warehouse worker

utility operator

stocker

quality technician

shipping and receiving clerk

Holley Performance Products, Inc.

This is as much an in-depth analysis as it is a review, if you don't mind that then feel free to read on. 

First, the people/coworkers were among the top reasons why I enjoyed working here for as long as I did (~4 years). In isolation, I actually liked my job and the people were a big part of that sentiment. Unfortunately, this golden age has evidently passed, and likely may not return.

In the time I was present, the company transitioned from leaders who clearly had a personal deep passion for the industry, to executives who don't seem to understand the first thing about it. This is evident as when it comes to direction strategy, the leadership relies heavily on analysts and their projections to make the calls. In most cases this would be perfectly fine, except these analyzes do not seem to consider the nuances of this unique market, making assumptions that might be useful to maximize growth in other industries but are not 1:1 applicable here in the "high end" vehicle aftermarket sector. Yet, after months on end of being financially in the red, the leadership still leans on these projections without acknowledging the potential faults in these advisor's conclusions, pointing to them as "evidence" that things should/would/will turn around in the near future, and I think this just further clues that they fail to comprehend why someone would want to acquire a Holley product to begin with. Let me unpack. 

In my time with the company, the macro strategy was focused squarely on expansion and growth, at a rate that borderlined irresponsible, frankly not considering what it would require to feasibly sustain this rapid growth. They acquired one company after another, I'm sure under the impression that this would increase overall revenue by adding inventory and product to the Holley umbrella, but in the process they neglected the quality of the individual products and the impact this has on the end consumer. The vast majority of these products are not meant to be disposable where customers could be expected to acquire multiple over time, this is however the default mindset of these analysts and executives who come from vaguely adjacent industries. It should be taken as good fortune for a customer to decide to acquire, at most, one single high dollar product, but that product better be the absolute best at what it does to meet or exceed expectations. The lack of focus on this key aspect is among the most serious follies of the organization, with many products simply not up to par and that is the consumer's judgement, not mine. The end result is a large pool of products that can be sold but very few products that people would rave over and recommend to others, leading to many of these acquired companies being tossed to the wayside to save on upkeep expenses and many of the employees who had worked at these places for years if not decades having to find a new way to make a living as consequence. Those folks (and their families) who invested their time and reputations into mastering their niche craft in my opinion did not deserve having their lives upended and then shown the door simply due to poor decisions and oversights being made by a few individuals at the top, whom are all but immune from being laid off despite having an objectively higher weight of responsibility for the shortcomings that a company experiences. And now we get to the executive problem... 

To illustrate the severity of this issue: nearly every single department, group, and team I had the pleasure of working with over the years at Holley was chronically understaffed and overworked. Regardless of how important these cogs were to the overall function of the organization, I never got to see them receive the ideal level of support or staffing to function at optimal capacity, all except conveniently the executive department-- whom we (IT) were expected to serve with highest priority over everyone else, despite having arguably the least impact to the quality of the product end result and the company's bottom line, on contrary, taking up salaries that could fund entire teams of much needed front liners or specialists. It seemed like every other week a new executive was being added to the ranks while long standing employee legends who had been around for decades and had their name attached to some of Holley's most well-known/successful products (serious experience and knowledge) were being let go in questionable moves to restructure. My own group of only about 8 members at any given time was expected to competently serve hundreds of users across the country and internationally, while also keeping up with the ever expanding IT operations as best we could, a challenging balance to say the least. To meet the critical demand of upholding the organization at the infrastructure level, we expected more members to be added to help balance the workload, as was clearly needed; instead they out of the blue let go of nearly half the team, making the workload even more of an impossible task for our workmates who were left behind. So many of the decisions made at Holley reflect this frustratingly backwards mindset, and if I'm being completely honest it is leaving a once thriving, impressive company in a depressingly shameful state. Product reviews paint quite a picture, the returns department was literally overflowing by the time I left (I worked directly with them on a daily basis, I would know). Monthly "town halls" (ie, semi public earnings meetings where the executives try to convince shareholders that the ship isn't sinking) reflected harsh realities on the performance of the new leadership and their disconnect with the legacy Holley employees, who let's be honest were the heart of Holley's original quality. After many of these "town halls" there was always a lingering cloud of not if but when the next round of layoffs or furloughs (pardon me, "summer recess programs", as they euphemistically call it) would occur, which made working here increasingly stressful even though most of everyone is doing their jobs the best they can. I won't try to pretend things were perfect before executives assumed control and shareholders became the company's top priority, and I'm not saying it is not possible to improve, but for the situation to go this far south in such a relatively short time and staying this south for months (years?) on end is a concerning omen for the company's long term trajectory. 

