In all fairness most cons below are shared by many big publishers and big corporations, and I am sure they vary from department to department:
Etremely political. This is a great thriving environment for the chatty, people's person types that enjoy meetings and navigating within a big corporation. But it is also very frustrating for anyone wanting to get things done, and in a rational manner. Disparate agendas usually shape the fatal fate of what should be straight forward.
No employee retention strategy. In this aspect they are still backward thinking and still applying chain production methods to "reward" employees. Pay rises are almost impossible; skilled employees always end up finding a better paid job somewhere else, only for Elsevier to realise they do need the skill, and open up a new position offering the salary with the raise they never offered to the leaving employee. Which is obviously more expensive training - wise, than actually rewarding an existing employee. Also, they apply the infamous cost-saving practice of always trying to fill a leaving employee's gap with remaining staff. New positions only open up when it is clear that the remaining team can't cope with the workload. Both stressful, exploitive and insulting.
Low technology knowledge on mid and senior management positions. This leads to a lot of bad practices at many different levels, from hiring and promotions decisions, to technology development and implementation processes. Junior, inexperienced members learn by example, and bad practices spread like a desease.
