Morale So Low, Left My Dream Job - Anonymous employee Cengage Employee Review

2.0
Jun 22, 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I absolutely enjoyed working with everyone here; the people were fantastic. In each department I worked in, team members worked hard together towards a common goal; direct managers were even in the grind every day. The office culture was fun, too; strong camaraderie amongst employees, outside-of-work get-togethers, and longtime friends were an excellent benefit of working for this company. Flexible ability to work from home when needed. The industry is very interesting and engaging. Job itself was intellectually stimulating and I loved it.

Cons

Completely agree with other posts that upper management is out of control. The word "bully" has been used often in recent reviews, and I would agree some of the exec team members embody that. I left because I had seen too many people let go over the years, and others who left because they couldn't take the work load anymore. Morale seemed so low it was at a point of no return. Please, reward employees with loyalty to the company and many years in tenure - not just with, at the very least, more than a cost of living raise, but not by mass layoffs of tenured folks. Town halls are well-meaning, but don't really demonstrate that the executive team has any idea what's going on on the ground floor. Upper-middle level management seems too terrified about losing their jobs to properly lead, or properly support those below them. Unfortunately, to no fault of the company, the industry is rapidly shrinking, and Cengage is trying to adjust to it.

Explore other reviews about Cengage

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
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.

9
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