Cengage reviews

2.9

31% would recommend to a friend

(2,401 total reviews)
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Michael Hansen

39% approve of CEO

24% positive business outlook

Cengage has an employee rating of 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 2,401 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
Jan 31, 2013

Happy to be Gone

Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Work/Life balance is great. Telecommuting for most positions is an option.

Cons

Where to start? I was there for almost 4 years. In the same position. With practically the same (horrible) pay. The work was mind-numbing. The cubicle was demoralizing. My manager was content with being stagnant. This translated into my manager wanting ME to be stagnant. Promoting from within was an issue. 'Clicks' were an issue.

2.0
Apr 5, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Cengage offers strong work-life balance compared with many technology companies. The mission—supporting educators and students—gives the work real purpose, which many employees find motivating. Benefits are solid, and many teams include talented, collaborative colleagues who care deeply about the products and the customers they serve.

Cons

Strategic decisions increasingly feel driven by private equity priorities rather than long-term product health or employee development. Employee surveys such as the Engagement Survey have repeatedly surfaced concerns around senior leadership—particularly micromanagement, limited psychological safety, and a lack of meaningful commitment to employee career growth—yet many employees feel these concerns have not been adequately addressed. Frequent reorganizations and layoffs have significantly reduced institutional knowledge in critical areas. The loss of SMEs has made it harder for teams to maintain and evolve complex systems responsibly. There are also ongoing concerns about culture and inclusion. The departure of DEI leadership, limited promotion opportunities for some groups, and perceptions of biased hiring practices have negatively impacted trust among women and minority employees. Another challenge is prioritization. Significant time and resources are being spent on AI proof-of-concept projects that may take years to reach production value, while smaller customer-requested improvements, platform hardening, and technical debt reduction are often deferred. Finally, employees with strong domain expertise, education experience, and the desire to grow into new roles are sometimes overlooked. Organizational reshuffling can make people feel like they are moved between roles without clear alignment to their skills or career goals, often out of concern about job security in a challenging market.

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Cengage Response
3w
Thank you for sharing this thoughtful feedback. I’m glad to see Cengage’s mission, work-life balance, benefits, and collaborative teams reflected as strengths. I also hear the concerns around leadership, prioritization, career growth, psychological safety, organizational change, and inclusion. As we look ahead, our focus is on creating greater clarity around enterprise priorities, strengthening leadership expectations, and aligning our people, operating model, and investments to support healthy growth, stronger customer outcomes, and our mission to advance education. Thank you again for the feedback. It is an important input as we continue building a more focused, consistent, and growth-oriented Cengage. -Kamilah Thomas, Chief Human Resources Officer
2.0
Sep 23, 2025
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Good benefits, lots of holidays off and paid, and a wellness week in December.

Cons

Poor communication throughout all levels of the company, micromanagement is rampant. The turn over rate is getting higher and higher. Lots of people have been hired and then fired within three months or less, even when following all guidelines and procedures. Lots of lay offs and firing rounds, none of which make sense or are properly communicated. The workload and expectations keeps increasing without proper pay increase or adjustments to the schedule to account for all of customer service's new responsibilities. They are increasing their use of AI and switching to lots of off shore representatives that are not trained properly.

Viewing 247 - 249 of 2,401 Reviews

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