sales associate

store manager

replenishment manager

replenishment associate

cashier/sales

Michaels

The store itself was run well and had a great workspace. That was until the company seemed to have just abandoned the store and when they did make decisions they were only detrimental. For context I worked there until the second half of 2022 so the criticisms I have might be outdated now.

The company restricted hours away from areas that were needed desperately, like the warehouse. They put those hours instead into the floor associates where you would have far too many people walking around bored, competing for opportunities to do responsibilities. Our warehouse team was not able to keep up with inventory shipments that were meant to be handled by a team six times the size. Shipments would get canceled an hour or less before they were meant to arrive, team members already working for an hour at 4 am. Sometimes our manager would not receive any word for hours (nor respond to her) of the delay or rescheduling and we would just have to hope that it was even coming. Those hours per person were lost for the week of the already low hours they were able to give out. This meant that sometimes during the week we would have to cut back on team members to not push over the allotted hours. I've only brought up the warehouse issues but there were other sketchy things behind the scenes up the chain and a lot of little lousy things that added up, cough cough Design Hub..

At a time we only had two managers to run the entire store and our head manager worked for 4 months solid of 10 to 16 hour shifts with not a single day off. Aside from non stop interviews we were completely understaffed, things piled up and got very stressful. By trying to get through the backlog, we would work as quickly as possible and were told to take shortcuts, this resulted in several safety issues and a couple undocumented injuries (because unless you pressed for it, there was no time to do the paperwork). Not until several months later, after many weeks of persistent emails mind you, did the company send over an assistant manager from another store west. She was a very welcomed breath of fresh air, safety and structure was being reintroduced through the new efforts this manager was able to bring. Unfortunately I left before I could see if it brought the store back to a good workplace, but I imagine the company will let the store fail again.  

The higher ups aside, this store has fantastic managers and coworkers. Very rewarding and nice environment while engaging with customers and their projects. There's a lot of variety to keep the job from feeling stagnant and you are given opportunities to express creativity in many areas throughout. They are very flexible with hours and extremely respectful and forgiving to work around your life and other responsibilities. I learned a lot of skills and practices here from my manager that I now carry with me into other careers. At glance a newer employee might be confused to why things feel so chaotic and stressful or why the managers might seem to be inattentive and not too supportive, but if you were able to be given greater context you would come to realize that the problem is with the company itself not the store.

I've been with Michaels as an associate for over 10 years. I'm still a part time associate. When they changed the store positions I tried to apply for a management postion but didn't have any previous management experience.
A typical day is greeting customers and trying to keep the store clean also backing up cash.
My co workers are easy to get along with, management is willing to help you out. If you want to move up you have to apply internally or move to another store where the position is available. I bend over backwards for customers and the store and never received any recognition for my services, even though I have let management know that I'm interested in promotions rewards.They also started associate of the month, a class instructor got it instead of an associate.
You will learn a lot about crafts, organizing and prioritizing customers. You may also have to deal with upset customers if the managers are busy with a conference call or other things. You will also learn about policies and the pros and conds of how big box companies work.
The hardest part is dealing with people that think there isn't enough people working there or that the lines are too long when we have all the registers open. Or when you're the only person on the floor during busy times and being pulled in a million directions at once. Some times I want to ask if they would be willing to work until 9:30pm or longer on Saturday night.... Which is what I usually get stuck with. The most enjoyable part of the job is actually beng able to help some one find what they need or make them feel more confident about their projects.
Scheduling can be a problem; some times availability gets ignored or they ask you to come in when you booked time off. Some times the only hours I get is on weekends and if I need a weekend off I won't get any hours during the week. Also I've noticed if I take on extra hours one week my hours would often get cut for the next week. My manager was just told to hire 6 new people and they don't have enough hours to go around. If they scheduled better then they wouldn't have to hire people.
I don't have much of a life out side of Michaels because I'm always working on the weekends or evenings, they don't give me enough hours to make a living off of this place. I've tried to get other jobs but things never work out and one of the managers has thretened me with firing me if I wasn't able to keep them a priority. Even if they do give you a raise it's not even noticable until you look at your pay check.

