Unstable, uncertain - Product Manager Cengage Employee Review

3.0
Mar 12, 2013
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

The people here are great. Hard working, dedicated and trying to do the best job possible. The work/ life balance is favorable and I've generally found it easy to move around between positions. The people with whom I directly work feel strongly about the value of working on educational materials despite the challenges of our industry.

Cons

This industry and this company are undergoing major transitions. We have weathered several large departmental reorganizations with more to come. It's unsettling and demotivating. Despite the company's talk about focusing on digital, from a product development standpoint that's proving to be easier said than done when digital products take weeks and weeks to produce, so there's little speed to market. it's also hard to trust upper managers who either aren't transparent or don't know what they're going to do two months out so give no notice regarding strategic changes. Much comes across as though it's done on a whim with little planning or forethought.

Explore other reviews about Cengage

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
Business Outlook

Pros

Total rewards, time off, great people and culture

Cons

Lots of changes and uncertainty at times

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.

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