Acuity Inc. Reviews

I told myself I would never do this but here I am leaving a review because I feel like I need to leave this company and wanted to post this as a current employee and not a "former" employee. First, it's a decent company on paper but internally there is so much strife and confusion as to what exactly it is we are supposed to be doing. Management is confused by ever-changing market conditions so their reaction is to chase the market's trends instead of staying focused on strategic goals and creating new trends. I've been on too many start/stop/start projects in 2017 and 2018...It's truly disheartening. Secondly – “Lean” is eroding this company from the inside out. The use of "lean" is really meant for manufacturing and not for the office environment and that’s especially true for marketing, sales and engineering teams. Most of the designers and engineers I've had the pleasure of working with complain that they do very little design work and spend most of their time doing “lean” spreadsheets and other things not related to design. They tried to explain it to me and it confused me. They do not do much design and the company is now using overseas resources to do the design work leaving the engineers doing grunt work. Lean looks good on paper but to force people to do more with less is not what lean is about. Lean is supposed to enable people across the organization but at Acuity it is used to punish people. “We’re lean…” sounds good but none of the VPs are using lean in their day-to-day jobs yet force it down the throat of everyone else. They talk about it but do not use it. It’s just horrible. HR is a revolving door of college grads and up-and-comers who stay for a few months then leave. There is no career path for anyone in this flat org. You’re a VP or nothing and there is no in-between so when you hire in as a college grad you’re pretty much topped out and stuck with 2-3% annual raises. The company is also quickly replacing older employees with young employees to reduce healthcare costs to the bottom line – this is known within the ranks of the company and it’s a problem when most of your work forces has little to no experience and “lean” has taken their managers away. Lastly - the locations of the facilities are not great. The only facility in "Atlanta" is the corporate office on Peachtree Street. Every other location is much less desirable. Much less.

Acuity Brands is a total dichotomy between the haves and the have-nots. Its senior leadership is plagued by either the woefully under experienced, or the negligently under qualified. This deeply entrenched second-rate upper tier of management frequently and savagely ousts anyone who does not fit into one of the several deeply rooted cliques. The frequent layoffs and reorganization moves people in and out of roles so much that as a new person you have no insight into who knows who or what the "in" groups are. Quite possibly the worst offender is the head of HR, who is an absolutely ruthless HR leader. These internal dynamics keep people in fear for their jobs, and promote an environment of distrust and gossip. The company goes through waves of high-caliber recruits, frequently bringing on exceptional tallent, but rarely do they stay on, which is easy to see on LinkedIn. Instead you are left with either those that perpetuate, or those that are stuck because of either contractual obligations or the trap of the high salary. I saw more discrimination, more double standards, more personally motivated vendettas, and more destruction of the morale of countless exceptional professionals than I hope to see across all of the roles I take on for the rest of my career.