of at this moment

1.0
Apr 20, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

In hindsight, I'm not sure if there were any apart from some friendly coworkers.

Cons

I infuriatingly see promotions handed out left and right via LinkedIn, but just know that actually being someone to get to that level means literally grovelling and being lucky enough to be in the good graces of the egotistical CEO. Upper management brown-noses her as their main job, and they will prevent you from any upward mobility if you're not one of her favorites (which seems to be picked based on how much you kiss up to her, and if you keep your own opinions to yourself, and other factors entirely unrelated to your actual performance). Absolutely criminally high monthly healthcare premiums, paired with insanely high deductibles, bare-minimum PTO, and mat leave. HR is a joke and not one HR employee seems to last very long. Salaries are abysmal, even by publishing standards. Most books acquired are bottom-of-the-barrel since they don't pay most of their authors much, and they have to be edited within an inch of their lives to be readable and marketable. I left the industry after this company and have never been happier.

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