Too much responsibility, not enough pay. - Operations Associate Guitar Center Employee Review

2.0
Apr 20, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It is a job. Cool environment, especially if you are into guitars, but otherwise there's nothing to write home about.

Cons

Severely underpaid for the amount of work expected of you. Minimum wage for basic operations associate, plus training, plus accounting is not enough pay. Managers will not schedule you for full time hours (thus benefits), but will demand halfway through your shift that you stay past your scheduled time. TONS of casual racism in certain areas, as well as management bullying employees into completing impossible tasks in impossible time frames. Schedules will change from day to day, so don't expect to be able to have any kind of out of work life, your schedule may say your off on sunday until saturday night when it changes suddenly, and you're expected to come in at 6 am on sunday.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
Jul 16, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Management takes good care of you

Cons

No complaints that I can think of

1.0
Apr 21, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Plenty of capable individual contributors doing real work. - The brand and the business itself are legitimate — the problems are organizational.

Cons

- Senior leadership is politically driven rather than outcome-driven. Strategic initiatives stall out, and leaders spend more energy assigning or shifting blame than actually diagnosing and fixing problems. - Some parts of the org operate on deference to the top. Honest assessments get softened into whatever narrative leadership wants to hear, which makes real cross-functional work difficult. - Senior leaders do not consistently advocate for their own teams. When things get political, self-preservation takes precedence over backing the people underneath, and capable managers end up exposed.

2
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