Pros
Some veterans tell good stories of the glory days, if you can find one. Work at home opportunities likely available in many departments as they're always finding new ways to empty out their fancy building; maybe they'll start leasing the space.
Cons
Leadership seems incapable of taking suggestions given by programmers and staff regarding proper customer service; shipping buggy software and poorly-protected books and journals is fine; most customers won't return them. Offshoring all possible labor to India and the Philippines is fine; the money saved on salaries and benefits more than offsets the business lost due to their errors. Elsevier reduces salary increases and health benefits as much as possible for all employees who aren't upper-tier management and pads the pockets of those who actually make the decisions while attempting to streamline everything to excuse their policies as good business to major shareholders. Lean Six Sigma can be an effective way to untangle a messy corporate infrastructure and introduce clear direction and priorities to an otherwise nebulous morass. That's what it's for. You can't just throw it at every team, especially since Elsevier already has tightly-defined teams going into things. Some higher-up just thought LSS sounded fancy and convinced us to waste thousands and thousands of dollars on trainers to "help" us do what we're already doing, just with more purposeless meetings and nagging requirements. Every single major decision I've seen since joining them some years ago has been a bad one from the perspective of everyone but the upper brass who use the sweat and tears of the workforce to polish their boots. It's just progressively worse every year; I quit because it was soul-crushingly depressing to work for an employer like that. Broke my heart, since I'm a proudly loyal person and my team was fantastic, but this is a terrible place to spend a day, let alone multiple years.
