assembler

attendant

local driver

maintenance technician

forklift operator

Acuity Brands

- Typical day at work starts at 7:00am and runs until anywhere between 5:00 and 7:30pm depending on your completing your non negotiables.
- There is ZERO training program for salary employees. ALL training on OJT and poorly managed at that. Asking for help was harped on during the interview but Focus Factory managers are unavailable to help and coworkers are completely overworked/unavailable.
- The factory is located in a small town with extremely limited growth potential. While you're expected to want to move up, don't be surprised when you're fired for overachieving and your ideas are implemented after you go.
- The only people who work at this factory for more than five years live in Crawfordsville or have immediate family ties to the factory. Management culture is so poor that they can't keep imported talent. (Just look how often they're hiring Buyer/Planners and Product Engineers..)
- Everyone in the plant is related to someone else. You can't talk to anyone about interpersonal problems without it getting back to the person you're having problems with. Very annoying.
- Management Culture: Mentioned it before, but it sucks and deserves its own bullet to mention how bad it is. During the interview process, you're encouraged by the talk of coming in to help bring positive change. Once you're hired, you find out that your boss just wants you to shut up and work 10-12hr days. Make waves? Fired. Find another job and put in your two weeks notice? Fired.
- Management will side with labor over you. The union will even fight for their absolute worst hourly employees and the company will relent even when they have a strong case making them look weak and you like the a-hole.
- Production uses paper Kanban cards. When (not if.. when) these cards get lost somewhere along in production by hourly union employees who couldn't care less because you'll NEVER get them fired, it's YOUR fault.
- Hardest part of the job? Learning all of the aspects of what you're responsible for. Sure, you're the buyer planner but you're also responsible for ensuring shipping/receiving, reducing your inventory and lead times while improving your target compliance. And even when you do that? You'll probably still get fired.
- Most enjoyable part of the job? Getting off at the end of the day? The Christmas vacation days you're required to burn? Tough call.

I was recruited by Acuity brands and hired into a Senior Engineering position; they really made the grass seem greener when they recruited me, but in reality, most of what I was told was untrue. My opinion and experience at Acuity: it has been more like one of those pathetic first jobs you would take right out of college, just to get a start in the workforce.. not something one would expect with 15+ years of experience. I can honestly say that the main reason I have stayed with the company for four years is simply the convenience of the location and the work schedule. 
In the four-plus years, at Acuity I have gotten use to "constant change" trend, except that this constant change is always done for the benefit of the upper management and share-holders. The typical "Associate" (as HR calls us) always gets the short-end of the stick; you have to do more with less. There are no bonuses for non-managerial employees and the "gain share" they love to promote is pittance.
The executive / managerial level greed, cheating, and bending of rules is pretty well known, though most people turn a blind-eye to it.
The turnover is the worse I have ever seen, even coming from an engineering department of the company. Only one person that worked I my department, when I started, remains after 4 years. I have seen over 26 people come and go (or be let-go), including my manager and their manager. Even the HR department changes so often, one's manager does not even know who the department HR rep is.
Coming from the Acuity Lighting side of the company, the level of technological sophistication and competency is a joke, most of the "Design engineers" think they are doing high-tech work. I reality, this side of the company is barely above bending sheet metal and struggles to comprehend basic light fixture wiring. In terms of company hierarchy, Acuity is an HR and IT company, governed by a group of Luddites, and the company just happens to design and build lighting products on the side.

The management of this company should be placed on an island in the middle of the ocean with nothing but a bucket with a hole in it and a broken exacto knife. Let's see how well they fare in learning how to survive. 
This company hasn't a clue in how to treat people and has insane expectations of this job.  Instead of making the job a two person team which it should be - one buyer, one planner - they combined the position, presented the position in a way as to snowball people into thinking what the job entails and then once they've started, change the job description up and add impossible and unreasonable expectations.  
In my case, I have commitments outside of my job nearly every evening but after I started, I was expected to give them up and be willing to work 12-14 hours a day not counting the time it took to get to the facility each way.  This company bullied and harassed me in front of other people when I was still trying to learn everything and I was expected to understand and know everything within the first few weeks of my arrival. There was little to no training on the job - the most training I received was on their new software program that they implemented the 2nd week I was there.  But knowing Oracle is small potatoes in the overall scope of the position.  Perhaps if the corporate office paid more attention to the people who are actually doing the work instead of the dollars they expect to make every day (oh wait a minute, what am I thinking?  Placing people over profit? That would never happen.) the company might be decent.  But unless you are an octopus who can juggle, have no family and no life whatsoever outside of work, never apply to work in this position.  It will be a complete waste of your time because believe me, you'll be back looking for a new job before you know it.

I cannot comment on any other department other than the one I worked in. Although I was brought in and told that they like to promote from within, that was not what I saw.  At first, I was very excited to work for a growing company within the lighting industry.  After working there for 6+ months, it became evident that although they touted loving new ideas, that was actually not the case.  New procedures came down to us to change something "effective two days ago" without any notice and seemingly without thought into what effects the changes would have in our daily work lives.  The morale there was atrocious because some people were let go without any notice whatsoever every so often.  There was a change in upper management once every 8 months or something like that and many people would get fired and then others would get hired and want to change different aspects of what we would do. As much money as the company continued to bring in (always touted "better than the year before!"), none of it ever went into getting us more training or updating our work station equipment let alone our salaries.   Most people who managed our group were expected to work crazy late and/or early hours from home if they didn't get everything done during the day - regardless of whether or not the workload was really heavy and should have been spread around more.  Although I did learn quite a bit there, I would not want to work for them again.  If you are considering a similar position there, I would inquire about their high turnover rate.

