Cengage reviews

2.9

32% would recommend to a friend

(2,400 total reviews)
avatar

Michael Hansen

41% approve of CEO

25% positive business outlook

Cengage has an employee rating of 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 2,400 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Cengage employee rating is 22% below average for employers within the Mídia e comunicação industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
1.0
Jul 17, 2017

The beatings will continue until morale improves

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

The people who work there (mostly) are terrific people who are trying to do great things. There is some great upward mobility created by all the layoffs as long as you're willing to play office politics. Work / life balance at the company is outstanding.

Cons

Far too many layoffs of veteran employees so people with no experience can be brought in at a much lower salary. These new people, through no fault of their own, end up poorly trained in their new positions, and unable to cope with the reality of what needs to be done at the company. Additionally, some of these layoffs have no rhyme or reason to them. They're being done simply to cut head count, and on occasions crucial departments are cut out despite nobody being left in the company with knowledge of the products they were in charge of. I'm sure the CEO might come on here to explain about "growing pains" and the like, or how these are "difficult decisions," but instead of cutting with a scalpel, he's used a chainsaw. The knowledge vacuum at the company continues to grow.

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Cengage Response
8y
Thanks. As you likely expect, I do disagree on a few points, and I would like to share a few facts with you that underpin my belief. We are indeed, as you note, in transition from a former publishing company to a much more technology-driven organization. Different kinds of skills are needed than in the past. Many employees have successfully made the transition to new jobs and new ways of working. Tech support is actually a good example. We’ve built a team for this from scratch, combining existing talent and new recruits. Our wait times have seen a decrease of 22% over the last two years and now average under 2.5 minutes at peak times (as you will know, we are a very seasonal business with massive peaks of demand at the beginning of the semester, usually on Sunday nights). In fact, tech support has earned a 97.3% customer satisfaction rating so far this year, and we have teams of software engineers who strive to “design out” the questions we receive. I’m not sure I follow your comments on headcount reductions. When there are changes, we want to remake how we work to become better at creating what our customers want – which is, increasingly, educational software. We have so many jobs and new roles posted that it’s hard to see the correlation that you are making. Needless to say (I hope), replacing aging workers with younger ones for less pay is not merely bad business, as you note, but it’s also illegal. I agree that we need more Talent programming to help grow our employees, which is why it is a significant priority for me this year. Our new Talent team is already rolling out added learning and development opportunities, with much more to come. I recognize, however, that this may be too late for you, as you have departed Cengage. I sincerely hope your next opportunity is a better fit for you and that you also shared specific feedback .
2.0
Feb 15, 2017

Worst job experience yet.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

A lot of smart people used to work there. A few still do.

Cons

When I was there, they had a lot of restructuring. They proceeded to let a lot of those smart people who had domain knowledge go. After that layoff/restructuring, a lot of the remaining intelligent people left for better paying jobs. They didn't provide incentives for remaining employees to stay. Inconsistent standards for employees. A beer fridge, it was a trap. Only managers and above used it because of the attitude/shade thrown at regular employees if they indulged.

1.0
Oct 21, 2016
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

The fellow reps. I would like to say the free car, but you live in and they expect you to, so it's really not.

Cons

How do I name them all? Work life balance, how you're treated by management, not being rewarded for the hard work, compensation always changing. THEY FIRE PEOPLE FOR MADE UP REASONS. It's usually age, but the know they'll be sued so they'll make something up. HR is a joke, so don't expect any help. People, I could go on, but you get the picture. Just don't do it.

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