Each franchise is different. The franchise owner I worked for owns over 20 locations.. The eastern shore of Maryland to be specific. I worked in three of those, managed two.
Cons:
Racism. All colored employees had a time frame they had to wait to receive a raise if they were promoted to a higher paying position. If you were not of color, your raise was on your very next paycheck.
Managers are expected to not only perform the highest (cut the most clients, have the top numbers of self and store), teach fresh out of school stylists and manage a shop. To be a manager, it meant you hold a key and make the schedule. That schedule will be redone by your area manager so it’s just a waste of time.
You are expected to make up hours if they closed the store for weather. Holiday pay? You can forget it. It’s $25. Wanna fire an employee who has horrible moral, horrible performance, disrespectful to you, your stylists and clients, shouldn’t have been hired to begin with? Forget about it, they’ll just ship them to a sister store to be another managers problem. Or you’ll be forced to call them back after a month. Not to mention you’ll be given a list of old employees that quit or were fired that monthly you’ll have to call and ask if they want to come back. The owner often in team manager meetings would say things like “the stylists ALWAYS come back. They won’t find a better paying job”. In reality, they come back because the owner is desperate to fill a stylist chair. The turnover is astronomical. They do not care about their employees. Not even the ones who’ve been there 6+ years. They will make you work to death and reward you with cookies.
Paid sick leave? No you MIGHT get a quarter of your pay for that and once you leave they’ll take it out of your tips in your last check. You will be expected to do a haircut in 15 min. And if you are booked solid with requests you will be cut off from their online check in system so that walk ins can be taken, because they will always be short staffed. The online check-in system is a joke. Clients hate it. They will hook you with good pay, and training. Only to make you feel like you will never find a place that pays as well, making you feel stuck. You can quit and get rehired no matter what you do. And once you do quit…they’ll still call you and beg you to come back years later.
