Meyer Davis Reviews

3.5

63% would recommend to a friend

(30 total reviews)

62% positive business outlook

Meyer Davis has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 30 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there.

Reviews by job title

30 reviews
1.0
22 June 2017

Coup de grâce

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

High profile projects in exciting destinations Exceptional chief operating officer

Cons

Overall "luxury" design aesthetic not as made to measure as website touts No sense of urgency from owners, blasé attitude, non-extant transference of crucial information received from clients to owners to any other team members Office space extremely disorganised and over-crowded Director level under experienced for their role and not exposed to working at any other office, no international experience, very poor management related responsibilities such as poor establishment of objectives and priorities Director level performance and behaviour fell very short of required standard for their positions, including, but not limited to the following: 1 ) ineffective staff allocation and scheduling tasks 2) poor demonstration in ability to anticipate and resolve problems 3) poor ability to adapt to changes and contribute to effective use of resources 4) not effective in delegating work 5) very poor analysis for corrective measure for financial deviations as they pertain to contracts (change orders) 6) poor communication skills both internal transparency and as it related to their display of oral and written communication skills 7) poor ability to present information in a clear and concise way 8) undependable and unreliable attendance and punctuality 9) inability to meet established schedules and deadlines -- submissions were often late 10) poor follow up with team work progress 11) poor interaction and negative relationships with peers and junior staff 12) poor cooperation 13) ineffective team building skills 14) people not treated with respect 15) failure to learn appropriate new-work related skills and procedures from those more experienced 16) very poor supervision of employees in terms of training, guiding and assisting junior staff 17) lack of motivation for employees to perform effectively 18) inability to resolve personnel-related problems effectively 19) poor design decision making such as sound, practical and workable design solutions, very inconsistent logic, often contradictory with subsequent iterations 20) general lack of technical skills from interior architectural knowledge and FF&E skill set to lack of control of design process Unfortunately, one is required to mark at least one "star" above otherwise I would have marked zero.

2.0
1 Sept 2017

Poor management, inexperienced staff, long hours

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The projects are interesting overall.

Cons

The directors and project managers are incredibly young and inexperienced and want to control the design aesthetic without dealing with the responsibilities of managing a team and the project. The office runs like a sweatshop with the lower level designers working overtime to make unrealistic deadlines happen. There is no HR. A director or pm in this office would never have the same title at an other design office because they are simply not experienced enough and have not earned the position.Incredibly high turn over rate, 17 employees in the last year. That says it all...

2.0
2 Feb 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The team in LA is warm and inviting. The managing directors in LA are kind people. The neighborhood of the office is charming.

Cons

Warnings of overly-worked employees should be heeded. There is far too much work and not enough people to do it. Working 10-12 hours/day is really the dominant schedule. Working 12-16 or 18 hours at times of deadline (which are frequent) is frequent. The company's business model is to essentially work people into the ground until they leave. The turnover rate is high as a result because repeated attempts to discuss this issue with HR and not listened to. The two owners have far too many projects under their belt and are barely involved in 90% of the design of the projects. Still, they receive the credit and perks. This is not an atypical mode for larger companies, but it is still worth noting. There are projects with abusive stakeholders (clients, hotels brands, etc) and the ownership does little to protect the staff, favoring instead the other relationship. Though there are certainly cool projects, there are also a handful of low budget ones as well. Because there is often so much work to do in so little time by so few people, the work tends to be repetitive and non creative. The design aspect of the job is dulled. The office is also complicit in terrible working relationships with vendors, often leaning on them to do extraordinary amounts of work without ultimate compensation. This is due to the nature of the industry and by no means exclusive to Meyer Davis. But Meyer Davis does little to defend these relationships. Many projects are international, which may seem glamorous on the surface but in practice is anything but. You have no go-to vendors, fabricators, millworkers, etc and are constantly relearning the process with new people. People that Meyer Davis did not vet or hire. You are coordinating across multiple time-lines, slowing down work and leading to both early and late meetings. Related, getting in touch with the owners, who are spread incredibly thin and in a different time zone, is near-impossible. Oftentimes you are held up waiting for approval on a design for someone who is too busy and borderline completely uninvolved in the projects. Project timelines are incredibly long and always a moving target, often lasting longer than 3-4 years. So unless you are at the company that long (unlikely), you will never see the fruits of your labor. Additionally, it is very common practice for construction to largely eliminate or value engineer your work without designer approval. Only the most senior designers are sent to the projects for install etc so if you are a designer or project manager you will unlikely ever see your project realized even if completed during your tenure. Also, unless you really advocate for yourself you will be there 3 years without promotion or raise, easily. I realize this review sounds dire but other than having the name of an establish firm on your resume there is very earnestly very little upside to working here.

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Glassdoor has 37 Meyer Davis reviews submitted anonymously by Meyer Davis employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Meyer Davis is right for you.