From what I’ve seen and experienced so far at this company, layoffs were rarely conducted in a logical manner or in any pattern that made sense to me. Keeping that in mind, I find it hard to believe what some posters are claiming on other threads: that the layoffs that are rumored to happen in early November are going to be conducted proportionally throughout the business units, and that the units that missed out on their targets the most are in more danger. Are the layoffs really going to be conducted in this way this time, or will the personal opinion of the management on who deserves to stay be the key factor once again?
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@Hard Truth ....... Don't be absurd. It seems obvious you do not work for Cengage, or haven't for quite some time. Do not BEGIN to place blame for this entire fiasco Cengage has become at the feet of the ground-levels. Doing one's job within Cengage has meant pushing CU - which, by its very nature was going to deliver revenue shrinkage. So loyal reps followed orders and sold their way into significant revenue decreases, while smart reps did the bare minimum when it came to CU – risking their jobs in the process.
You are right when you say that DMs know nothing more than their reps do - their jobs are as much at risk as those they manage.
Remember, it is upside-down world within Cengage, where nothing at all makes any sense. Success with CU equals demise of the company so congrats! You must have just helped leadership achieve its ultimate goal - right?
Worst of all, it won't make a damn bit of difference how well or not you performed, your name is going into the layoff hat and all that's left to you is to pray to god your slip is not pulled on November 1 or whenever.
The ONLY good thing that might come out of this mess is that current employees clear their head of the Kook-Aid coma they've been operating under for the past several years and begin to see the reality for what it really is: Cengage Unlimited is NOT an unmitigated success story, it is the very thing that has lead to the free-fall in revenue. Mindtap is confusing and broken and few people enjoy using it. Cengage has NOT change the way people learn and it hasn't even come close to disrupting the industry. The ONLY people who believe any of that to be true are people who work within Cengage. Somehow it is only after one leaves the company that the fog begins to clear and they begin to understand the reality of the work that they did.
Is there light at the end of this tunnel? Yes - for those about to be let go. Being laid off is always a shock and never a welcome even in life, especially during the holidays. But in this case you are really and truly one of the lucky ones. Once the shock wears off and you go through the job search process, you are going to find yourself in a healthier and much more realistic situation - whatever situation that might be. Hard to imagine now, I understand - but mark these words and trust me, for I was once in your shoes, only a couple of years ago.
The unlucky ones? Those are the employees who remain with Cengage beyond this current layoff period, for their future is a predetermined mirror of the recent past: further losses, more employee cullings, less and less credibility on campus and possibly an ugly and confusing two-year merger period with the more-dominant McGraw Hill.
Mark this post, mark my words.
11DL8CER... your being replied to by others spreading misinformation that is hilariously obvious a lowest level salesperson with no true understanding of how this matriculates down. First and foremost a DM has zero say or authority to influence the decisions. They are as clueless as the salesperson.
Second, exec cuts at higher salaries might save some sales jobs... do the math.
Third, exec cuts show how bad it is, so why you scramble to wonder if you have a job, some of you should be wondering if you had done your job better would this be happening?
@11DL8cer-sb. All of the above. Less sales means less sales people, which also means those who support them. A portion of the Exec team was let go today, and sales management is going to lose one entire layer (they shoul lose at least one more, tbh). Sales force layoffs both inside and out. Obviously, less sales means decreased need for sales and tech support. Same is true of the warehouse, espcially as less product is being shipped. Marketing and product development will also be affected. Its survival mode within Cengage now - prep your resumes, cross your fingers and hope for the best. Oh, and happy holidays!
Any and all. Info please 11DL
@11DL8cer-sap Do you mean just the distribution center in KY or other departments at CLDC? Like customer support, tech support, inside sales, etc?
What about any distribution centers? Any word on layoffs there?
of course many decisions will be made to keep the desirables , if for example one of the cancerous DM's has a pet, they'll keep the pet and discard the stray. In Cengage terms this means anyone who has their own ideas and refused to slurp at the kook aid trough will be a stray, a non believer and cast out into the wilderness. In this fashion the cult will become even smaller with the members doing extra work for the same money and nothing will change, they'll just double down on their terrible ideas and kneel down before their exalted leader demanding more kool aid
Keep in mind when revenue is erased to the level it has been year after year, these companies are not required by any entity to provide severance. Don't count on it.
They can't cut based on performance because that opens the company up to litigation. If someone has gotten good reviews but is fired because they are a low performer, the employee would be able to sue the company. HR likely has some sort of criteria to make sure that each department has a mix of ages, genders, length of service, etc so no one can claim that the layoffs were based on any of those factors. This is standard operating procedure for layoffs of this size at any large company. When you hear about the people who were cut it won't make any sense because it basically will be randomized.