Bad Policy Policeman - Lessons Lead Guitar Center Employee Review

2.0
8 May 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Gear Discount Awesome Staff Supportive in-store Leadership Chance to develop skills and manage decent sized team

Cons

Guitar Center over time became harder and harder to work for. When I was hired, many of the staff had just had hours cut drastically, and were run ragged . The whole mood of the staff was low and continued to get lower as corporate slashed long standing policies, and made decisions that affected the profitability of the store (which affected management bonuses). In the midst of this context, as a lessons lead you are managing complicated scheduling needs, managing 8-12 contractors, being a customer service representative, selling expensive lesson plans with quotas that do not change with demand, creating a space that is comfortable for families, and enforcing a controversial no refund policy. This last one is the one that really made me feel uncomfortable, both with it's ethics, and with the angry parents getting heated when enforcing it. I don't know how many families pulled out of the program and went through a painfull appeasement process during my time. So it was a full load, that most of the store has no clue how to operate. If you are sick, lessons often stops working and you need to fix it when you get back.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
5 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You get a good discount

Cons

You work retail, which is difficult

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.

2
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All