Avigilon Employee Reviews

JH
John Honovich
Aug 29, 2014
IPVM

[Updated March 2015 and January 2015, December 2015, May 2016]

Avigilon employees say the best thing about Avigilon is socialization among employees and the worst is management's treatment of employees.

Comments and details inside.

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JH
John Honovich
Aug 29, 2014
IPVM

These reviews are from Glassdoor, the biggest employee review site, with 10 reviews from Avigilon employees in the past 3 months.

Here is an overview of the responses:

First, the consensus best part was socialization, with the majority explicitly calling this out:

  • "Great social club and culture at the employee level"
  • "Friendly and welcoming coworkers"
  • "Cake for birthdays every month"
  • "Social environment"
  • "Nice office setting, colleagues are smart and nice"
  • "Great social committee"
  • "Good Social Club"

However, the worst parts all revolved around management.

Fear tactics were cited:

  • "Management uses fear and intimidation tactics to get what they want."
  • "Poor management style (manage by fear)."
  • "Management by fear and intimidation"

Employee turnover without explanation was also repeatedly noted:

  • "There's a revolving door in senior management and those changes are hidden from employees."
  • "Constant changes in executive team & management leave staff unsettled. The only way staff finds out someone is gone is if they are no longer found in the directory."
  • "Very aggressive / harsh upper management style with many people let go for questionable reasons."

For example, the CFO's exit, the COO's exit, the HR VP's exit, to name a few.

Related to such Avigilon management practices, some mentioned lack of input allowed:

  • "Don't feel much respect when trying to share an opinion or observation with the senior workers"
  • "You're not allowed to have an opinion about anything, if you want to keep your job."

Note: Glassdoor has interesting sets of reviews on a minority of larger security companies - e.g., see Genetec's employee reviews, Pelco's employee's reviews and Tyco IS's employee reviews.

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LS
Louis Sun
Aug 31, 2014

Funny, but it's true.

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Dennis Dyer
Sep 03, 2014

? I worked for Avigilon for 2 years and everyone was great from the top down.

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JH
John Honovich
Sep 10, 2014
IPVM

Btw, since we posted this, a new glowing Avigilon employee Glassdoor review has been added:

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Michael Budalich
Sep 10, 2014
Genetec

That is not a coincidence that a glowing review popped up right after this post. How desperate can a company be that they are going to put fake reviews up on an company information website? Unreal.

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RW
Rukmini Wilson
Sep 10, 2014

How desperate can a company be that they are going to put fake reviews up on an company information website?

Let's try to not jump to conclusions here Michael, ok? Besides Mr. Schmode is just as entitled as anyone else to post his review... ;)

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U
Undisclosed #1
Sep 10, 2014

If you've been working there for more than 5 years and leave a review like this, chances are you're one of the reasons other people were leaving bad reviews.

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UM
Undisclosed Manufacturer #2
Jan 25, 2015

Hey, Avigilon Superstar: If you can't properly use "your" and "you're" you are likely not even a "C" player, let alone as elite as you claim.

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JH
John Honovich
Jan 25, 2015
IPVM

Avigilon's employee reviews are on a winning streak, with 4 glowing contributions.

Here are the "cons" that these employees list:

  • "Needs more people to support the massive growth"
  • "Parking can get pricey."
  • "8 hours fly by and if you like and love what you do... you are on the right place."

Good job Avigilon HR / management! These look totally legit and not placed.

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JH
John Honovich
Feb 08, 2015
IPVM

New employee review, evidently not a Schmode fan:

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Ari Erenthal
Feb 09, 2015
Chesapeake & Midlantic

Must not have been an A player or a B+ player with A player potential.

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JH
John Honovich
Feb 09, 2015
IPVM

Evidently, he claims to still be there, but probably not for long after that review...

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JH
John Honovich
Mar 18, 2015
IPVM

3 new Avigilon employee reviews - 2 highly negative, 1 super positive, including:

Note the team of two is an allusion to the CEO Fernandes and the COO Schmode.

The other new negative was from a person who says they are a current RSM who declared 'Amazing Products, Horrible Management':

"Training for new employees is a complete failure, daily quotas must be met or "Your on the chopping block". Horrible middle management that follows the trickle down daily threatening environment from the top. Most regional directors are not qualified to manage a sales team and have Zero management skills. In order to meet quarterly objectives, they call and harass integrators who have deals in the works. You will have ZERO time for your family if you are a regional product manager. If you are in sales, the company will change your quota mid stream to prevent you from making quota, commissions and bonus."

If he's not chopped already, I am sure he will be soon.

A few days after those 2 negative reviews, a glowing positive one came in. This was the 'cons' for this reviewer:

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JC
Joseph Crowley
Mar 18, 2015

Its sounds Hysterical sounds like a little Glengarry Glen Ross going on there......enjoy!

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U
Undisclosed #3
Mar 28, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Summary: Liked the fruit, hated the chicken

"They're gonna bounce me out of a job" - George, GG GR

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JH
John Honovich
Apr 12, 2015
IPVM

Another non-Schmode fan:

U
Undisclosed #3
Apr 12, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Pretty office and they know that's all they have going for them.

