Thread regarding Cengage layoffs

@7ayz+17c49aM4 You are correct about Thomson. No conglomerate was better at dumping companies at the absolute peak of their value. Not at all defending APAX, but they were not the only ones willing to pay an insanely inflated price for what became Cengage. There was a bidding war which included other notable "smartest guys in the room" private equity firms which jacked the price up to the unimaginable $7 billion figure. Just to put that price into perspective, in the same year Thomson Learning was sold, private equity firm Cerberus purchased Chrysler, one of the largest automotive manufacturers in the world, for $7.4 billion.

But you also have to remember that 2007 was right before the crash and credit was dirt cheap. Private equity firms were on a spending spree and there weren't enough companies on the market for them to buy up with other people's money. So when a giant textbook publisher went on the market they couldn't resist. Thomson Learning was exactly the type of company the consultants who run PE firms think they can modernize and make more profitable. From the outside it looked like a profitable company that could be even more profitable if they cut the fat to the bone. If you were around back then you'll remember the strip down didn't take long. The consultants descended on the different office locations and started slashing departments creating combined "Centers of Excellence" which took on the workload of 4-5 teams. I remember an executive VP who came on at the time to run Editorial Operations and oversee the teardown. He preached the gospel of Thomas Friedman and would lecture us for not being properly enlightened about our jobs going to India.

It looked like an easy strip and flip and a smooth path to spinning off Cengage as an IPO. We all hoped and prayed that this would happen sooner than later so the consultants could get their IPO bonuses and be on their merry way. But the smartest guys in the room knew nothing about the used or rental book market and they certainly didn't see the market crash right around the corner.

In the end it didn't matter to them at all....all the money they borrowed was dumped on Cengage's balance sheet and the company was pushed into bankruptcy once it went south. The vultures at APAX even went on an insider buying spree buying up all of Cengage's secured credit for pennies on the dollar knowing full well the company was headed to bankruptcy court. They got to eat twice for free and are still eating out on our dime. Will it ever end?

@5opj+17c49aM4. You are correct. Thomson was a great company. They also know when to get the heck out of businesses. They did it with newspapers and they did it with educational publishing.

The fact that the convinced APAX and all their "smartest guys in the room" to pay $7bb for what essentially was a dinosaur still amazes me.

Students...at least those paying for their own books, have always hated textbook publishers.

Educational publishing has always been an echo chamber where people inside tell each other how great, noble and valuable they are because they tangentially deal in "learning," while at the same time screwing college kids over and raising prices with impunity.

The only "institutions" hated more by the general public are, Congress, insurance agents and lawyers.

And honestly, I quite like both my insurance agent and attorney. .Because I get value out of what I pay for.

At this point I'm looking forward to gainful employ with a Hungarian organic soup Oligarch vs. this complete exercise in nonsense and stupidity with MH and company...

Ditto to 6zhq+17c49aM4. Our little corner Of the business has descended to regurgitating and repurposing and publishing books that nobody wants to read. With zero marketing dollars, we can’t even send catalogs to customers that spend 100k a year with us. The ‘globalization’ (MH loves to use that word) of the credit department further alienated decades-loyal customers. But if you don’t make goal, it’s because you as a rep didn’t pull out all the stops and make it happen

6gih+17c49aM4 I couldn’t agree more and that was my experience as well, except that is not the mission of the executive team. And, remember they’re the ones making the horrible decisions that have taken this company from respected publisher (when it was Thomson) to the all you can eat buffet that it is today. Also, consider what this has done to our once loyal and respected authors. No regard for that relationship at all.

I know that people here are saying ‘wait til you leave and work elsewhere and you’ll realize how bad Cengage was.’ Well my experience has been the opposite. I came from working in other industries. filled with paper-shuffling suburban moms and dads for whom work was just a way of putting food on the table. Whose interests were far different than mine. Cengage, in comparison, was filled with interesting, accomplished people who cared about their work: who produced products they were invested in. To me that has always been the attraction. Could care less about Kook-aid. It was never necessary.

If you were a Cengage lifer, its not until you go to another competently run organization that your eyes are opened to not only how poorly run Cengage is, but how dishonest leadership is. And that dishonesty starts with Hansen. All the "mission based" garbage is laughable when you realize that the people at the top are all part of a private equity conglomerate whose mission is to turn $1 into $1.10. People like Michael and Kermit are consultants at heart and don't come up with new ideas. They only come up with ways to shuffle the cards and make things look more profitable than they are. I'll always maintain that leadership knew that Unlimited was not a long term profitable solution and was merely intended to grab headlines and boost the short term value of the company so private equity could finally spin Cengage off. And that's where the cynicism comes in. The company talks the talk but doesn't walk the walk. We're told we're getting puny merit raises because of the "disruption" and then you read about Cengage repurchasing $100 million in shares to enrich the private equity investors. Our pockets were literally picked so people like Kermit Cook could increase their net worth. And that is disgusting.

Your post is exactly correct, @5opj+17c49aM4. The only thing I would add is that, if you still associate with Cengage people, you are aghast, bemused, and also sort of appalled at just how much Kool-aid people can handle... even after the company has treated their beloved friends and former colleagues like worse than disposable. I think that’s why so many formers still visit this site—it’s beyond disgruntlement. It’s a sense of betrayal, by both your former friends and the company itself. You feel completely betrayed by a company and a set of people who once claimed to care, REALLY CARE... but in reality just don’t care very much at all. I think it’s fascinating to a lot of former Cengage people that current employees still defend a sick, mismanaged company that would have no problem booting them out as well, as soon as the numbers made sense to do so.

