#culture

The company has consistently performed at a low 3-star rating over the past decade, and now your main focus will be retention!-) GTFOH

I just paid $4.29 for gas and dreading returning to office full time. Why isn’t Fidelity addressing this giant elephant in the room? This combined with everyday living expenses, how are people making it work?
If they want us back in full time, fine. But is now really the best time? They could let the dust settle, let prices come down, and then require full time back in office; we could continue our schedule we’ve been following for years now until then. It just seems completely tone deaf and I am sick of pretending this is fine and the new normal.

The Truth Behind the Cengage Reorg: What Employees Need to Understand Now
After the May 1st reorganization, many people inside Cengage are still trying to make sense of what’s happening — and why it feels so chaotic. The confusion isn’t accidental. It’s structural. And it’s tied directly to Cengage’s upcoming IPO and Apollo’s exit strategy.

Let’s break down what’s really going on.

1. The Reorg Isn’t About Innovation — It’s About Optics
   Externally, Cengage is presenting a clean, simplified business structure:

Higher Education
Work
School
English Language Learning

Internally, that means collapsing or gutting legacy divisions like Milady, NGL, and Gale.
The “pod” model — three reps, one Strategic Account Director, 8–12 institutions — isn’t a breakthrough. It’s a cost-cutting measure dressed up as strategy.

The goal is simple:
Make the company look streamlined and scalable to investors.

1. Apollo Needs Predictable Revenue Before the IPO
   Cengage’s private equity owners aren’t trying to build a long-term sales organization. They’re trying to stabilize revenue long enough to take the company public.

That’s why CUI contracts suddenly matter more than anything else.

CUI = predictable, multi-year, institution-wide digital access agreements.

These contracts:
lock in revenue
reduce churn
make the company look stable
help justify IPO valuation

Whether the sales team is overwhelmed or the customer experience suffers is secondary. The priority is recurring revenue, not growth.

1. The Pod Model Creates More Managers, Not More Support
   Each rep now answers to:

their discipline-specific manager
their Strategic Account Director
and indirectly, the institutional strategy team
This isn’t efficiency — it’s bureaucracy.

It’s also a way to justify higher-paid leadership roles while reducing the number of reps actually doing the work.

1. Customer Support Is Collapsing — And It’s Not a Mistake
   When divisions are gutted and expertise is lost, customers feel it immediately.

Support is slow.
Issues go unresolved.
Reps rely on Slack channels staffed by a handful of legacy employees.

This isn’t mismanagement — it’s a side effect of cost-cutting.

1. The Company Is Being Prepared for Sale, Not Success
   Look at the external financial reporting:

IPO planned for 2026
heavy cost reductions
restructuring into fewer business units
aggressive digital pivot
consolidation of product lines
pressure to show stable EBITDA

These are classic signs of a private equity exit.

Apollo wants out.
The IPO is the exit.
Everything happening internally is designed to support that outcome.

1. Employees Aren’t Crazy — The System Is
   If you feel:

confused
overwhelmed
unsupported
unsure where divisions went
unclear who owns what
buried under Salesforce tasks
pressured to travel constantly

…it’s because the system wasn’t designed for you. It was designed for investors.

1. What Employees Should Expect Next
   Based on external reporting and internal patterns:

More consolidation
More pressure on CUI
More travel
More Salesforce tracking
More leadership layers
More cost-cutting
More “innovation” that’s really restructuring
More confusion

And eventually:

A public offering
A leadership shakeup
A new round of “strategic realignment”

This is the cycle.

Final Thought
Cengage isn’t dying — but it is being reshaped for Wall Street, not for employees or customers. Once you understand that, the chaos makes sense.

The pod model, the travel requirements, the collapsing divisions, the lack of support — none of it is accidental. It’s all part of the IPO playbook.

And employees deserve to know the truth.

The Commercial Central Area did not show up in FY26. New Area and Operation Leaders are needed. The other areas have their act together based on all the accolades they received.

Been here 11 years and other than Covid this is the worst things have ever been. Moving too quickly before making corrections. Its causing burn out and patients are suffering. So many mid to upper level management positions and not enough feet on the ground. I personally know around 10 people looking to get out. Best preferred place to work my butt. They are ki-ling us! It has to stop. We have so much opportunity to do good here. I want to see things through but these uppers are forcing our hand. Every sector is a sh-t show. At least we have the AI roleplays set up though!

