Falling apart - Content Developer Cengage Employee Review

2.0
Jul 8, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

–Access to great content, though all the people that acquired that content and built relationships with the authors and organizations that provide and own it have been let go and replaced by cheaper alternatives. –Most of the people that are left are good, hardworking people, though there are fewer of us every day

Cons

It's become a bunch of private equity consultants in a publishing/edtech company trench coat. Leadership is either part of this or too cowardly to stand up to it. No direction, no understanding of what works or what learners need, just a bunch of penny pinchers who don't understand how to create anything and worship at the PE "line must go up 10+% every year" alter. What soul this company once had is good and dead.

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Cengage Response
10mo
Thank you for taking the time to share your perspective and for your more than eight years of service at Cengage Group. I do want to respectfully clarify that while Apollo is an investor, the strategic decisions we have made—including changes to our operating model—have been driven by our leadership team with the goal of ensuring long-term sustainability and growth. As a for-profit company, we have a responsibility to evolve in ways that allow us to better serve our customers, remain competitive, and manage costs responsibly. We recognize that these changes have been difficult and have impacted valued colleagues. We also understand the importance of institutional knowledge and the relationships our teams have built with authors and partners. While we do leverage global talent to support our business, we are committed to doing so in a thoughtful manner preserving expertise and continuity for our customers. Your feedback about leadership, communication, and direction is taken seriously. We are committed to learning from these experiences and continuing to improve how we support both our people and our mission. Thank you again for your candor and for the work you’ve done during your time with us. Best, Michael Hansen, CEO

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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