A large publishing company that offered some great experiences ... but with continuous change and heavy workloads. - Anonymous employee Cengage Employee Review

3.0
Aug 13, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The small group that I worked with was wonderful! I would always say that the people I worked with was what kept me coming back on a daily basis - that never changed. I also thought that the benefit packages they offered were pretty competitive - I liked the 4 different plan options, and they did their best to not hike up the premiums each year, and take some of it on as a Company.

Cons

When the leadership team changed (CEO and Executive Team) in September 2012, the culture and everything about the company really changed. While I understand that a large company like that needs to make some significant changes to move forward and grow ... the pace that those changes took place, and the lack of thought about process and who all of these changes would effect, just wasn't for me. With the CEO's mantra of "Speed, Focus and Collaboration" - I really feel like "speed" was the only thing that the executive team really focused on. The work load was pretty heavy, and with the continuous org-changes - the folks left behind were left with even more work.

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5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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Pros

Total rewards, time off, great people and culture

Cons

Lots of changes and uncertainty at times

1.0
Jul 13, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The individuals below the management level are good people, with some good people at management but C-Suite is horrible.

Cons

C-Suite hides their plans under corporate speak. Cengage was a family owned private company and they sold and ever since then has had, debt, schemes to shuffle and restructure debt while implementing RIFs after RIFs after RIFs...never ending and amazingly has been in increased this last year. From their actions it's outsource as much as you can of company operations and squeeze value from Intellectual Property. Look how many times they've renamed themselves. They had a CTO join for about a month or two until she realized it was a role with no team, no authority and left. The CEO is amazing at spin, you hear "great, great, great" corporate speak as the reality on the ground is "this failed, that failed..what!? they're gone!...what they moved that department offshore!...what!? that department is now a vendor relationship...oh we're not DEI focused because the wind changed". The trend is contraction not expansion, no ground breaking innovation. My jaded view from college on expensive books has only grew since I see how the sausage is made.

6
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