Every read the lyrics to Taylor Swift's "Mean"? - Anonymous employee Cengage Employee Review

2.0
21 Sept 2016
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people at the lower levels are fantastic. Smart, friendly, great people to work with. The work life balance is good too.

Cons

Literally, every time I got off the phone with my boss I would find myself humming the words to Taylor Swift's song "Mean". Every call put me on the defensive, and really made me unmotivated to do good work. And I talked to at least 6 others who felt exactly the same and came to me for advise!

Explore other reviews about Cengage

3.0
4 June 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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