The creativity and constant training was great, but the bullying from managers outweighed all positives about the job.
Pros
GRATIS (oh, the gratis!), education, meeting other cool makeup artist co-workers and trainers, constant opportunity to be creative
Cons
First few months were great, but leadership basically bullied me into leaving. Honestly, I LOVED my job when I was applying makeup or interacting with cool co-workers & customers, got tons of CLI and was well liked by fellow employees and customers. The education and gratis were both nice benefits, though not worth the cattiness and drama, perpetuated by leadership who pitted us against one another. Completely disregarded my maximum amount of hours I could work (was part-time, but being scheduled 40+ hour weeks). Employees are blamed for manager's inability to achieve work-life balance. Associates were berated for their shortcomings and never appreciated for what they were doing well. Leadership focused entirely on the negative and refused any time off to the point where people would come in with strep throat rather than being screamed at. Main store manager created a poisonous work environment. So much for "respect for all". It's a shame because I loved the artistry and many of my co-workers (the ones that weren't gossiping..), and I didn't want to leave. I was pushed out. Other co-workers have shared their horrifying management experiences with me, wanting me to write a letter of complaint to the company, but as unappreciated and angry as I was, I didn't have the heart. Hopefully someone will eventually do what I couldn't, though I still find myself considering it to this day.
