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Penguin Random House

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Penguin Random House reviews

3.9

72% would recommend to a friend

(1,189 total reviews)
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Nihar Malaviya

81% approve of CEO

70% positive business outlook

Penguin Random House has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 1,189 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Penguin Random House employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Audiovisual y medios de comunicación industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
3.0
Dec 11, 2025

The idea is better than reality

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Work with cool authors Some free books

Cons

Severely underpaid for how ragged they run you Weird politics Good luck if you’re a person of color

1.0
Nov 6, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

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.

3.0
Oct 4, 2025

Fine

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people, free books, learning environment

Cons

New management is kind of all over the place Abysmal pay even for industry standards Messaging around working in office vs remote is constantly changing

Viewing 163 - 165 of 1,189 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,552 Penguin Random House reviews submitted anonymously by Penguin Random House employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Penguin Random House is right for you.