Cengage reviews

2.8

30% would recommend to a friend

(2,407 total reviews)
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Michael Hansen

38% approve of CEO

23% positive business outlook

Cengage has an employee rating of 2.8 out of 5 stars, based on 2,407 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Cengage employee rating is 25% below average for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
2.0
Mar 13, 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits package is decent, some very talented folks around, interaction with Sr mgmt is ok (but watch your back)

Cons

Technology in use is generally way behind. CLTS mgmt is highly against any type of automation, segmentation of roles is extreme and generally does not favor technologists reaching across and lending a hand, too process oriented, and very political. Promotions generally favor those who brown nose, and not the folks that are able to generate results

3.0
Mar 12, 2013

Unstable, uncertain

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people here are great. Hard working, dedicated and trying to do the best job possible. The work/ life balance is favorable and I've generally found it easy to move around between positions. The people with whom I directly work feel strongly about the value of working on educational materials despite the challenges of our industry.

Cons

This industry and this company are undergoing major transitions. We have weathered several large departmental reorganizations with more to come. It's unsettling and demotivating. Despite the company's talk about focusing on digital, from a product development standpoint that's proving to be easier said than done when digital products take weeks and weeks to produce, so there's little speed to market. it's also hard to trust upper managers who either aren't transparent or don't know what they're going to do two months out so give no notice regarding strategic changes. Much comes across as though it's done on a whim with little planning or forethought.

1.0
Mar 12, 2013

Dysfunctional and Mismanaged

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Many of the people who work at Cengage are wonderful.

Cons

There is a glaring lack of communication between departments, which creates a pervasive culture of confusion. The company is constantly reorganizing, seemingly without any regard for the employees affected by the reorgs. Upper management is secretive and often maintains a tone of blatant disrespect for the entry-level employees. Mid-management is in shambles because of the reorgs and there is a constant struggle between the new managers (who are not discipline-aligned) and old manangers (who are discipline-aligned). Again, this creates confusion for the entry-level employees, some of whom have as many as 4 "managers" telling them different things do and different ways to handle things. There are frequent promotions for mid/upper level managers (who then do not receive proper training to manage employees), but there is literally zero room for entry-level employees to move up. I say "literally" because they have simply stopped replacing people leave the company. Perhaps the most infuriating aspect of the job is that management seems oblivious to the fact that a significant portion of their employees are recent college grads. Rather than use us a resource, we have to sit in meetings where managers refer to college students as "lazy" and "think they are always right," simply because students refuse to shell out $300 for a textbook that they can get second-hand for much less. This is a terrible place to work. The pay is pretty much impossible to live on (WELL below market) and because they aren't filling entry-level positions, most of us are filling what should be multiple jobs with no extra pay. The enviornment is toxic, the good employees are all jumping ship (wisely) and the company refuses to adapt new strategies that would actually lower the cost of textbooks.

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