Thread regarding Cengage layoffs

After Quiet Quitting for a few months If you are planning to QUIT do it when it Hurts them the most. JANUARY!! This is when you are irreplaceable and have the most equity. They will try and figure out why you are leaving and try to see if they can keep you. Anything you negotiate , be sure to get it in writing. Higher salary, work schedule, office days , travel days, what months you are required to be on campus, when can you work virtually ETC ETC ETC.... You ill be surprised how much they will bend to your demands if it occurs in the month of January and even February.

Better yet, land a new job and don't give them any notice, just give them the middle finger.

@4wk 95% of the company is quiet quitting. I dont Know a single person in my area that isn’t looking for a new job.

Once goals come out- it will be a 5 alarm fire to get a new job and get out. K12 goals doubled in some parts of their goals. “Aggressive” is the term being used for Highered goals. And some of these reps will also carry ELT and Gale goals in addition to the textbook adoption goal (how is that fair for the other reps who won’t have those goals added but yet all get paid the same measly 45k “bonus”. Buckle up.

@4dg Wasted Space? Since we all know you are management tell us ,,,,
1, How many Reps are there in the company ?

• Highered. has a total of 150 Reps (covering all disciplines, including GALE, ELT, Trades, Nursing,)
• K12 has No leaders left , they resigned or were fired. How many reps cover K12 nationally? is it 40 or 50?

There are plenty of exits happening each week, but management is slow to repost the jobs. They took our cars, made the territories large, we are all trying to figure out how not to be on the road and in hotels multiple days a week. Raises/Pay was cut.

Call it what you want, but its happening to the masses.... and you can't stop it.
MASS EXIT (Equals) = Milk It, Quiet Quitting, Work Place Withdrawal, Disengagement, Professional Burnout, Resignation, waiting to be fired.

After Vegas the IPO will be the main focus.

We know how you love the so called anonymous survey. I'm sure KT in HR would support a survey, but MH knows that it will make him look bad, so No surveys anytime soon. KT keep up the pressure maybe he will resign, so you don't have to continue babysitting him for Apollo.

@4dg one minute it’s a mass exit, now it’s MILK IT. What a waste of space. How’s that mass exit going?

DO NOT RESIGN!!! MILK IT.... MAKE THEM FIRE YOU! You may get a severance.

@2re entire company will fold in 2 months. The whole place will collapse and the ed tech industry will crumble. All our colleagues will be out of work - good wishful thinking mo--n.

Holy Cow! I was told yesterday that a Slack Post was sent out and leadership let go of one of the most successful reps Cengage has ever employed, Now Florida has 3 open Rep positions. Doesn't seem like MH, NK, and SW new vision is working out so well. I suppose you need to consider that leadership is solely focused on Apollo's main initiative which is the IPO. Leadership at this point just wants to cash out their Shares of Stock, none of them even care about having a job in 6 moths if they make big money on their stock.
Cengage value at this point is around $7. McGraw was $18 but today trades at $9.
Which of our colleagues will be next? .

.

@1xb

Not quite all of us...

@26y and yet still find time to post false comments about your prior employer during working hours. You must be ki-ling it at your new job with so much time to spend here doing meaningless work. I’m sure they are proud to have you.

@258 True. I went through the same thing but was cut off before my could gather those important artifacts.

That said, Barbwire is a malicious hag, so watch it.

So much happier and have way more money in my pocket once I stopped believing the gaslighting of leadership and found a great gig.

"HR turns off access to your computer within 1 hour. So be prepared!"

As someone who went through this process, I can verify that this is quite true. I knew this to be the case prior to my leaving, so I took pains to capture and preserve the following information prior to my departure:

• All performance reviews. These are vital, you are seeking to collect evidence of approval from higher-ups.

• Sales results. I've been gone a long time, so I don't know what the Cengage sales reporting looks like these days. If there is evidence that you achieved a sales goal or increase, capture that via screenshots or downloads. Some future employers will appreciate this evidence-based verification that you are a solid hire (see below).

• Positive emails. If you have received appreciative or "attaboy" emails from your boss, your coworkers or customers, print these out or capture these digitally. Further evidence that you were appreciated enough that some took the time to tell you so.

• Any/all contact info you think you'll need. This might include cherished coworkers, etc. Gather those cell numbers, connect now via LinkedIn or the like. Once you're separated, you're separated - so begin constructing those bridges now. This also might include fellow employees that might be willing to provide a glowing recommendation for you during a potential job search.

Like most every corporation, Cengage is legally very cautious. When queried, HR will only offer your dates of employment, salary and position level information, and that's about it. It will be up to you to paint a positive, hopefully accurate picture of your time with the organization. You will want to easily document what value you brought to Cengage, because the company will not do this for you.

Last thought: I would be doing this now, even if you don't have immediate plans to depart. Should you be laid off, your access to company systems will be cut off during your phone call with HR, so prepare yourself now while you have the chance.

Good luck.

@22n several posts on LinkedIn about leaving. Several more coming. Burn your vacation before you go as they do not pay it out anymore. Good luck!

Lets get this thread back on Topic. don't let the MGT Trolls take your focus. I know its not July, when some of our colleagues are planning to exit. Anybody heard of any exits this week? I know 4 more who are planning to exit after the July 4th holiday weekend.

FYI: I was told if you give your two week notice and are leaving for a competitor, HR turns off access to your computer within 1 hour. So be prepared!

