Beware - Anonymous employee Cognella Employee Review

1.0
9 Apr 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The atmosphere is casual, they have a decent sick/vacation time policy.

Cons

I find it a bit odd that some of these overly positive reviews sound as if they were written by the CEO himself, or perhaps the marketing team. I would urge you, the reader, to be at least somewhat skeptical of the enthusiastic cheerleader reviews posted here, as they do not accurately depict the working environment at this company. Yes, employees have been encouraged and asked to write positive reviews to make the company look better on Glassdoor. The turnover at Cognella is appalling. People leave in cycles as soon as any opportunity presents itself to get out the door. There are several reasons for this: 1. The atmosphere is toxic. You will be sold a great company culture with ample room to grow, an entrepreneurial environment in which you are encouraged to expand your position and "everyone gets to wear the CEO hat". The reality will be that you will be working an average of 12 hour days, never getting the chance to do any of the great things you were promised because your workload will be so ridiculous it will simply be impossible to do anything else. 2. Lack of support. Yes, the CEO will declare that his door is always open until he's blue in the face, and some reviews here argue that he's a great listener and fosters creativity and innovation from his team. It does seem this way, at first. This euphoric mirage will quickly disappear as your ideas are stifled, you are told none of your initiatives are a priority, or better yet, you are told to tackle huge company-wide initiatives singlehandedly without any support or resources and then berated for not working hard enough and not being able to execute as quickly as they would like. 3. Poor Management. Although I had high hopes that Cognella was making a turn for the better when they brought on a slew of new upper-level managers, my hopes were quickly dissipated as I realized these new managers were going to be just as overworked, unappreciated, and have the life sucked out of them like I was. Let's be honest, there is no management. In order to be able to manage successfully, one must have the time to review, evaluate, and manage, and most importantly must be empowered to do so by their management team. This just isn't going to happen. 4. All negative aspects of the job are blamed on the seasonal nature of the work - LIES. Yes, the seasonal ups and downs can certainly make things more challenging at times, but in no way is this the scapegoat for all negative associations with the work. Not to mention, you will be told the seasonal busy periods are only "a few weeks", sure, if by a few weeks you mean three to four months of non-stop, crushing anxiety, and pressure, after which you will just be playing catch-up with all of the low-priority tasks you had to forgo, and be constantly asked why you are so far behind on your tasks. Accept a position here at your own risk, but I've seen people work here for 1 week and quit. In retrospect, I honestly wish I had done the same, but I believed all of the great things they were telling me and drank the metaphorical cool-aid, only to have wasted years of my professional life.

avatar
Cognella Response
12y
To be clear on my perspective, we are by no means perfect. We make mistakes, we try to learn from them, and we make improvements. But, I have not pressured anyone to post a positive review on Glassdoor. As a company, we have not created false reviews. We had one department (out of eight) over the past year that had seen its challenges, where a few immature employees fostered a negative environment. Although it took a bit too long, they were ultimately let go or driven out. All a post like this does is continue to reinforce the negative reputation they have already built for themselves among their co-workers. It’s a small world, and they are too inexperienced to appreciate how their behavior will come back full circle at some point. University Readers cares deeply about our team. We have excellent work/life balance. Although we certainly have busy seasons, very few people on our team routinely work more than 40 hour work weeks. Go on Linkedin, find current employees, and ask them. We have flexible schedules and encourage a variety of activities throughout the day: tennis, volleyball, yoga, and bootcamp. To any potential applicants: rather than be persuaded or dissuaded by an anonymous review, I encourage you to reach out to our current employees (find them on Linkedin – there are almost 70 of them) to ask their opinion on our business model, culture, and management team. Ask them what they think. I’m also happy to answer any questions specifically about any of the reviews posted here. Very best, Bassim Hamadeh CEO, University Readers bassim@universityreaders.com

Explore other reviews about Cognella

5.0
13 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Understanding of work-life balance and being flexible with hours. More interested in the quality of work than the quantity of work. When issues arrise the entire team pitches in to help one another.

Cons

The time difference (the company operates on PST working hours) can cause some communication slowdown. They are a smaller company, so there aren't many open positions.

2.0
17 Oct 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some good managers who mean we’ll, great coworkers, flexible work

Cons

They made me sign a pay secrecy clause and were not transparent about salaries. Things like “unlimited time off” are not perks, it’s just a way not to have to pay out for vacation. Also “unlimited bonus pay” is also not an incentive. All products and services are limited to the audiences they apply to, so don’t use this as an excuse to underpay people.

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