Cengage reviews

3.0

35% would recommend to a friend

(2,396 total reviews)
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Michael Hansen

43% approve of CEO

27% positive business outlook

Cengage has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 2,396 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Cengage employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
2.0
Jun 8, 2016
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

casual environment and flexible hours are perks

Cons

"It would be a mistake--a tragic mistake, indeed--to think that the way you ignite a transition from good to great is by wantonly swinging the axe on vast members of hardworking people. Endless restructuring and mindless hacking were never part of the good-to-great model." by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great

1.0
Apr 10, 2016

Falling apart

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Was privileged to work with some of the best people in the field, dedicated to what they did.

Cons

Constant layoffs and reorgs. Outsourced their IT to India with no regard to quality of expertise and affect on remaining employees. Since new CEO has come in, organization has become obscenely top heavy, more VP and SVP that staff, some VP's with no employees reporting to them. No direction in what they are doing. Decisions seemingly made on a whim, with no thought of long term planning.

2.0
Apr 6, 2016

Heading for the cliff

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Cengage creates (digital) products and textbooks that almost everybody cares deeply for. Often they are good, or even industry leading products. The transition from print to digital they are trying to make is a fascinating one, with many inherent changes.

Cons

There is excessive staff turn-over, which leads to a constant loss of "corporate memory": why are we doing this, how did things become so unnecessarily complex and broken as they are? For a company that is attempting to transition to digital, we sure have remarkably few competent technical people, in particular in the business side. Chief Product Officer is a horrible bully, who willingly and knowingly nurtures a culture of fear. Whoever speaks up, is a likely candidate for exit.

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Cengage Response
10y
Thanks for your time on this. I'll first address your most important point, which is your comment on bullying. Bullying is unacceptable in any capacity; please speak to HR immediately if you experience or witness bullying anywhere in the company. It will be addressed. No one is or will ever be "targeted" as a result. Given the serious consequences of bullying to victims and survivors, this label cannot be used lightly. There is a world of difference between it and the experience of a culture where we challenge one another's ideas, demand personal accountability, and drive for results. Our Chief Product Officer expects a great deal from himself and from those around him. As his direct manager, I also see how passionately and unwaveringly he advocates for the well-being of his team and for many others in his capacity as an office Head of House. The transition we've undertaken is challenging. Let's together ensure that discussion is forthright, respectful and productive. In addition, retaining knowledge during times of transition is as important as being open to critique and new ideas. Based on your feedback, I will look into your knowledge transfer concerns further. In the short term, I requested a few numbers. Just under three thousand employees have a tenure of three years or more; roughly two-thirds of them have been here more than five years. That's rare in edtech, as the industry itself is so young. Many of our newest employees are on the technology side, where in less than four years, we've gone from a relative handful to 650+, not including our contracted software engineers. We need to continue to hire in this area. I value your point of view. I would welcome it if you would bring these perspectives into the appropriate discussions at your office and within your team. If you don't feel comfortable doing this, again, please speak to HR. You can always e-mail me directly too. Thanks
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