Sad to leave, but it had become impossible to stay - Anonymous employee Cengage Employee Review

2.0
Jan 21, 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people, the chance to create content and products to be proud of, overall a pretty healthy culture. I never stopped respecting and valuing my coworkers because the company does attract truly quality people.

Cons

Almost non-stop reorgs and layoffs with very little acknowledgement of the impacts. Half my team was laid off, and then two months later the person who organized that layoff got laid off. Very low pay, with very low to no increases Ever increasing workload, with no relief in sight

avatar
Cengage Response
3y
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review about your more than 10 years of experience working here. I appreciate the positive remarks about our culture, products, and your colleagues. Regarding reorganizations, the education markets continue to transform. During the last decade, technology has played an increasingly central role in enabling and enhancing education and as a global education company, we have learned a great deal about what products and services are needed to meet the needs of today’s learners. I know change can be unsettling, and I am sorry to hear this was your experience. Employee health and wellbeing is a priority for Cengage Group. I appreciate your feedback and wish you the best in your next endeavors. Best, Michael Hansen, CEO

Explore other reviews about Cengage

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

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
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All