I have come to believe that the way the people in charge make decisions is following this sort of logic: "if it makes sense, if it will make employees and customers alike happier and more satisfied with their experience at Michaels, DO THE OPPOSITE."
From store temperatures, to SOP procedures, to coupon policies, to customer service training... my seven year old could make better decisions on how to run a company or a store. No matter how good you are, no matter how many great things you've done for your store and the company as a whole, you will never get so much as an "atta boy," let alone a pay raise or any kind of recognition.
Don't ask questions or try to suggest anything to your store manager, district manager or even higher ups... because all you will get back is a robotic pre-decided answer and absolutely nothing will ever be done about your issue. If on the off chance one of your ideas or concerns does not fall upon deaf ears and actually comes into fruition, you will not get credit where credit is due.
The worst part about working at Michaels is that in the last few years, several key full-time positions (and hours in general) were permanently cut. This leaves the EXACT same amount of work (if not more) for way less people to do. In addition to the extra workload, there is no direction, advice or encouragement on how to get it done from ANYONE. Good employees and associates are made to feel helpless and so stressed that they literally don't have time to help customers. So any customer service "initiatives" that corporate tries to pass along to employees are usually tossed aside.
New employees- don't count on being trained at Michaels. You will literally be told "it's kind of a teach yourself job." But do expect that when you don't know something, or when you do something wrong, that people will talk s**t about you behind your back. There is no face to face coaching from management so you will be made to feel like a terrible employee and will probably quit within a few months. This is frustrating on so many levels because people that do a tremendous job and can be counted on are treated the exact same as associates who can't complete simple day-to-day tasks.
In recent years, I have become extremely embarrassed that I work for Michaels, and if it were not for the terrible economy and lack of jobs in my area I would have nothing to do with this store.