Supervisors have no experience with product and are often hired for having military experience or other qualities not related to the job. There is zero official training for production line employees, yet workers are held accountable for mistakes. Management does ALL business behind closed doors, action is taken with no warning or explanation. Supervisors constantly complain about each other, intentionally misplace orders and complain to subordinates. deadlines are unrealistic. A disappointing amount of employees (some of them operate machines and forklifts) are caught drinking alcohol on the job. The company has fired people caught in the act but in my 3.5 years I have not seen a single random drug screen, the results would certainly shut down the company. there has been a number of incidents to include 3 fingers cut off by a saw, cuts from saw, nail guns shooting into body parts and electrocution. Photos are constantly taken by laborers, supervisors and management and have been used to black mail, terminate employees and construct law suits. Petitions and other propaganda are circulated by personnel with no affiliation and some with. The company recently fired the plant manager of 8 years, a few veteran buyer planners and numerous supervisors due to union intimidation. Under the new plant manager this company almost closed due to Safety violations.

If you are a sales professional, the daily reporting processes will overwhelm you. The information you are required to download into Salesforce is merely your succession plan for the next person. Management more interested in collecting data for their daily beatings than looking long term.You will be required to participate in endless , meaningless conference calls that someone has scheduled because it is part of their goals and KPI ( key performance indicators) and their discretionary bonus depends on checking that box. With all the extra-curricular nonsense it is impossible to achieve your goals YOY. When you combine this with the lack of industry knowledge for the majority of new hires, especially at management levels, it is a recipe for frustration and finger pointing. If you are seriously considering working for this company, do yourself a favor and seek out a current or former employee and have an off the record conversation. You will likely hear the real "Acuity Way", as they like to call it. At some point the terrible culture outweighs the initial compensation package and you simply give up.

*Clock in.
*Go to my work area.
*Talk with the operator on the prior shift to see what is running on the machine, what is "hot", any problems with the machine etc..
* Give list of locations to the forklift driver for blanks (to be made into parts) that I'll need at some point that day.
*Check to make sure the parts are to blueprint specifications.
*Start forming parts.
*Finish order: affix paperwork to the box/pallet to be moved by the driver.
*Have driver set up parts for the next run or, if he/she is not available, find one of the "spare" lifts in our work area and take down/set up the parts myself (since everyone in the work area is a qualified lift driver).
*Tally that last part number along with quantity and order number on a log of the days work I have done.
*Create program for the next part on the CNC brake press using the blueprint as a map.
*Run one part and do a first piece inspection to determine that the part is to print. Sign off on that part so that the Q.C. inspector can see that I have done my first piece inspection and the parts I'm running are good.
*Continue in this manner until the end of the day.
*Consult with the next shift's operator if that operator if he/she comes around.
*Clock out.

This used to be a great place to work until they changed all of the supervisor and management roles a few years back. Current managers/supervisors very clearly don't care about the company or the employees, they only care about abusing their roles and feeding their ego by putting people down and acting like they are superior to them. I can't stress enough how unprofessional some of the supervisors are, and it's mind boggling how they are able to remain in positions of leadership. Nearly everyone who works here is miserable being here, and the low morale and poor management is very clearly driving the company into the ground. Supervisors will degrade you, talk about you unprofessionally behind your back to other employees, talk down to you, lie about you, and yell at you if they ever see you enjoying your day at all. There is no HR on site to report issues to either.  Certain supervisors will very rudely yell at you for talking(even if you are still working just fine while talking) and then proceed to stand literally right behind you for the next hour talking to other salary employees about non work related topics, almost as if they are rubbing it in your face. This facility is an all around toxic environment and it's nearly impossible to maintain a good mental health working here. I wouldn't recommend working here to anyone at all. 

Like most engineers here I was not familiar with the lighting industry or the company name, so my introduction was my recruiter who was honestly really helpful. However I was interested in this role with the understanding between the interviewer and I that I would eventually be progressing to more design work and that the team would only be in its current facility for a month to two months longer... both of which were lies. To be fair, at least on our team, I feel as if pay is pretty decent in regards to most local companies but things have gotten more and more mundane as time has progressed and my career goals that we discussed seem further and further away. I have had all positive reviews, so this is not at all an angry retaliation to the company but I would be remiss if I were not honest in my disappointment in the lack of excitement, challenge, and growth. They have also been acquiring a lot of smaller companies in different parts of north america and it has caused more of a "political" challenge than anything else. Most teams only work Monday-Thursday, 10 hour days, but it's start to become apparent that this may be some strange way to make a thing to ask employees to work on that Friday "just to help out".

This company is misnamed , Acuity means to be clear and if there's one thing company don't have it's that. Management is the worse I have ever dealt with. Virtually it's a free for all in blame and accountability. They hire mechanical engineers but no electrical engineers. Buyer planners are left in the dark and Management sit in their offices and look how to blame failures on the buyer planners and group leaders. If group leaders have problems with operators they are told to deal with it or get disqualified. Group leaders and operators are both union employees and the group leaders cannot discipline or even tell operators what to do. Now the union is worthless. Stewards do nothing in protecting the union members unless they are friends. The union takes monies for dues and yet do nothing. Seniority don't mean anything and you are left helpless. The company went to lean manufacturing and skipped so many steps that it is failing and they are too blind to see it. The company blankets overtime and you are stuck working 12 hr days plus weekends. They don't care about families.I am looking to move on and out from this wrecked company.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Assembler 5 salaries reported	$18.00 per hour
Attendant 3 salaries reported	$20.01 per hour
Local driver 1 salary reported	$25.25 per hour
Maintenance technician 1 salary reported	$32.00 per hour
Forklift operator 4 salaries reported	$19.42 per hour

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