Racist Company + Low Pay - Marketing Director Guitar Center Employee Review

1.0
Feb 2, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The only pros - discount on music gear

Cons

This company is filled with white employees, mainly from Westlake Village/Thousand Oaks/Simi Valley, with absolutely zero diversity. The director above is all white, no Black, Latinx, or Asian employees. Industry pay is the lowest across all roles and service lines. Leadership leads with fear ONLY. Most of the time, people in the leading positions don't have the education and right background to manage their departments—no growth and learning opportunities. If you want to switch departments, you must deal with internal politics. Compensation package and health insurance are the worst possible. Every year regular layoffs since 2015. HR is useless because if you report discrimination of any kind; they brush it off, ignore you and wait for the next round of layoffs to get rid of you. GC leadership doesn't know what Work/Life balance means. You are supposed to engage in Friday evening text messaging regularly past 9 pm to work on projects because directors of other departments are lazy to respond during the week work hours. If you work overtime, then you are considered a good employee. This company is doing everything backward.

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
Jan 9, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Got to work with so many people

Cons

Long hours during holidays were rough

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.

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