Mixed Bag - Supportive Colleagues but Lackluster Strategy - Anonymous employee Cengage Employee Review

2.0
Feb 4, 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Supportive Coworkers: One of the standout aspects of working at Cengage Group is the fantastic team camaraderie. Colleagues are not just coworkers but a supportive community, creating a positive work environment. - Opportunities for Growth: The company offers opportunities for professional development, allowing employees to enhance their skills and advance in their careers.

Cons

- Lack of Strategy: Unfortunately, the company's Achilles' heel lies in the senior management's lack of a clear and effective strategy. The absence of a cohesive direction leads to confusion and frustration among employees, impacting overall morale and productivity. - Communication Challenges: The communication from the top down needs improvement. This is especially frustrating because Sr. Leadership spends A LOT of time communicating with the company but they don’t say anything meaningful. Clarity in organizational goals and transparent communication about company decisions would greatly benefit the work atmosphere.

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Cengage Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to leave a review about your experience. It is great to hear positive remarks about your former colleagues and I am pleased that you felt there were plenty of opportunities for growth and development. Although the education industry is one of constant change, our strategy of delivering affordable high-quality materials to students remains the same. We are focused on transforming our operations to ensure efficient and impactful delivery amidst the evolving market landscape to ensure we can sustain and accelerate this growth going forward. Regarding communication, creating opportunities for transparent, candid conversations is a top priority for me and the entire executive team, we look to do this through our First Fridays and departmental town halls. I welcome you to reach out to me directly to discuss ideas or additional feedback on how we can continue to improve these conversations in the future. Thank you for your feedback and more than 10 years of service. 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
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