PLOS reviews

Management: Firstly, I strongly agree with many of the past and most recent reviews regarding the management here at PLOS. Management appears to be unequipped to deal with multiple employees and conflicts that arise on the team. There seems to be this unspoken understanding when hiring managers/promoting people that as long as the candidate has worked at PLOS, and the candidate is friends with those who are interviewing him/her, then that candidate should be hired or promoted. There appears to be no logical reason as to why people get promoted into far more challenging roles that they truly weren’t ready for. A lot of these managers are super young, inexperienced, and have not had any prior management training or mentor-ship. They are just thrown into the job, and fumble around incessantly. These managers do not truly have a grasp on the workflows and processes of the journal they now manage/oversee, and as a result, poor decisions are made. Culture: On the surface, everyone smiles and appear to be friendly. However, as time passes, you will understand that this place is exactly like high school: a place consisting of loud, and obnoxious people, cliques, gossip (some of the gossip/rumors are started by the managers themselves!), and decisions/promotions driven on popularity, not merit/hard work. If you are a part of these cliques, then congratulations, expect to excel through the ranks no matter how sub-par your work is! There is this vague, almost non-existent line between management/employee relationships, which clearly creates situations of favoritism. Many of these managers are a part of these cliques, and promote/give praise to who they like, not who actually deserved the promotion. Good people get passed up, and bad employees excel, which definitely leads to an increase in turn-over. Also, I believe that the workplace should remain as a neutral environment when it comes to politics (and religion as well). Regardless of whom you support or what you believe, you should not shove your political viewpoints down other people’s throats. Though I personally did not like the outcome of our presidential election, I don’t need to make public statements at work like “If people voted for [insert name here], then they are idiots”! We as American citizens have the right to vote for whomever we see fit for POTUS, and creating a politically charged atmosphere at work causes division, alienation, and toxicity in the workplace. Whether I agree with people’s political views or not, people need to keep their political views to themselves while at work, and focus on actual WORK and learning their roles.

If you like low wages and office politics, PLOS is your place. At face value, people are friendly- however, once you try to advance in the company, be aware that PLOS is not a meritocracy and the biases, misogyny, and incompetence of the hiring managers will keep anyone who excels at their job down while unthreatening, yet mediocre employees will rise through the ranks. Hiring and promotion decisions appear arbitrary and/or personality based and it doesn't appear that anyone at PLOS knows how to assess a resume or cover letter with regard to a job description. PLOS celebrates mediocrity which explains why they’ve lost some of their best brains over the past year or so. Human Resources has been a revolving door for the past 18 months, so there is no one with both the knowledge and authority to provide oversight or training to poor managers. Wages are low and management has trouble hiring qualified people at starting salaries. From a broader perspective, there is a very top-down approach to communication and decision makers rarely seek out the knowledge and perspectives from people on the ground. The deciders are extremely wedded to their methods and procedures, even when they don’t work and don’t know what they don’t know. Supervisors are given immense responsibility with little training or structure, and many lack competence in dealing with personnel issues, resolving conflicts, or developing staff. In terms of advancement, there isn't much opportunity despite high turnover due to organizational structure. Other than our current CEO, management is so out of touch with the day-to-day operations as well as office culture- they have no idea who the toxic people are that are destroying the morale of entire departments via incompetence and inexcusable bias.