Hallelujah!
15 replies (most recent on top)
The market no longer needs giant companies to provide higher ed content. Full stop. You can digitize the content, package it in a subscription, rent it, give it away....do whatever you want but it won't matter. The market can no longer support these companies. Private equity owners see it which is why they tried to merge Cengage and MGH. The long, slow march to oblivion is going to continue. It's no different than big department stores. The market has no use for Cengage, MGH or Pearson.
The problem with Cengage is the products stink. THAT'S the problem. MInd Tap is a joke. No one likes it. Literally no one. Sure. At one time the authors were great, but those days are long...long gone.
So Cengage is stuck in a horrible position.
- Expensive texbooks are dead.
- The MidTap Platform blows
- The Cengage brand means nothing. It's pretty much the butt of jokes.
- Students hate you.
- Professors use you
- Small, aggressive, solid competitors are eating away at market-share
If this were a game of chess, you would resign or wait until you're taken out and checkmated. Either way, the outcome is already assured.
@8nxc+186PG6Oh Layoffs happen at every company. But, for the most part, they are spaced out far, far further apart than they are at Cengage and typically reserved for hard times. I know those of you who are left at Cengage are trying to cling to some justification for why you choose to stay by saying "Well every other company has massive layoffs too!" But like everything else with Cengage, you are the the ones getting shafted. If a decently or well-run company has to have a layoff to cut costs, they usually do one big painful round and move on. By no means is it easy or simple, but there's at least a finality to it. At Cengage the mantra that has been beaten into employees brains is "We have to cut jobs because DISRUPTION! And if you don't like it then you're just a dinosaur that's part of the problem." This is the sign of a very sick and dysfunctional company. It's not normal and if you had an ounce of self-respect you would move on.
It’s not just Cengage: https://qz.com/work/1663731/mass-layoffs-a-history-of-cost-cuts-and-psychological-tolls/amp/
@8ifj+186PG6Oh These are the words of a broken Cengage employee. The reality is that employees at MOST companies do not exist week to week. It's not normal. Are there rough periods and layoffs? Of course. But I have never worked at any company - nor heard of any company - that has had over a DECADE of rolling layoffs like Cengage has.
The sad reality is that nowadays week to week is all you can expect no matter what company you work for. Constantly updating your skill sets for the next move is the best you can do. Oh, and whatever you do, do NOT age. Anyone over age 45 better have saved a lot, because it will take longer and longer to find a new job unless it’s contract work.
I would wager that someone old enough to remember Tickers isn’t a kid or new hire. Wasn’t that the old cafeteria when we were at Thomson Place?
Hey Ticker you might be what’s wrong with corporate America right now. You seem to give zero value to experience and even less to the knowledge these people have acquired. If someone is asking for a CD ROM in a book it’s someone’s job to tell them we’re not in 1998 anymore and to cut that sh– out. Don’t throw out the baby with the damn bath water. The nerve if these dumb millennials.
A lot of that talk about targeting senior employees in't completely true.
On the Content side there are still senior employees that refuse to budge from their print mindset. A lot of these old hags still insist on getting a print product complete with all revisions before turning over final pages for digital content. They simply don't understand that content revisions can be pushed and that the directive from the top is that we're a technology company, not a print company.
The majority of these long time employees still want to hand you paper corrections, can hardly send an email or use Zoom yet are the first to throw anyone under the bus.
The industry has changed drastically. It's changing now, and the "tenured" (LOL!) employees that haven't changes their way of thinking since 1998 and have somehow hung around need to go. We actually have one senior publisher who wants CD-ROMs in a book right now.
A company that targets senior employees for elimination cannot expect to recruit quality talent.
This company is just pathetic. Leadership has conditioned employees to live week to week wondering when the next cuts are coming.
The week isn't over yet...
There is no tenure at Cengage. Shows how out of touch those old fleabag editorial hanger-ons are.
When the goal of downsizing is to shed as many tenured employees as possible, you never know what week may be your last.
If you’re trying to hang on week to week ask yourself if you really want to be at Cengage.