GC Corporate is not long term.. - Finance Department Guitar Center Employee Review

1.0
27 Dec 2013
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Learn how NOT to act as a VP, manager, or exec

Cons

1. Corporate HQ has too many managers, directors, vp's, execs and not enough employees to do all the work that is expected. The gap between management and staff level is too big. No wonder they are going broke. 2. New CFO, Tim, never implemented any changes to fix or help with the constant turnover in the Finance Dept. Tim never bothered introducing himself to the accounting/finance team or thanking them personally. His team works 12-14 hour days. The department is in need of changes. Salaries are 10-15%% under market for LA county. 3. HR VP, Gina, too busy blowing Mike P, does not give a sh*t about the turnover either. Hired all her inadequate buddies and paid them $100k plus salaries. Major compliance issues in the HR and payroll dept. (And YES they are dating). Soooo, classy. 4. Company operates in the red every month, but management has not made any sacrifces or adjustments. Execs get a $100k BMW lease, BIG bonuses at the end of the year, expense accounts... etc... the staff level people might get a 1% raise. BUT, your health insurance will go up that year too. So, you are basically making less every year that you work there. 5. Company is totally delusional. Not employee friendly. They do not promote within. The people that have survived at corporate are scared out of their minds to do anything better. 6. Company is not diverse, mostly white men.

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5.0
9 Jan 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Got to work with so many people

Cons

Long hours during holidays were rough

1.0
21 Apr 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Plenty of capable individual contributors doing real work. - The brand and the business itself are legitimate — the problems are organizational.

Cons

- Senior leadership is politically driven rather than outcome-driven. Strategic initiatives stall out, and leaders spend more energy assigning or shifting blame than actually diagnosing and fixing problems. - Some parts of the org operate on deference to the top. Honest assessments get softened into whatever narrative leadership wants to hear, which makes real cross-functional work difficult. - Senior leaders do not consistently advocate for their own teams. When things get political, self-preservation takes precedence over backing the people underneath, and capable managers end up exposed.

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