Company with an Identity Crisis - Anonymous employee Elsevier Employee Review

2.0
27 Mar 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Flexible Work Hours. Between decent VPN software and communication tools that enable meetings to occur across the globe folks can generally work where its most convienent, though this can lead to issues when abused. The company has noble intentions. Ultimately it shouldnt be ignored that Elsevier is legitimately trying to improve healthcare across the world through their products and content. Decent Vacation Packages. The nice 'pro' of working for a European company is the importance put on time off for vacation and getting away from things for a while.

Cons

The company is clearly going through a transitional period where its core competencies are coming into question. The print business isn't going to see better days so the company has 'reinvented itself' as a information analytics firm. This is seen as a joke in many circles as this was largely a change in title only. New products that are intended to provide lifelines to the company's long term success come out half baked or are delayed, often leading to leadership turnover due to consistent poor performance. This can largely be perceived as growing pains of the transition though, the weak leaders are getting weeded out. Unfortunately those individuals tend to reside in higher roles. However, the real con of working here was the open office concept that now dominates the offices. No assigned seating and no offices mean you share space and equipment with unknown amounts of individuals, which was a real joy to experience during this past flu season. Oh, and did I mention that since there are no offices it means that senior leadership is nowhere to be found on most days as they are mostly working from home? Because that is a thing now too.

Explore other reviews about Elsevier

5.0
11 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Industry leader Great benefits Incentive trips Invests heavily in its employees

Cons

Processes can be burdensome and clunky at times

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Elsevier Response
2w
Thank you for this balanced and thoughtful review. We're glad to hear that our benefits and investment in people are making a positive impact, those are commitments we take seriously. On the process feedback: Leadership is actively reviewing operational workflows, and the advice to listen more closely to employee feedback is something we're holding ourselves accountable to. If you're open to it, we'd encourage you to bring specific examples forward through your team or people and culture contacts. Change is most effective when it's grounded in the real experiences of the people doing the work, and that means you. Feel free to reach out to us at elseviergdrev@elsevier.com to provide more information Thank you for staying engaged and for caring enough to share this. It matters.
3.0
10 Feb 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Decent benefits, reasonable job security and mobility

Cons

Management is a mess. They are constantly shuffling around leadership and department/reporting structures, and it has serious ramifications on morale and cross-function collaboration. I was a part of a well oiled machine for many years until Elsevier acquired our product and pretty much ruined everything that was great about within 5 years. Their priorities have not aligned with customer needs, and it became increasingly difficult to provide value to our customers. Elsevier provides more roadblocks than solutions from a product management perspective.

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