Accepting a position here is signing up for a never ending reorg. I was there for 3.5 years and, in that time, Pearson went through three major reorgs that affected my team. Though there were many reorgs before my time (and many, many others that affected other teams at Pearson while I was there), here are the three I was there for:
Reorg 1 took over 8 months to find out jobs at my level were safe. Almost all senior leaders were laid off in this reorg.
In Reorg 2, my entire team was cut and made to reapply for our jobs, a process that took nearly three months and ultimately reduced our content team numbers from 12 employees to 9, and dividing us into two different job levels.
In Reorg 3, less than a calendar year after reapplying for our positions, everyone from one of the levels that resulted from Reorg 2 was notified that our these positions were being outsourced and given final exit dates + a severance package. Three weeks later, we were called into a big group meeting and told that they had changed their minds and that jobs were reinstated and severance/the final exit date we had been given were no longer an option.
Pearson management speaks in constant double speak/euphemisms. Every meeting ends with whispers as we try to decipher what something meant and when the next reorg is coming. This has created an at times toxic environment of stress and distrust.
Pearson is a UK based company. The UK has employee protection laws that require a lengthy layoff process in which UK employees are given many benefits and opportunities that are not required in the United States. As US employees, we have to follow the timeline of this process but do not get any of the protections. This means that we are put on notice that reorg is happening and then have to wait months upon months to find out whether or not we are affected. This always creates long periods of time where stress is high and morale/productivity is low.
The overwhelming majority of people I worked with have a negative opinion of Pearson and openly discusses how they're just waiting for their turn to get cut in a future reorg so they can collect their severance. This made it difficult to have a positive attitude in the day to day. Attitudes would begin to improve the more time passed after a reorg, and just when things would start to pick up steam, another reorg would begin and the process starts all over again.
Pearson is a huge company, but you rarely interact with anyone outside of your direct team. Networking opportunities are limited and career growth opportunities seem to be really only within your department.
The constantly changing leadership makes approaches inconsistent and whenever someone new takes on a leadership role, big changes and more reorgs seem to inevitably occur. These people are not in their leadership positions long enough, however, for their vision to fully materialize before being replaced and a whole new set of changes takes place.
Whenever a reorg occurs, more work gets put on the plates of those left standing. When I began, I felt that this job had great work/life balance. I could not say the same by the time I decided to leave.
Pearson lacks support needed to enable employees to do their jobs. There are constant changes to operating systems with little support. Entire teams are frequently let go and take all of their knowledge with them. Content developers with backgrounds in language and print publishing are being tasked with things like video production and building digital courses.
Pearson still doesn't have the platforms to support new digital programs, so people with no digital experience are attempting to build online courses with, again, no support to speak of/blindly guessing at what a platform that currently doesn't exist may or may not support.
Pearson seems to be continually shifting to a model where in house employees are meant to manage freelancers who do the majority of the work, yet nonstop system changes that result in very late payment, decreasing budgets and increasing expectations + shorter timelines has made it so many of the most experienced freelancers are so unhappy that they are no longer taking on projects with Pearson.
Work is not divided equally among employees. Some are able to do very little while others get stuck on projects that require significantly more time and effort.