MGT Likes to be in control and eliminate positions, but hates when employees exit on their own and say bye bye.

@1yf “More fake news. One shouldn't speak about things that one knows nothing about. Worse, one shouldn't make things up.”

What are you talking about. You’re writing fake news. Everything in the post about Gale is true, not one shred of a lie.

@1xb More fake news. One shouldn't speak about things that one knows nothing about. Worse, one shouldn't make things up. May g-d have mercy on your soul.

@12v yes at least 150 Gale people have been laid off in the last 2 1/2 years. Gale has always paid pretty well, but there's no such thing as a 'Gale rep' any more, they've all been absorbed into Cengage sales teams and are selling across brands. And the whole sales team has been set up for failure, with everyone selling stuff they know nothing about - while Gale products have zero investment in the platform, the content budget has been slashed and everyone who knows how it all works has been laid off.

@1j3 and here you sit. Complaining vs. getting a better income from somewhere else. Maybe you’re the id--t? I’m happy with my 20%.

@1fj no. They added 20k+ to our salary to offset our commission and now are telling us that’s our raise. You’re a textbook
Id--t that don’t realize how much others pay clearly.

@1dg it’s a range starting a 0 for the lowest performer, we can see clearly now where you fall, if you even work at the company.

@1cf
“what did the merit increase look like?”

A lot like 0%.

@qq “The first publishing company to live in reality and invest … wins”
FALSE. No one wins in Higher Ed. TERRIBLE industry. Like the Strategic Management text says: key part of (your career) strategy is WHERE to play. It’s not higher ed.

@15e Better yet get out of higher ed and Publishing industry. It is a terrible industry.

@14h - what did the merit increase look like?

@180 it’s hard to imagine how much better it is since you spend so much time trolling. Someone may think you are desperate to get back to Cengage…

"I feel sad for you knowing that you enjoy reveling in the pain others are feeling."

No no, I imagine that all formers feel your pain as I do. The "revelry" (there are better words, but this one suffices) we feel has everything to do with the Cengage decline and nothing to do with those being impacted and hurt in the process. Don't forget, we were once in your shoes. It's an awful place to be. But here's the silver lining: I suspect that you will discover what we did once our association with that rotten company ended: life truly is better, the grass is definitely greener, on the other side of the fence.

@14n “yes dear. I’m a former”
And here we see how ill informed and nasty the people and the information on this site is when admitted former employees are sitting here spewing garbage,’holding on to some glimmer of what life use to be like or worse, salvaging in the pain current employees are feeling. I feel sad for you knowing that you enjoy reveling in the pain others are feeling. May g-d bless you my child because I don’t.

@13w

“ wasn’t gale recently gutted though?”

Yes but the point is you can go to other publishers (not textbook) and make a 6 figure salary and 70-100k commission. The Gale people kept their salaries and then some from my understanding.

Bottom line get out of Cengage. The “nextgen” platform new features they are touting- the other two companies have had those features for years.

" they wonder why they are here instead of being employed."

And here we see the effect of working for a private equity shell of a company does to a presumably once-motivated individual. Cynical, bitter and nasty.

Yes dear, I am a former. Still quite gainfully employed in the ed pub industry and making roughly $90k more annually than I ever did with Cengage. I got out while the getting-out was good, in the earliest days of the Hansen area. I visit this site because train wrecks are fascinating to behold. When you are not a train passenger, that is;)

Well, the merit increases were shared today. Pretty demotivating and not a good look for a company where morale is already in the basement.

@12v wasn’t gale recently gutted though?

It would be great if content got bonuses or even cost of living raises.

@10q

Yes other publishing companies not ponzi scheme textbook companies. The library publishing space pays this way, i.e. Gale. Gale reps/employees make so much more than the cengage side it’s embarrassing. Salary and commission wise.

@12c Nice try. Speaking truth to viewers about a rogue company is a moral duty to potential employees.

I am enjoying my coffee before starting my day without getting tangled in Barbwire and other id--ts.

@10q “ average goal-making results”, pretty much sums up the people trolling here. And they wonder why they are here instead of being employed.

@105 LOL all you want, he's right. Some of these real publishing companies pay quite handsomely. I know several regular reps who made bonuses in the 100k range last year, and those were for solid but average goal-making results. Life in this space is quite wonderful if you are with one if the good companies.

@zc LOLz

“Life is good in ed publishing, depending on where you sit.”

"said like an ex-Cengage, now current, McGraw employee who is drinking the new publishing company Kool-Aid"

Wrong. Again. Keep trying.

Life is good in ed publishing, depending on where you sit.

And the Legitimate edTech companies are not hamstrung by Apollo, Barbwire, and the no-nothings in leadership.

@t9 said like an ex-Cengage, now current, McGraw employee who is drinking the new publishing company Kool-Aid and soon to be a former McGraw employee spending their day on this site and not working there either. High quality if I do say so myself.

@t9 MGH Pearson and Cengage have 80%+ of the market share. So yes, they are beholden to the big 3 and have to pick which one’s platform and service is less cr-ppy.

"These professors are beholden to essentially the big 3 and it’s a matter of picking who’s sh-t stinks the least, all are cr-ppy products/companies."

Quite untrue, actually. McGraw continues to thrive by producing consistently strong content and delivering it on a platform that is pretty functional and easy to use. And then there are the smaller pubcos who have been stealing Pearson and Cengage lunch money for years now. Educational publishing continues to thrive, just not at Cengage.