Great company with an improving future - Technology Cengage Employee Review

4.0
17 Aug 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

New executive management team that finally understands what it means to be a digital company An open and honest level of communication with upper management. Good salary and benefits Good physical location in the suburbs Management values work/life balance, but not all employees get the "work" part

Cons

Middle management is weak - great functional expertise, non-existent management skills Still dead wood in some departments Work at home ='s "I'll answer email while I do personal business all day", leaving the team high and dry. Inconsistent work environment - some areas have open, self-managed collaborative teams; other areas have old school top down management: "I have a title, let me assign you work that has my finger prints all over it and write lengthy performance reviews. Now, go back to your cubes!"

Explore other reviews about Cengage

3.0
4 Jun 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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