Compensation, HR, and management issues
Pros
Non-management employees are gems. People who make books are genuinely smart, thoughtful, and empathetic people. I loved my coworkers immensely.
Cons
In my experience at PRH, the company has three massive issues: 1. Compensation is far too low. PRH's junior to senior salaries are so non-competitive that they make living in NYC much more challenging than it should be. I had two creative directors say to our group, and I quote, "If you don't like the pay, you can always leave." Profit sharing was nearly non-existent, and below-inflation yearly pay raises were labeled as things we were "lucky" to have. 2. HR is oddly weak. They generally ignore most employee issues, siding with management in near-total lockstep. While I know HR is for the benefit of the company, not the worker, at PRH they take this to a almost worker-hostile level. I reported a number of serious infractions by management that were ignored—items that affected general morale and employee mental health. 3. Management at PRH is generally under-qualified and needs more training. Most had trouble navigating benign misunderstandings and conflict. Management doesn't use conflict as learning opportunities, instead they push for outcomes that mostly involve punishment and appeasement. Employees were kept in line for fear of losing their job, not because they genuinely learned from mistakes or misunderstandings.
