Pros
I worked in the art department at HCUK for some years. For the earlier part of that time, my experience was characterised by reliable and supportive if variable management, solid opportunities to develop professionally, promotion when possible and decent if unremarkable payrises. So far so good. There's no doubt that employment within such a large and venerable publisher offered the chance to work on a diversity of titles unavailable in most other houses and to collaborate with some very talented creatives. We always strove to to create the best possible product within the obvious parameters of time and budget; aside from a culture of designing by committee compounded by an editorial tendency to regard Art as a service department rather than a creative resource, I think that we did. The move to the News Building was of course fantastic in the new surroundings and facilities offered.
Cons
The last few years at HC were so appalling it is hard to describe. Senior management adopted what appeared to be a blue sky attitude when appointing heads of department to Art. They either lacked the creative skills (one couldn't use Photoshop, another InDesign) or the managerial experience to run a large team. When we as a team voiced our concerns to management, we were ignored. The result is that almost the entire team finally threw in the towel and left in the space of less than a year. There are three remaining. Some left for other jobs but quite a number simply quit. There has been outright picking upon, verbal unpleasantness towards, blaming of, favouritism, taking credit on behalf of and undermining of staff by management. There is zero communication within the department, updates and meetings have ceased. Everything we worked to build over the years in terms of processes rubbished. HR appear not to care. The ethos seems to be executing everything as cheaply as possible with little regard for quality or job satisfaction. It is simply not good enough from a company with the heritage of HC.