Great Place to Start - Stylist SmartStyle Employee Review

4.0
Jul 15, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

They have great continuing education, which is offered for free. They also have a very flexible schedule, which was great when I was working around a full time college schedule. Excellent place to start out, because of the high volume of walk in clientele.

Cons

It is corporate owned, which means a lot of bogus things you have to do, like games to keep you "motivated." You have to sell a certain percentage of product to clients, which can get irritating if you're not a pushy kind of person.

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5.0
Nov 17, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Lenient dress code, ample access to new clientele, video library to expand skills and product knowledge, PTO and benefits

Cons

The salons are almost always short staffed

1.0
Jan 26, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

None, none, none, none, none

Cons

This workplace runs on vibes, guesswork, and unanswered messages. Upper Management had an impressive talent for being completely unreachable while simultaneously expecting miracles. Responses took days — sometimes weeks — but urgency was always your problem. Hiring approvals were blocked or endlessly delayed, leaving teams severely understaffed while leadership sat comfortably on the sidelines asking why things weren’t running perfectly. Accountability flowed strictly downward. Authority? None. Support? Cosmetic at best. Problems were ignored until they became emergencies, at which point they were blamed on the people who had been begging for help all along. Communication was inconsistent, expectations were unclear, and burnout was treated like a personal weakness instead of a predictable outcome of chronic mismanagement. If you enjoy being set up to fail, blamed for systemic issues, and gaslit into thinking you didn’t “try hard enough,” this is absolutely the place for you. Otherwise, save yourself the stress and look elsewhere.

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