Badly Managed Mess with Little Hope for Recovery - Anonymous employee Cengage Employee Review

1.0
19 Sept 2013
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A paycheck. Insurance. An occasional feeling of being needed but constantly reminded that the future was bleak.

Cons

Constant changes in direction, inability to make the simplest of decisions, bad communication, terrible requirements documents written in unintelligible language. No documentation or training on systems as "management wasn't comfortable with that", Seemed to realize they were headed towards bankruptcy so willing to squeeze employees for everything they could get. A sweatshop with intelligence using Agile as a way to physically and mentally harm employees.

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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