Usually Hanson enjoys letting large numbers of people go and then having his henchmen FB, GM, etc... call late day 'Town Hall' meetings to explain some sort of business reason why a large number of people were let go.
This is the first time in the 17+ years I've been with CL that there has been an announcement that actual layoffs were coming, aside from the Web Hosting transition that lasted a few months a while back.
Why did the company choose to announce this time?
Unlimited caused the death of Cengage.....The Exec team last grasp at looking good for themselves ONLY!!
I think this is the first time all the publishers are seeing sharp drops in sales. Time to get out of the industry!
Has the town hall recording been posted somewhere, outside of the company's firewall? Would make for entertaining listening, if anyone manages an upload . . . :D
It seems most likely that the massive reduction was pre-announced as a signal to investors that "we are on top of things." Word on the coming quarterly results has leaked out enough that some kind of counter-announcement was going to be necessary to shore up investor confidence. This was that move, it seems. The next investor call/report comes in about two weeks. Executing layoffs this week and next allows them to say that they have adjusted their gameplan accordingly.
The recording of the Town Hall is video evidence and precedent for a “performance-based RIF” (in case anyone is concerned about gun-jumping.) The videos demonstrate an impression of thoughtfulness and compassion. A performance-based RIF is cheaper for the company than a “merger-based” RIF and there are less stringent legal criteria for selecting people to be let go. In a performance based RIF, people can be terminated. In a true reorg, positions have to be eliminated and cannot be backfilled.
Because the company is running out of cash. It is that dire.
I'm here to help, how can we mitigate the loss? The substantial loss, how may is serve?
Because Cengage Unlimited was an unmitigated disaster.