Terrible place to work, marketing and communications trying to create a better image. - Senior Software Engineer Cengage Employee Review

1.0
Aug 20, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You will learn to work under stress all the time.

Cons

- Management is busy with propaganda to attract new investors or go public. No one cares about the business or the customers. - Don't get sucked in when the CEO says "we are transparent and we will listen to concerns". It's a bait. As soon as you raise issues, you will be fired. It's jsut a sham. - HR will tell you that weekly work hours are 37.5 and you will be required to fill in timesheet for 37.5 hours. In reality, you will work over 50 hours/week - Directors and VPs are highly incompetent. Most pretend they have a lot of work to do but don't do squat. - Lower pay compared to other companies - Managers get hefty bonuses while employees get nothing. - No stock and the stock is not publicly traded even if you get it In my 15 years, this is the worst company I have worked for. The marketing and communications team is trying to change the image of the company but inside it's still the same trash.

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Cengage Response
4y
Thank you for taking the time to write this review. While some of our work is seasonal and activity increases during back-to-school, work-life balance is a priority and we respect employee’s personal lives. We work hard to create a culture where employees feel valued, can bring their authentic selves to work, and feel comfortable being candid with their managers. I am truly saddened to hear that this hasn’t been your experience and am concerned that you are being asked to falsify your timesheet. We take these claims very seriously and I encourage you to reach out to me directly so that I can address this issue. Regarding compensation, our HR department closely analyzes the market to provide fair compensation and we strive to offer competitive, equitable programs that recognize and reward strong performance. Employee growth and development is a priority – we’ve expanded our programs over the past year and continue to invest in this area. We realize we aren’t perfect, and recognize that Cengage Group may not be the right fit for everyone, but authenticity is important to us; all stories and sentiments shared by employees and customers in our marketing materials come from them directly. Best, George Moore, CTO

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.

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