Mandatory Overtime - Picker/Packer Cengage Employee Review

3.0
Apr 27, 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Overtime Pay Independent Work Hours Breaks, 30 minute lunch unpaid and two paid 10 minute breaks, and additional 10 if you have to work overtime. Shifts— night shift is 9pm to 5:30 am (my favorite) AM shift is 6am to 2:30pm and day shift (where I started) is 10am to 6:30pm.

Cons

Mandatory Overtime— you don’t get to choose when you work overtime, and sometimes they don’t tell you about overtime until 6 hours into your shift, so don’t make plans for days you work. You have to show up 20 minutes early, there’s a mandatory shift meeting 15 minutes before your start time, but you can’t clock in until 6 minutes before your shift and even if you clock in early you don’t get paid until your starting time. So there’s a 20 minute unpaid period. Benefits, there’s a 90 day probation period and they tell you that at the end of 90 days you’ll get $2 raise and health benefits, I know people who have worked here for a year and a half and never got any of that. I left before my 90 days to work as a CNA in a hospital so I can’t personally attest to that though. Also the day shift managers have a problem with people going to the bathroom. Night shift is the best.

Explore other reviews about Cengage

5.0
Mar 28, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Total rewards, time off, great people and culture

Cons

Lots of changes and uncertainty at times

3.0
Jun 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Company has some interesting approaches to the market and in the past they seemed value employees. There are some good employees there and there was, in the past, visionary leadership, but the people with the vision and leadership skills left the company a few years ago.

Cons

The company actively de-values employees. They had a project they called "Project Horizon" where they told all employees they needed to cut costs, so the company was going to have multiple layoffs over 3-5 years - but nobody was allowed to know when, where, or why - - just one day large swaths of people would be gone. That hung over everyone's heads - for years, and is indicative of how Cengage values employees - it doesn't. Everything is about trying to secure new funding and prepare for an IPO, so they stopped investing significantly in the products about 3 years ago and that's about when they stopped acting like they cared about employee wellness as well.

7
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All