Working at Acuity is like going back in time to 2005. The tech and security policies are extremely outdated. Everything is still on-prem. Until the pandemic they didn't even issue people laptops! Now, they issue ginormous slow HP elitebooks that are so locked down it makes doing my actual job a nightmare. You can't even use bluetooth. You can't access a single company resource from any other device. Need to look at your calendar or respond to a Teams message from your phone when you're away from your desk? Forget it. The security team is so strict they are actively forcing some teams to use on-prem software solutions that are no longer supported by the vendor because they refuse to let the teams use browser-based tools.. ya know like SaaS solutions. It's ridiculous. The amount of manual workarounds people do because security won't let them implement a modern more automated tool is nuts.
Teams are super siloed, defensive, and don't like to collaborate. There is no initiative to get stuff done, and instead everything will be blamed on security. You'll hear "security won't let us do that so it's not worth trying" at least twice a week. They might be right, but people also seem to use it as an excuse to not do anything.
People never get fired and they only promote from within. This results in a lot of low performers skating by doing basically nothing. You have a bunch of new managers with 8-10 direct reports who have very little support from THEIR management and have no idea how to actually manage people. It's no wonder there is so little incentive to do good work. This also means that almost all of the executive team has been at Acuity for 20+ years and has seen nothing else. They don't even know what modern tech stack looks like.
They will love bomb you and send you all these gifts (read: branded crap you need to find a place for in your house or get rid of somehow), but when you go to the office you'll need to pay for coffee. LOL
Because 90% of the company is based in Sheboygan, very little thought is given to remote workers. You can tell they are not used to working with people in different time zones. They've never heard of async work or have any tools that help promote this. They don't even use a tool like Google Docs or Sharepoint. If I want to edit a doc someone else has open, I have to ask them to close it. Seriously - 2005.
They seemingly want to change and upgrade to the current decade, but until they address some the cultural issues at play, especially in security, it won't happen. It will limit hiring good talent from outside Sheboygan (seriously - no modern engineer would ever want to work here). It will likely be the downfall of the company.
