Poor management. Deadlines-based work and lack of organization. - Software Engineer Michaels Employee Review

3.0
Jan 28, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Great pay - If you find a good team leader/manager, they'll fight for you (but they're also probably looking to leave, so watch out for yourself). - Newer managers and tech leads have certainly pushed a tilt towards the positive. - H1B and Green Card sponsorships for those who need it.

Cons

- Growth is difficult to find. Depends on the team you're put into, but 80-90% of them are zero-growth spaces. - A very clear and distinct discord between management and technical players due to management's lack of technical understanding and (much worse-) refusal to learn and grow. - Unrealistic deadlines are put in place, in hopes that the work will be completed at least not too much later than the deadline. They don't want to understand how development works and deadlines are constantly pushed, as a result. - Bad planning of work and dev work is mostly reactive and haphazard on the SDE side of things. - Terrible payroll policies for non-citizens who are FICA-exempt. You'll need to take it up with the IRS to get the FICA (Social Security and OASDI) tax refunds, because Michaels hasn't changed their policy and they deduct FICA taxes for everyone, across the whole company.

Explore other reviews about Michaels

5.0
Feb 16, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Had a really lovely recruiter w/ clear email communication back and forth. Process was a phone screen followed by an interview.

Cons

Interviewers were slightly late to the interview. Lots of technical questions, no leetcode style ones though.

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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