Profits will always be more important than how employees feel. Mental health is just the latest corporate buzzword. You think Cengage is going to spare someone because it may upset them?
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This definitely sounds like one of the top workplaces in the world!
"Since the beginning of the Covid pandemic, Cengage has spoken a great deal about employee health, both physical and mental, and offered support via counseling services, time off. However, the executive team last summer announced a period of 12-18 months of refocus and reorganization that would involve difficult layoffs. Since then, the majority of employees have been living with worry, uncertainty and anguish. Layoffs are hitting good employees hard, with another 6-10 months to come of uncertainty and fear as more employees are let go despite the company's financial situation being healthy. We used to be an education company, then an edtech company, and now we do not know what we are. Concerns for quality in our products seem to have taken a backseat to the drive to cut costs and in all likelihood, get the company looking good for a sale in the future.
The mental health of employees has been treated so cavalierly with these warnings of significant impending cuts over a long stretch of time. Morale is at an all-time low and the joy of the work we do is decimated. We no longer even know what our jobs are.
The executive team will oversee a sale, get their bonuses and walk away to new roles elsewhere. Those of us living on far lower salaries and no bonuses will have to put our pride of working for an education company aside and search for work elsewhere.
But we are told it's all in the name of progress, of moving ahead."
Pros of working at Cengage: Everything! It's so amazing here!
Cons of working at Cengage: It's just so hard revolutionizing the way students learn!
Go f*** yourself.
Offshoring critical work to 3rd world countries is not "setting the company up for sustained success." It is strip mining the company to boost profits in the short run.
@3iak+1qLztgEy That's from the Chief Communication Officer with a visible face and name. She isn't afraid to share her "valuable feedback".
Was that some faceless HR employee who gave that answer?
In reply to Post ID: @gwa+1qLztgEy: that is some soulless sh!t.
You guys still have Slack? I thought they were getting rid of that and Zoom because it’s too much money. !!
It is insulting to tell employees that a workplace where you live in constant fear of losing your job is also one of the best places in the world to work. Just f'ing say "we hired someone to game the algorithm to boost the value of the company for our private equity overlords. We don't really care about any of you."
That response is some ate up sh-t right there. Wow…..just wow.
Comment on #all-company Slack channel:
Employee A: "Not sure where else to register this feedback...waking up to the Glassdoor award desktop background during a week where many colleagues lost their jobs felt pretty jarring. I'm thinking particularly about the feelings of those colleagues beginning their final weeks of employment getting that background."
Cengage: "Hi Employee A – thank you for your feedback. I completely understand your sentiment and have considered this quite a bit myself. I have two points that I would like to share in response: first, it is possible for two things to be true – we can be recognized as a Best Place to Work and also make business decisions that we believe are setting us up for sustainable success but that people may not like or may be negatively impacted by. As Michael said in his post above announcing our Best Place to Work recognition -- As businesses cycle up and down and market dynamics change, our culture – rooted in our credo and ethos—is what sets us apart. Second, and much more pragmatic, we used the screen saver to be a fun way to share the news of the Best Place to Work recognition – you can change your screen background to be whatever you want. Thanks again for the feedback."
THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK.
"This companies heartless responses to destroying lives are so obnoxious. The C-suite is full of money hungry boot lickers. Any passion or care they display for the employees are false. They only care about the amount of money they can buy in their pockets."
You just now figured this out?
Glassdoor is the most unreliable sites for employee reviews. I've seen negative reviews suddenly disappear followed by a barrage of positive ones.
This companies heartless responses to destroying lives are so obnoxious. The C-suite is full of money hungry boot lickers. Any passion or care they display for the employees are false. They only care about the amount of money they can buy in their pockets.
It is astounding that a company as broken and shrinking as Cengage is able to make Glassdoor's "Top 100 Places to Work" list, isn't it?
Actually, it is not so astounding once you see how leadership games the system on that site. If you would like to see how such corporate fictions are created:
- Visit the Cengage Reviews page on Glassdoor
- Sort the ratings by "most recent"
- Start scrolling and reading the posted reviews
Soon you will note a predictable pattern happening here. Yes, there are one and two star reviews from actual employees. These write-ups will usually feature a "Pro" or two, along with some definite "Cons", which usually include comments on disconnected management, lack of stability, frequent reorgs, etc.
In the days following the appearance of one of these poor reviews, you will see two, three or four five star reviews. These are almost always posted by someone identifying themselves as being part of HR or mid-management [Manager, Director, etc.], but many are anon. These five star reviews are always brief, and under "Cons" they will usually say "None I can think of" or at most, "Competitive industry".
This is how a failing company like Cengage maintains a good face to the public, by flooding rating sites with positive reviews to counter-balance the less-positive ones. There are happy employees at Cengage to be sure, but follow the above steps and see for yourself - the technique is glaringly obvious.
Now, if you have a bit of time on your hands and are so inclined, leave your own review on the Cengage listing. Perfectly fine to be honest, if your experience was worth three stars or more, definitely rate things accurately. It's a bit fun to think of how busy you will be keeping these management types with the burden of having to post fake reviews to balance your real one.
Shows if you have enough money, you can buy anything. Who truthfully answers those "anonymous" surveys? Anyone else afraid of retaliation?