Cengage reviews

Major lack of leadership, strategy, and vision. Lack of focus for product plans. Seems like we are trying to create too many products rather than focus on the few key products needed. In other offices, it sounds like there is good work-life balance, but in our office there is not. There is an expectation from upper management to work at all times, even on holidays and vacations. Performance evaluations are not based on actual performance. No real measurement and assessment of work when you are told to give all employees "meets expectations." All employees get about the same very minimal increase (2%), which then breeds mediocrity. Last year our health care costs went up, and our increase did not even cover the increased cost of the health care. Extremely short-staffed--not enough staff for the number of products we are creating. The needs of the staff are ignored by leadership. Overall, staff morale is very low and upper management doesn't care. When these issues have been brought up by employees (and they have, and employees have tried to make things different), employees have been shot down.

Money - Publishing doesn't pay much in general, but Cengage pays even less than competitors. No bonuses in the past year, no cost of living increase, chapter 11 bankruptcy ongoing since July. Overworked employees - A 60-70 hour work week is typical if you're salaried, but you are shooed out the door if you are hourly and declare more than the 37.5 hours for full time. Attrition - Many people have left or are looking elsewhere because of VC mis-management, chapter 11, and low morale. Getting replacements is either impossible or the position not approved. Being over worked has become the new norm, and we're being asked for more innovation, more ideas, and more production while still producing the same number of titles and assets as before. Lofty ideas are great, but there is no one to execute. Freelancers have declined their contracts because of the bankruptcy and delays in payment. Moving to contractors - Instead of hiring full time employees, there is a movement to outsource the work to temps and contractors. The time/effort this is supposed to save gets eaten up by having to train new people every 3-6 months and check their work or redo it. Digital transition - The digital move to Mindtap will not get off the ground without engineers in the seats. The Silicon Valley area has too much competition, and engineers must be paid accordingly. They've had engineering positions open for over a year. There is no workload adjustment, the executives just want more innovation and more new things. Again there is no one to execute and our projects are delayed. Manager heavy - In each reorg in the past 18 months (most of us have lost count) there have been more managers and manager-level positions created, including the promotion of several of the previously-digital academic types. Again their teams are left without writers and replacement positions hang open for months which delays or compromises the digital products. These academics have great subject matter expertise, but are ill equipped to jump in and manage the editorial side of things. Executive decisions - Like so many huge companies, there is a serious communication gap between executive management and everyone else. What we get in town hall meetings is lip service and forced/half-hearted cheering with no facts, no concrete information (though I'd like to give them the benefit of the doubt that they seem to mean well.) Lack of promotions - Maybe because of the hiring freezes in the past 3 years, but there have only been worker-level promotions coming out of the Boston office. Belmont, Famington Hills, and Mason have seen nothing except for managers getting a bump.