This place is a f'n joke! Surplusing employees while vendors (his vendor) are adding complete unnecessary teams (and they are boasting about having him in their pocket and the promises he has made to them). This vendor rep was boasting about it this week right in the center of 7th floor. Many of us heard it! Our CIO is pushing his agenda while long term good employees getting sc--wed. When does it stop? Mark my word- we will all be gone soon. I have over two decades with T and I have never seen anything like this mess. It is not strategic, it is self motivated by our "leader".

We used to get a gift card or something for completing the get active challenge are we not getting anything this year

I could not find MyComputerCareer in the Layoff website, but it should be. This company experienced regular layoffs, almost as if they were on a 2-3 year schedule. They have these values that are not upheld, love, ethics, excellence, customer first. They are a typical predatory institutiton that the DOE, DOL and DOJ should look into.

Final stage of recruitment process for another company

However I know how lean my team runs and how much me leaving will add the pressure to them all

I feel guilty even though logically I know I shouldn't and how stupid that is

I can't be the only one to deal with these emotions though, in even considering actually resigning

I like all the people I work with and my manager. Its the company direction and dysfunction that I don't believe in

They’ve hired another PayPal leader, and I’m honestly very happy about it. At this point, anyone would be an improvement over Tanya J. and Nancy C.

I just hope the new leader recognizes how much of the old leadership culture is still holding us back—and how slowly some teams in the digital space move.

I also hope they take a hard look at the ridiculous structure we have today, where it takes 5–6 stakeholders just to get a single button added to a digital page.

I’m really hoping this brings a meaningful cultural shift, with more accountability, faster decision-making, and a lot less bureaucracy.

Bullet point #3 on the survey states -

You can access the survey from any computer, but you must be logged into your EH account via your Domain ID.

Why does this organization think people are so stupid?

Pretty wild that we have to take a quiz on the company strategy. The same strategy that took 4 hours to even explain. Does he really think we are that stupid? 😆

I see a lot of talk on here from people from Clifton. I'm down in Palm Bay.. what's the ratio here?

Had an inside talk with a supervisor from CRU and things aren’t looking good they are feeding us lies on top of lies our leaders aren’t for us

If you are not outstanding or excellent then did you know you are not considered regretted attrition when you quit? They do not care about or invest in anyone who is not sponsored. If you are outstanding or excellent now and have no sponsor just know it will not last. Also what happens when your sponsor leaves? Look around and learn. There is no future here. It is not a meritocracy.

If your career is not owned by GP then you should NEVER accept a role where you will be ranked with GP. For example a project assignment. They will use you to fill the bottom of the rank group and protect their own. They do not value the contributions of anyone who is not from GP.

Mandate from management to ensure BTC expats in the US rank well as “these are the future leaders of the company” which means you will not be ranked well.

Nationwide layoffs at Cumulus Media have resulted in the departure of two long-serving radio personalities from KFRU in Mid-Missouri. David Gaines and Simon Rose were affected by these company-wide reductions. Rose had a career spanning 37 years at KFRU and 33 years at KBXR. His former co-host expressed disappointment, calling the cuts a loss for local radio. Cumulus Media recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

Columbia, Missouri

https://abc17news.com/news/2026/08/13/cumulus-media-layoffs-impact-longtime-mid-missouri-radio-hosts/

Citi makes it look like paradise. The team culture doesn't matter when the entire company is broken. I catch myself doing and saying things I never would have anywhere else, just to keep my head above water. If you aren't cutthroat, you get destroyed. Anyone with integrity sticks out like a sore thumb here.

Prepare to be shown the door. Turning 50 is like putting a target on your back here.

are employees seeing any improvements in the work environment with the new leadership?

After reading so many posts about toxicity, internal politics, work culture, terminating good employees and demotivation. I am curious as to what is the leadership mindset? Have the good leader beed fired too?

These Town Hall meetings should be shown to people with insomnia so they can get some sleep. Brutal.

Are people freaking out or has the excuse making and delusion started? I feel bad for the poor souls who are still there...

