There is a lot worse out there I am sure... But I bet there is a lot better too. - Sales Representative Cengage Employee Review

2.0
Oct 15, 2008
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Change is good and there is a lot of that going on. Change opens doors for employees and streamlines the business. It is very laid back and for the most part employees are not watched over like a hawk. I feel this allows the employee to work effectively and make decisions on their own, to an extent. The coy pond is pretty cool, plus the on-site gym and cafeteria help a lot.

Cons

I am in sales and sales people are measured by their goals. We plan our year out accordingly. Since I have been working here they have never gotten out our goals with in the first 6 months of the year. This is extremely frustrating because the sales reps have to play a cat and mouse game with management and with their customers. I have known reps to hold orders for months before they submit the order just so they don't get nailed on their goal. Also it gives the management time to evaluate your performance and base your current year that your in before they give you your goal. That's like cheating. Sales is based on previous (year, month, quarter) sales not lets see what you have done so far for your year and then if your way up we give you a huge goal that now you only have 6 months (if your lucky, one year we didn't get them until September) to achieve. Also before when we were owned by Thomson one of the reasons why so many people worked there was because of the "Perks". People were willing to work for a little less money as long as they were treated right, given some special treatment... Not anymore. They have all disappeared. I realize that a company wouldn't increase our pay because of it but now we are making the same money as before (which by industry and area standards is no where near it should be) and now we are with out the perks we once had.

Explore other reviews about Cengage

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Company has some interesting approaches to the market and in the past they seemed value employees. There are some good employees there and there was, in the past, visionary leadership, but the people with the vision and leadership skills left the company a few years ago.

Cons

The company actively de-values employees. They had a project they called "Project Horizon" where they told all employees they needed to cut costs, so the company was going to have multiple layoffs over 3-5 years - but nobody was allowed to know when, where, or why - - just one day large swaths of people would be gone. That hung over everyone's heads - for years, and is indicative of how Cengage values employees - it doesn't. Everything is about trying to secure new funding and prepare for an IPO, so they stopped investing significantly in the products about 3 years ago and that's about when they stopped acting like they cared about employee wellness as well.

9
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