With an update on ‘how we are doing against our very severe scenario and cash in the bank target’. This should be interesting!
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Skipped two bonuses? Didn’t some inside folks got payouts this summer?
We skipped two bonuses. Writing’s on the wall.
Is there really talk of layoffs again??
The detailed description of a group layoff is accurate. The one thing left out is that this is the layoff process of most reasonably-sized companies: it is hardly unique to Cengage. Any company with access to legal advice takes similar steps to protect themselves from willful sabotage and/or lawsuits from people who are angry and hurt that they were laid off. It seems cold, but that’s business in America.
@3ury+170zcJO1 A layoff of this sort is immediate.
In an office setting in normal times, you would be called into an impromptu conference-room meeting. If you are field based or working from home because of Covid, you will receive an email indicating that you must join a meeting within 2-3 hours' time. You will be given an 800# and a time to call in. The email could come from your manager or it could come from HR.
The meeting could be a personal one with just your manager and an HR person on the line, or it could be a group situation where there is a larger-scale layoff afoot.
Either way, your termination is immediate, effective as soon as you dial into that number. Usually the management representative will deliver the bad news, and then they will get off the line and HR will take over to talk you through the next steps in the process. As this meeting is happening, IT is busy cutting you off from everything: access to all email and systems, cell phone (if you have one), etc. Once the meeting has ended, you will find that you are cut off from everything and everyone. It's pretty cold and abrupt, though the HR person is usually at least somewhat sympathetic.
If numbers are bad (or even just okay) and you feel concerned over your employment status with Cengage, probably best to take a number of steps now. Aside from all of the usual resume & linked-in type stuff, I mean. Any company emails, documents, photos, etc. that you think you might want or need, forward them to a personal email address and park them somewhere. You will have no access to any of this once the layoff happens. The same goes for coworkers you'd like to stay in touch with, personally or professionally. Gather and record their phone numbers and email addresses - personal-side info is better than Cengage info where possible.
One other very key thing I would do is to gather every single performance review you can and collect these as print-outs or park them electronically on a personal device. If you have not kept these, request them from your manager or from HR. The same goes for sales results & other performance history and documentation you feel you may need during the job search. Performance review documentation can be retrieved from HR after parting ways from the company, but they hire a third-party vendor now and it can be a process. Everything else, you will have no access to once you get the ax.
The reason all of these steps are important is simple. Once you leave the company, they will tell prospective employers almost nothing about your time with the company. Dates of employment, title & salary level when leaving, and that's it. Everything else is going to have to come from you, and the more documentation of achievement you have to offer folks in interviews, the better your chances of landing that next job will be.
Take it from someone who has been there, this is an awful process. All of the talk of transparency and a popular & supportive company culture vanishes the moment you hit send on that 800# call. This is part of the reason one encounters so many salty former Cengagers online, if we're being honest. Leaving Cengage IS ultimately a great thing for most people. Have faith in that and you'll be fine.
If you get laid off, do they give you a last day in the future or is the day they tell you generally your last day?
@3hkz+170zcJO1 Did classes start 2 weeks ago? Yes they did. Year is set and its ugly. Clean up that LinkedIn profile and start calling recruiters.
2020 is unlike other years.
@3dky+170zcJO1 Everyone knows what the year is going to look like by the end of August. How long have you worked in this industry?
‘Fall numbers in’? On the last day of Summer?
Fall adoption numbers are in and they are UGLY. Seems CU wasn't the cure all they thought it would be. Yikes.
Not even the soup guy was entertained
It must have been pretty bad then.
Find out in the next investor call
What was the message?
Pearson is down, as usual. McGraw posted an increase, the smaller pubcos are realizing double-digit increases right now according to my friends working for these concerns.
Wondering how Cengage is faring this fall. . . ?