Folks between stock price falling, security officers being hired on, still lack of investment into our people and buildings. It's only matter of time. AI is around the corner, the clock is ticking. Every department is leveraging Copilot more and more, external contractors are hired to leverage AI. It was fun while it lasted.

Fear tactics, low morale, revolving door, broken trust... All of which BNY leadership has hit, and then some. We need a completely new leadership if things are ever going to improve.

The acquired company doesn't care about the employees or the customer, so why are you still there. The only Citrix thing about Citrix now is the name. It is nowhere near the great company it was while it was Mark Templeton was there. Ever since the acquisition, it has not only gone down in value, but also in the human culture it had.

Resign. Spend time with your friends and family. Travel. Be a good person to yourself. They will never treat you like anything other than the number. The layoff after the acquisition was the best thing that ever happened to me. Live long and happy, my friend. I don't always drink beer, but when I do, it is the flavor-of-like I drink.

The Howard Stern Show has reportedly implemented a dress code that prohibits female employees from wearing sneakers, while male staff face no such restriction. This policy has led to accusations of s-xism and has reportedly caused female employees to hide alternative footwear at work. Insiders claim the rule has persisted despite changing workplace norms and a general shift towards more casual attire. The show has also faced scrutiny for other strict rules, including a ban on staff speaking directly to Howard Stern at parties.

New York, New York

https://www.the-sun.com/entertainment/16831960/howard-stern-show-rule-women-staffers-sneakers/

I'm the only one on my team who isn't terrified of losing their job. Everyone else is a robot, keeping their head down, acting submissive, silent, and never pushing back. It's depressing to see.

What happened?

So nice to see that our intrepid CEO took time away from his busy travel schedule to appear on the field at Yankee stadium. Always love getting these updates on our jet-setting, pl----y, CEO who does no actual work aside from finalizing decisions on how to pay us all as little as possible.

When I first joined, there was a real sense that people cared about the work and about each other. That's mostly disappeared now. Years of changes have completely stripped away whatever it was that made the place special, and we're now at the point where loyalty and experience don't count for much. It's depressing watching a company lose the culture that made people want to stay.

Poor decisions, no talent, no accountability, pretty much every day is a disaster. Layoffs are just the end result.

I've seen people move to positions with more money and more prestige, and most regretted it because in the end, it cost them their families. Fiserv is not kind to anybody, and the higher you are (outside of the C-suite, of course) the more you're expected to do. I'd rather have my time than their paycheck.

Mehta couldn’t even be bothered to attend the Town Hall in Camden today. Left Nino swinging in the wind…

Companies will spend thousands replacing a great employee before spending one honest hour addressing a bad manager.

That is the part most leaders do not want to look at.

Toxic managers usually do not destroy a company overnight.

They do it slowly.

One resignation at a time.
One burned-out employee at a time.
One checked-out team at a time.

Gallup has found that managers account for at least 70% of the variance in employee engagement.

That should make every leadership team uncomfortable.

But bad managers still get protected because:

↳ They’ve been here forever.
↳ They hit their numbers.
↳ That’s just how they are.

Meanwhile, good employees quietly start taking recruiter calls.

Here’s what toxic managers cost the organization:

1. Employees stop taking initiative because fear replaces clarity.
2. Trust disappears because control gets mistaken for leadership.
3. Good people start doubting themselves.
4. Politics become safer than performance.
5. Burnout becomes normal.
6. Credit goes up and blame rolls down.
7. Your best people leave first because they have options.

The resignation letter usually will not say “toxic boss.”

But the empty desk will.

Apparently everything is going great blah blah blah. Not one mention of the stock imploding in July and $70B of IBM market value evaporating. My take away is that these "leaders" are professional liars and con-men/women.

The office is like old folks home it’s an aging firm where nobody has the drive to push for innovation because of long service. Everyone is slacked any new projects or ideas quickly get throw out the window. Network / Data firm but it’s very outdated .
Need new blood transfusion of workforce before too late.

Any progress rooting out employees with fake degrees, and moving them out.

Wow Bac invests 250 billion on various entities. Also partners with India finance company. Thanks for working your a-s off as the company looks elsewhere . Don’t forget to follow the new RTO rules.