Overall, at this point in time I wouldn't recommend entering the organization despite the positive experiences I had in the first couple years, especially in the IT department unless you are willing to accept handling more than one person can reasonably manage and being grossly under-appreciated by the leadership above you. The company indeed was great before but it is simply not what it once was with so many of the people who made it great having left and many of those who remain having to adapt to a new corporate environment devoid of personal connection with its employees. It is truly now all about the money over the people and with this priority system it's just not going to be the same again, and the new mindset is reflected in the leadership decisions from the top down. Ice cream parties for exceeding metrics expectations, but no real raises/bonuses that would actually be impactful. Corporate euphemisms and doublespeak appealing to honesty and transparency but not doing so in practice; things like publicly reassuring that layoffs are not in the works, then surprise surprise, mass layoffs. Chaotic periods of rapid expansion without organization, planning, or coordination, then recoiling from the aftermath of the problems this creates and not learning from the mistakes, that kind of thing. These organizational restructurings always feel tragic in a way, but I suppose it is how the business world works sometimes. I do hope things improve honestly, for the sake of those who have no choice but to stay. 

Showing up to work - Clocking in - Answering calls . That’s how the day would start out. Shortly after you clock in and start taking calls you’ll realize that you’re the only one on the phones as other employees ask the boss what he would like for breakfast. And shortly after the boss comes to a decision he will let 2 employees go and get food and they usually take an hour or so to do this. Meanwhile you’ll have 7-13 people on the phone waiting for help. 
It will be up to you to take and handle all these calls. Don’t worry you can ask questions as long as you don’t physically get up and ask anyone you’ll have to refrain from that and Email/ Teams Chat your coworker five feet from you to get an answer. 
Not to mention that it’s looked down on if you ask questions. And the bosses sister in law works this call center and if she decides she doesn’t like you then you will start getting written up for things like “Being 1 minute late from break” or “Going To counseling” which was pre approved at the beginning of the job . But as times goes on and this lady becomes the in charge of who stays and who goes with their frequent complaints to the boss. 
I sold the most every month that I was employed and never given any shout out or recognition. Also not to mention that your Commission checks are only paid to you if corporate was feeling like doing their part. Otherwise you’ll have to wait another month to get paid commission. 
Do Not Work here. It was a huge time waste. I became efficient and one of the best technicians and they canned me because I wasn’t in their “Click” 


Pros

Fun place to be around, great connections to the aftermarket industry, insanely good company discount, decent benefits.

Cons

Lack of communication, proper management, and too few staff. Holley has been playing Pac-Man with the aftermarket industry, buying up so many individual companies at once. They own at least 70 brands now. Management has no idea how to properly integrate them and keep them operating. They have knee-capped so many of these smaller companies, to the point where some don't even do business anymore. Some cases they've taken a perfectly good business, fired everyone, put it all in a box, moved it somewhere else, to let it rot. Things are broken and disjointed all throughout. There are too many cooks at the upper levels. People at all levels are forced to wear too many hats. In trying to do too many jobs at once, we can get nothing done. Outdated and inefficient manufacturing practices all throughout. Weeks without official communication on pressing matters. The employees come last. We are so out of the loop on everything. Inadequate compensation and recognition of talent. Management has driven so many good people out of here because they can't make good use of staff or pay them adequately.

Advice to Management

Stop trying to run a car enthusiast's brand like Walmart or Amazon. I don't know what's lower, the public's perception of Holley or its stock share prices. We know which management cares about more.

Just like a lot of the reviews here the management is terrible a typical day looks something like half of the people come in at 5:00 and the other half comes out 6:00 because of the management forgets to tell people what time to come in and they tried up production by turning everything up where you can't keep up with the work and half the day the production goal might be 400 and then they'll come up and change it to 500 towards the end of the day which also affects the time so from there you don't know from hour to hour rather you'll get off at 1:30 2:30 or 3:30 is even been days where they are threatened to stay until 5:00 which wouldn't be a big deal but they want to spring out when you at the very last minute so if you have doctor's appointments or plans later that day you can forget it you can't make plans when working there because you don't know what time you'll get off so that being said you don't know what time to get there and you don't know what time you'll get off they took a lot of jobs out which makes a team to three person job or one person job they expect you to be able to do it in like a 30 to 45 second time range and the management will decide to do something and whenever it goes wrong they try to blame their employees and make it out like it's your fault so you have to pay for it which normally means you have to stay over or have to come in at 4:00 am on Saturday and once I get a good thing going they want to change it up

it does not matter if you come in with loads of hands-on experience tuning, building, or working on cars you will be paid the same as an individual that has never turned a wrench in their life. The pay is subpar for the amount of workload and knowledge you are supposed to know to be able to carry out the customer calls. When you run into things you don't know you are supposed to reach out to one of four team leads that are there to assist 30+ techs, with the position having a high turnover rate the team leads are covered up mostly so you are stuck waiting 20+ min on an answer that may be helpful to the situation or worthless. that makes the customer experience very bad you can look at the reviews and find that out yourself. In order to get considered for a promotion you have be within a certain percentage of on/off the phone, so if you have a tech that has good call numbers but little to no knowledge of fixing the problems on the tech calls, they will be more likely considered for promotion than anyone else. I'm leaving out allot but this will get the point across. The saying goes "the right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing" that sums this place up very well, allot of new management and policy changes and no one knows how to communicate. STAY AWAY FROM HERE IF YOU VALUE YOUR MENTAL HEALTH.

