Pros
Amongst all the cons there are a few pro's. I liked my co-workers and my poor underpaid overworked manager and I learned a few things so that's important for sure. Flexible-ish scheduling and easily able to transfer to other stores in different states. More organized than other blow out bars but not by much.
Cons
Oh man.. here we go... First off, the pay. We get paid 8.50 an hour which, after taxes, is almost 8.00 an hour. We are also taxed on our credit card tips so we don't make the entire amount of our gratuities. I paid $15,000 to go to cosmetology school and get my license and at this salon I was making less than an employee who works fast-food or waits tables. Things that you don't necessarily have pay for two years of education to do. This is a skilled service that not all hair stylists can perform or are even good at and at this establishment there is almost no way to create a situation in which you will make more money. Even management gets a flat salary with no raise and must be available 24/7 for Drybar. Our commission incentives have been cut in half, for reasons I can only assume, are to make more money for the company. Shareholders and all that jazz. They don't tell you when you start that this is a part time job for which you will need a second income to make ends meet. They want you to work as if this is your full time job and to devote all your time and energy to Drybar, as if you would reap some benefit from doing so. I really wanted to love it here. It's a wonderful concept but it seems the only way they can make enough money to be the multimillion dollar company that they are is to short change their employees. You will not receive a break at Drybar if you don't work in California and even if you do work in Cali, not all stores will give you a break. It's wonderful that we have so much business but it is also important that your stylist doesn't pass out from being on their feet and from not having eaten or used the bathroom for eight hours. I think Allie Webb is great and she's done a great job marketing and creating her vision and a culture which people are loyal to and will follow. But along her journey to success, it seems she's forgotten one very important thing. Her stylists. The people who actually make her salons run. Drybar has done a very good job in making us all feel like sweatshop workers and like we are replaceable and maybe we are. But, in my humble opinion, one cannot create a lasting business that will thrive for very long if they don't also place value on all their employees. It seem corporate America has set a very poor example for Allie Webb, one that she has followed to the letter. Make as much money as I can for the higher ups and everyone else is replaceable. If your company cannot make a decent profit while paying your workers a living wage, you simply, should not be in business. To wrap up my long winded attempt to help you understand why Drybar has so many negative reviews from their work force, I just want you as a stylist or just a person in general, to know that you are valuable. Don't let a large corporation like Drybar or any other make you feel like you aren't. Don't fool yourself into believing that you deserve to be treated this way or that it's normal and you're just "paying your dues". It is not okay to take advantage of your work force this way and very soon the minimum wage hike will set to right this situation. Let's see how well Drybar's format works while being forced to pay their employees a living wage. Let's just see.