And through it all, you still wonder, “How did I do that for so long, and for so little money??!” “Did I also once sound obsessed with my job like these people do?” “Did I really believe that a business, whose end purpose by definition is at all times to make a profit and grow, was in it for the student...a customer who actually hated our existence and distrusted every move we made (and with good reason)?” That last was what got me... when I found out students hated us with a passion, if they even knew our name at all, I felt like the veil had been lifted and the whole mission-based company message was a sham. Once you stop believing that you’re changing students’ lives—you’re not; you are selling overpriced textbooks that many of the best instructors just don’t use—once you acknowledge that, you take your first steps away from the cult.

Good luck.

"Stop trying to bring us down. We’re all people just trying to do and (gasp!) enjoy our jobs."

Noted and agreed. However . . .

The first piece of advice that springs to mind is "if you are trying to enjoy your job, it's probably a great idea to avoid visiting layoff and review sites filled with disgruntled current & former employees." Just an idea.

That said, do note that many of us formers once felt as you did. Thomson and Cengage was a great place to work for a very long time. Even for a short while after Hansen stepped in.

However, people sharing negative thoughts and experiences here were once you. We were just trying to excel in our jobs and enjoy them at the same time. But when a company is sick, mismanaged and strapped for cash, all of that means squat and suddenly you find yourself sitting on the opposite side of the fence. All of that talk of transparency and changing the world and doing right by students gets tossed out one window while you are being tossed out of another . . .

And then real perspective begins to set in. You begin to realize just what the term "Kool-aid drinker" means and you begin to realize that you, too, imbibed. You feel like a fool. You begin to realize that this is exactly the feeling people must have when they finally extract themselves from a cult. "How could I have been so stupid? Why did I believe all of that b.s. for all of that time? And why on earth did I work so much for so little?"

By all means, enjoy the work while you have it. To do anything else is a waste of precious time. But also realize that, out here in the rest of the industry - and across great swaths of the higher education community - Cengage is viewed with an enormous amount of cynicism. Hansen and his Unlimited scheme and the contemptuous HR practices and all the rest - it all represents the bottom of the barrel when it comes to educational publishing, and that is a shame.

This was once a great company.

The reality is that while pay will be restored on October 22 has anything really changed to substantiate the pay being taken away in the first place? COVID still exists and higher ed is still uncertain for at minimum another year. I think it would be naïve to think changes are not going to happen in the months to come. There are a few territories that should fold- the managers are terrible and have massive turn over with reps because of the micro managing. When seasoned, successful reps jump board or in some cases get fired over something that everyone does on the regular, its time for a change with that manager!

Around this time last year, we were all aware that big changes were coming. Everyone was running scared for weeks. Anxiety was high. The whole office was tense. It felt like literally any little misstep would put you on the chopping block. It was a nightmare. However, when the layoffs actually happened, no one was truly surprised. Management had already made their strategy clear as early as summer; it was just a matter of timing.

If management hasn’t communicated large scale layoffs are on the horizon by now, we’re probably in the clear for at least the next couple of months.

@3xuc+17c49aM4 I think you are absolutely correct. Pearson has huge layoffs coming. Why would it be any different for CL?

Their original plan is most likely make good on what they said prior about restoring pay in October and then let people go shortly after. It’s simple math to make numbers look better. This company was the Titanic (failed merger) before the pandemic so what makes anyone think it’s getting any better? They should just make everyone permanently virtual and save money on office space instead of letting people go. Open small offices later in need be.

@1ifo+17c49aM4 They have been firing senior people over "technicalities" for years now. Since Hansen stepped in. One rep was fired for using the company car on personal errands. That kind of thing. Stupid stuff. All to save a mere $15 or $20k. Then they hire in more-recent college grads, pay them nothing, and milk them until they drop. They did it to me, they did it to my former coworkers, they did it to our former manager. My former position turned over three times in four or five years after I left. Reps are not around long enough to forge relationships with faculty or to really even know what is going on in their schools. There was a giant introductory adoption open in my geography a couple of years back. Cengage wasn't in the mix to even compete for this 4000 annual unit adoption, despite having strong books for the course. They were between reps and no one at Cengage was even aware that the thing was open until about a week before the decision was made. They protested to the Chair that it was not fair that they were not being allowed to compete, but by then it was too late. This company has been reduced to a relative blip on the competitive landscape these days, I just don't get it.

Really, people. Someone just outted themselves as a non-Cengage employee who is just trying to stir the pot (no soup, please).

Stop trying to bring us down. We’re all people just trying to do and (gasp!) enjoy our jobs.

Everyone at Cengage knows when full pay is being restored. Is that really something you’d ignore? Please.

Pay is being restored as promised in your Oct 22 paycheck. Pay attention to announcements.

Pay is being restored this month. Read ya emails

Things are going great as long as you consider a permanent 20% pay cut "great."

I heard things are going fine.

Let's not kid ourselves. This is the Titanic and MH and crew are kicking old women and kids off lifeboats so that they can survive.

If mgt is firing reps to save $15K a year in salary, the lights are going off soon.

Sounds like veteran reps are being targeted to fire to save $$? A veteran rep in KY or OH fired on a technicality.

I heard a solid rumor that MH’s old college roommate at all an organic Hungarian soup n stew kitchen was looking to purchase cengage whereby we’ll all be reallocated on the process line stirring and canning different flavors of organic soup. If true this would be huge.