Great People Gone - Product Manager Cengage Employee Review

2.0
8 Jun 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

casual environment and flexible hours are perks

Cons

"It would be a mistake--a tragic mistake, indeed--to think that the way you ignite a transition from good to great is by wantonly swinging the axe on vast members of hardworking people. Endless restructuring and mindless hacking were never part of the good-to-great model." by Jim Collins, author of Good to Great

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.

9
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