Working at Holley can feel like a dead-end for several reasons, particularly if you're someone seeking career growth, learning opportunities, or meaningful challenges. For many employees, upward mobility seems limited. Promotions often appear to go to a select few, while others remain stagnant in roles with little to no development path.

The workload is often heavy, but the rewards—whether financial or professional—don’t always match the effort. Despite the company’s legacy in the automotive performance industry, many departments are slow to modernize their systems or invest in employee growth. This can make daily work repetitive, with few opportunities to expand your skills or take on new responsibilities.

Additionally, internal communication and decision-making processes can be inconsistent, leaving employees feeling out of the loop or undervalued. When your feedback doesn’t seem to matter, and change rarely happens, it becomes easy to feel like you’re just clocking in and out rather than building a career.

For those who are ambitious and want to contribute to something dynamic or evolve professionally, Holley may not provide the trajectory or culture that supports that kind of growth. At some point, you have to ask: am I just surviving here, or am I building something meaningful?

This was another company that seemed very close to my ideal on the surface, as I was looking to break into the aftermarket performance automotive industry.  However it soon became apparent that the company culture (at least in the engineering department) was somewhat dysfunctional.  

Often I would be given a task and an outline of how to accomplish it and what resources to use.  After completing the task, I would be informed that I could not use those resources again during the normal shift because I had been too disruptive to regular operations.  This ignored the fact I consistently made it clear to the other personnel that they should let me know if they needed to jump in and use the machines at any time.

At one point during my contract I was offered full-time employment at a salary well below median for my experience level and with the condition (signed document) that if my employment ended for any reason I would not seek employment with any company making similar products.  There was no negotiation or protection for the company releasing me without cause.

Slight learning curve, even for those mechanically inclined. Terrible training but its not the trainers fault, the company doesn't want to put more effort, time, or money into training people properly. Put on phone lines for products we knew nothing about and expected to "learn on the job" but there was no one teaching except the website and internal documentation that we had to figure out ourselves how to find. We fumbled through the best we could. Organized and centralized knowledge-base was nonexistant, just a bunch of folders with obscure names. Management was often unhelpful, unempathetic, and out-of-touch with the modern-day workplace. There's a lot more to be said about my time there but I'll leave you with this: if you want a dead end desk job making less than what is deserved, this job may be for you.

My shift was from 6am-2:30, which was a wonderful slot of time to put in decent hours and still have a life outside of work. There is a wide variety of people from all walks of life present, but it seems that most of my coworkers really did enjoy their respective jobs and the social environment that the company cultivated. While the social aspect was pretty easy-going, the physical environment was not as much. Now I personally have worked in much warmer environments, but Holley was still a bit on the hot side, especially during the summer months. Our leadership was certainly not unaware of this, though, and made sure that we were taken care of amidst the heat. I will also have to mention that the benefits of working here were fantastic, being that I am a musclecar enthusiast. The employee discount rates are phenomenal, and I am not ashamed to admit that this was well over half the reason I applied to work there in the first place! The leadership, especially the current  plant manager, is very warm, helpful, and understanding. They made it very easy to follow instruction and stay inspired to meet quota. Fantastic workplace, 8/10 would recommend!

Depending on how well you like to talk to people you will take at least 30 calls a day.  Most calls are explaining the instructions to people that refuse to read them and then want to argue about everything.  Management collects a hundred data  points on how you do your job but all they care about is your "unavailable time".  Basically you have 1hr and 40min of the day that they deem is acceptable to take call notes, follow up on customer emails, process sales and warranty orders and conduct your own research on products you are unfamiliar with.  90% of products they sell you will get no training on.  The rest of the time that they deem acceptable to be off the phone is your 30min lunch and two 10min breaks.  The rest of the time you are talking to customers that are incapable of thinking for themselves.  Your "performance metrics" also determine yearly pay raises which is a maximum of 3%.  I got a 2% raise this year which equates to pretty much less than $10 PER WEEK raise.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Warehouse worker 8 salaries reported	$16.67 per hour
Utility operator 1 salary reported	$18.10 per hour
Stocker 4 salaries reported	$16.39 per hour
Quality technician 3 salaries reported	$18.03 per hour
Shipping and receiving clerk 4 salaries reported	$17.94 per hour

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