Low pressure, but not a leading company - Anonymous Cengage Employee Review

1.0
Nov 13, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lower management are all great. They know that they have little resources so treat their employees well.

Cons

Not innovative at all, low pay, over worked, executives set high unreachable benchmarks which means no bonuses, yet executives still receive large bonuses, executives more interested in making themselves look good. Middle management are told to be there own CEO - which translates to no funding and if you don't meet your numbers you get fired. Constant turnover in middle management as a result. Executives take no responsibility.

avatar
Cengage Response
10y
Thank you for your insights. I agree that we are successfully undertaking a major transformation of the company; we are rapidly nearing a crossover point in which digital product sales will overtake declining print. That is one of numerous positive inflection points for us. However, change comes at an emotional cost for many, and it comes in more tangible ways for those whose roles are most deeply affected. I would value your specific suggestions to both practically address your concerns (for example, your description of goal-setting sounds unreasonable to me too) and ease the sense of fatigue that often accompanies change initiatives at this stage, while still promoting our business evolution. Please consider e-mailing me directly.

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.

2
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All