A good experience - Anonymous employee Michaels Employee Review

4.0
Jan 10, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

30% off including sale items and Coupon Exceptions like Books and Candy . A good first retail experience depending on the size and location of the store, but overall i think its good, better then a large department store. My management is pretty good so i get employee cards and recognized for my work as often as i need to. Pretty good with breaks. Plenty of opportunities to learn new hobbies and crafts since classes are free for you.

Cons

Corporate policies are stupid and counterproductive. Cashiers need a manager to do: -Quantity transactions- Oh no! A costumer wants 80 shirts I can’t process them without inconveniencing my manager who’s on a ladder in the stockroom because...? -You need a state ID to issue a store credit, are you ICE? Why do you need to know who exactly has that credit? I see that as an infringement of privacy. Not only that, but we have to enter their info TWICE like what?! -Cashier’s can’t get their own change from the drawer. So when I run out of change i need to AGAIN call someone who i’m sure is not doing anything...to get for me. Like cash handling is the title of my job yet i can’t really do that. I understand this is a safety thing but for a company who keeps tabs on us for the rate of checkout this is like a trap. -Can’t process returns/exchanges along with purchases. You gotta do two separate transactions and hold up the line. I’ve only seen one cashier able to do it and that’s probably because she’s worked there forever, still, for a company that rates employees on the speed of checkout, costumer satisfaction and staff helpfulness, this is another trap. -Can’t do price adjustments with the receipt AND the item without a manager there. How many more traps do i need to convince you their policy is counterproductive? -No one knows exactly what their glorified mailing list does for costumers, which is essentially nothing besides full refunds on non receipted returns and they force you to sell it to costumers like it gets them gold from a Swiss bank. No one actually told me how to explain what Michaels Rewards are, i learned to BS it after a while.

Explore other reviews about Michaels

5.0
Jun 18, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Benefits and the people there.

Cons

It was far away from me.

2.0
Jun 22, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Some great co-workers, employee discount, on site office benefits including a gym and cafe for breakfast/lunch, full suite of employee benefits at reasonable prices

Cons

Ridiculous amount of stress. Retail in general is often stressful but the amount of stress at Michaels is unnecessary and over the top. Constant last-minute changes by leadership to creative, promotions, products, and any other kind of changes. Things will be finalized and signed off on and delivered, and somebody will make a change at the last minute and things are constantly having to be redone. People are worn down and worn out. It’s the highest turnover rate of any place I’ve worked in retail at the corporate office. I’ve seen people take jobs and be gone within weeks. Leadership in some departments are extremely micromanaging and controlling even with employees that are tenured and have multiple years of experience. The stress level for both tenured and new employees is very high. Projects get discussed over and over and over again, decisions are made and then revisited again after decisions were made making delivery late and causing people to work unnecessarily in order to fix things that could’ve been done correctly the first time. The company tries really hard to make the workplace fun and offer activities, motivation, and incentives. Unfortunately they don’t offset what the environment is like working inside with some of the teams and expectations to actually deliver the work. Would not recommend.

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