Economist Intelligence Unit Reviews

The media business is in decline (as evidenced from the string of resignations) and the EIU is an awfully challenging place to work. The management are delusional and many of them have zero skin in the game to be telling others how to do their job. This is where good people go to die. Your soul is destroyed and you will walk out disillusioned. This is an outdated and mismanaged cowboy operation under the guise of an acclaimed brand. There is little to no structure or commercial acumen, with all the brown stuff only flying in one direction. This creates an awful level of staff morale and I wish I listened to the Glassdoor reviews before I accepted my offer. They were all very accurate and in fact, so much so that it drove me to take the time to write this review in the hope that I can help someone else out there! The silver lining: once you truly know “what bad looks like”— you learn to appreciate a good employer when it comes along (which thankfully it did)!

The EIU is both the cash cow, and the mistreated younger sibling of the Economist Group. In real terms, staff have had a pay cut or pay freeze for every year as long as I can remember, to support a Group that doesn't believe the EIU can grow and just tries to strip out cost. This would be difficult but bearable if the EIU had decent management. Unfortunately it doesn't. All the leaders have come up internally and have no meaningful business experience; they simply don't know how to make the company perform. As such they protect their positions through political power plays - think of the worst cliches of academia. With increased pressure they simply lean downwards on their employees, demanding more for less and giving nothing back. The attitude to employee feedback is to cover things up rather than address the issues (look out for some of the obviously fake one line positive reviews on this site as an example of this approach). Sadly, the EIU has the most depressed and demotivated staff of anywhere I have worked - reflected in frustration, turnover, high rates of sickness etc. While it has many positives, you should be wary