Old school attitudes - lots of fiefdoms - Anonymous employee Cengage Employee Review

2.0
Aug 12, 2009
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Industry Leader with top brands in consolidating industry; focus on digital publishing; smart, communicative colleagues; generous benefits package; relatively low pressure (outside of sales)

Cons

Hierarchal, top down management; frat boy college publishing culture; lots of chiefs - not enough mid level doers and support staff; absentee owners looking to cash out.

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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