It was just too hard to leave it at Pretty office. ;)

U
Undisclosed #3
Jun 24, 2015
IPVMU Certified

Opening for an Executive Assistant to Bryan Schmode posted.

The successful candidate will have a genuine appreciate for, and understanding of, protocol, discretion, and professionalism. He or she must be able to maintain confidence and be tactful and diplomatic at all times.

Perhaps the outgoing EA will post a Glassdoor review...

JH
John Honovich
Jun 24, 2015
IPVM

On the plus side, they did like the location and salary:

MM
Michael Miller
Jun 24, 2015

I just checked out Glassdoor for the first time. Looks like anyone can write a review for any company without even working for that company.

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MI
Matt Ion
Jun 25, 2015

I just checked out Glassdoor for the first time. Looks like anyone can write a review for any company without even working for that company.

"Glassdoor, a subsidary of Yelp!"

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JH
John Honovich
Oct 24, 2015
IPVM

This discussion has not been updated since the executive fallout over the summer, which very clearly proved the validity of these employee / ex-employee concerns.

There's more employee reviews (negative not surprisingly) on Glassdoor, but this one is the most detailed:

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JH
John Honovich
May 06, 2016
IPVM

Interesting recent Avigilon employee review on Glassdoor that talks about Glassdoor reviews:

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U
Undisclosed #3
May 09, 2016
IPVMU Certified

...and is failing miserably...

Most people only wish they could fail 'so miserably'.

JH
John Honovich
May 09, 2016
IPVM

I think you can fairly split it in two.

He has clearly succeeded spectacularly in building a top tier, large company in the industry.

He has, at the very least, struggled much more, in managing employees / the leadership team.

That is pretty commonplace. The person who is great at building a company / vision is generally not the same as the person who is great at managing an organization (ergo the frequent structure of visionary CEO and operational COO).

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U
Undisclosed #3
May 10, 2016
IPVMU Certified

He has, at the very least, struggled much more, in managing employees / the leadership team.

Struggled implies tried. I don't see a lot of trying. How long did it take him to de-Schmode himself?

Like the review says, he sees high turnover as normal, shape up or ship out. He not trying to win Mr. Congeniality or anything.

Let's see if he hits the revised run rate number.

UI
Undisclosed Integrator #4
May 10, 2016

Consistency between glassdoor reviews and actual events (you can observe turnover, etc) seems to indicate that the company does struggle internally.

Some industries see a lot of success being run like a traditional corporation while others meander off into experimental practices and find a rewarding place to sit. This is something I've observed since upstarts and internet giants have sprung up over the past decade.

Companies that sit where they don't perform well? They get distracted and suffer for it. Employees generally want to feel stability in their workplace, and they want balance between home and work demands. If people were left to decide between fruit on the conference table and a reasonable schedule that accommodates family life, it's clearly the latter. The point of the example isn't to suggest that it's one choice or the other, but that the efforts forcing the pipe dream of a "fun" and "wholesome" workplace can impose real strain and burden on the bulk of employees.

I've observed that successful companies (judging by folks I'd consider to be happy and loyal employees) have a few traits in common:
*they allow their workers to have clear and defined duties,
*they understand the value of a reasonable schedule, and know how to set effective goals

*The employees feel as if the corporate leaders share in their own values, and are not competing interests.

Yes, anecdotal comments, stories, and posts are just anecdotes, but trends have to be taken seriously. The sooner the company finds a stable and suitable medium for its creative ambitions, the better. Otherwise, they're going to continue their attempts at fitting square pegs in round holes... And it'll be just as frustrating to watch.

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U
Undisclosed #3
May 10, 2016
IPVMU Certified

The company does not exist for the employees.

Therefore the success of the company should not be judged by their happiness and loyalty.

Avigilon has a harsh culture, but at least they own it. Anybody with a brain should be able to see that before considering a position there.

Avigilon's 'toxic' environment must have some offsetting benefit or they would not be where they are today.

Bottom line: You just can't make Avigilon some really great place to work and still have Avigilon.

JH
John Honovich
May 10, 2016
IPVM

Avigilon has a harsh culture, but at least they own it.

I am not sure if they 'own it'. And to the extent they do, they don't seem to characterize it as 'harsh' as much as some positive view of it - like "A players only", etc.

Also, that poster directly indicates a theme / response we have heard as well through Avigilon:

"Management will lie to employees about Glassdoor reviews 'that was the old leadership and its changed', 'those reviews are mostly from sales people that were let go from the company for cause', 'this is a great place to work, those reviews don't represent what we're really like', etc.

As for:

You just can't make Avigilon some really great place to work and still have Avigilon.

That's really interesting. I do not know.

Somehow they made great decisions on products and great decisions on channel strategy. I do wonder if they kept those things and eliminated the smashmouth sales tactics, if they would not even be better.

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