While upper management may be nice, they are horribly inept at their actual jobs. They lack an understanding of how to delegate tasks, make decisions,are terrible at communication, and are horribly out of touch with publishing and how a business ought to be run. Within my first few days, I was told that, over the last few years, Wiley has undergone frequent layoffs and reorganizations (on a daily basis, 9/10 Wiley employees whom you may ask a question to- since their job title implies they should know the answer- will say something akin to: “actually, during the reorg I was moved over here so I’m just learning how this works myself”; you will then be passed on to another person who is equally inexperienced....and so on and so forth).
While these reorganizations are obviously a serious problem, upper management seems to think it’s all a big joke. Among other things, I was laughingly told that “it [the reorg] has been happening every year and will keep happening” and that “you and others [new employees] have walked into a mess.” In other words, everyone- especially those who are in a position to make a difference at the company- display an “I know this sucks and isn’t the way it should be, but it’s just how it is so oh well haha”-type attitude.
Additionally, new hires are given little to no training whatsoever; if you are given any training, don’t expect any help from your direct manager with understanding any of the outdated online systems as- again, due to the constant reorgs- he/she probably doesn’t know how they work either.
Wiley is currently, constantly claiming that it wants to be digital-focused and progressive company but has no idea how to go about this. Case in point: higher ups will SAY in meetings that we “need to move forward”, make the “best use” of everyone’s time, yet their actions show otherwise. Assistants and coordinators, in particular, are constantly made to do outdated tasks and produce documents that authors, sales reps, etc haven’t had use for in years either because a) they’re used to it b) 1 out of 1000+ authors or reps asked for it; furthermore, they are told to do one thing one day, only for it to be changed within hours....and then changed back again.. Wiley, you cannot move forward if you’re constantly doing archaic practices. Wiley, you cannot make every single author and rep happy and thus cannot do everything that every single person asks.Wiley, you cannot simply obsess over what every other publishing company is doing and steal their ideas (which you fail to execute anyway). Wiley, you SHOULD (but fail) to respect your employees and follow through on your ideas.