On my first day I was expecting someone to go through my contract details with me, introduce the team or do an introduction on Michael's work system run down and tour round the whole store from inside out. Sure I got the tour of the store but the most important part like my hours, pay rate, taking my bank details, providing me all the pin codes for entering employee and finance rooms, my employee username and password for entering into the scan gun, my clocking in/out card and sick/vacation notice process all not given or gone through with me at all.

I'm already in my 4th shift some of my colleague already claimed they have been paid and I'm still unpaid for my work since I've started only be notified that my name is entered into the payroll system but they haven't bother to go through with on my bank details.
I asked if I can come into work on a less busier day of the week and where there is a manager that have free slots during work to paper work nope they completely ignored me on that suggestion.

My first day at work was hands on and learn on the job immediately. They didn't even run me through on health and safety hazardous and preventions or guide me on how to use the cardboard box compressing machine. Management jus expected me to know how there system work and know how to use every devices given to me. 

Very disorganised management skills and moving on to the back of the store where the staff are suppose to help unload the truck it's a whole mess. Manager should pair up new staff to shadow or follow experienced staff to show how things are done exactly in the safest method shown to them. Again very disorganised, I know it's busy but manager should always be on there toes constantly if they have untrained employees that are new and have know idea about the whole system on how it works.

Personally I think there should really be either two managers on site that way one is placed in training new staff and the other is placed in managing and helping staff on shop floor or back of store, also placed experience senior staff or supervisors on front of store to keep things run smoothly and efficiently. Work would have been completed and run peacefully if manager just put everyone into separate mini teams and have each individual group with an experience staff or supervisor to keep an eye on things.

The Brampton (Ontario) location is a good place to work at, management is great and willing to work with employees and customers. How ever if you're part time you don't get any benefits and you only get a few cents raise per year, you will also most likely be working closing shifts most of the time. There isn't much room for advancement unless you have had previous manegment experience or leadership experience. If you want to advance then you have to apply for an internal job or let the managers know you're interested in moving up in the store. Also if you're part time you will be working mostly closing shifts unless you're on a repleneshment or truck team. They want you to be loyal to the company but it's hard when you only get 2-4 shifts per week. It's all most like they don't want you to make plans either because you should be waiting by the phone in case they decide to call you in for a 4-5 hour shift.
When I first started working here it seamed like they would take just about any one off the street with some retail knowledge and hire them but they have gotten better at that over time.
They want you to be knowledgable with their products, but with what I get paid I can't afford to buy most of the scrapbooking products like the Cricut or the more expensive cake decorating items. I would like to get into jewlery making too but even that can get expensive.
Over all when you're on the job management treats you ok, the people at this location are not looking over your shoulder or wanting an update every 10 minutes.
The most enjoyable part of the job is helping customers find what they want and I don't mind doing cash either. You an also learn a few things from a customer. I have learned how to deal with a few upset customers with out having to call on management because I have been there for about 10 years and know a lot about the store and from what I have seen management do with upset people before. It gave me some confidence to learn that I can deal with some one who is upset with out always calling for help.
Unless you're a creative student or want to work part time and love crafts then I would suggest looking else where for work.

Firstly I highly enjoyed the work I did. I was on the overnight team who would unload the product deliveries and fill shelves with inventory. The hours worked well for me, but for most people working from anywhere between 12am and 9am or later doesn't leave much time for a life. The people I worked with directly were nice and often you'd be on your own for the majority of the shift working your departments. However, the management completely ruins any positive this job has. Our team never had the correct number of people for the job we had to do, proved by a metric used to determine how long unloading a trailer should take not having a low enough number of people on its scale. Turn over rate was insane, but honestly understandable. Between it being a minimum wage job with no overnight premium, people being hired with open availability being put on a midnight shift withouth them knowing, the major lack of any form of training for new hires, and the sheer disrespect of management, it's absolutely no surprise the only ones who continued on the shift were those who had no other options. There was a serious lack of functional equipment required to do the job, often resulting in things not being done correctly through no fault of your own. You simply can't do a job when the tools you need to do them don't function. Replacing them was never a priority either. If you have any reasonable expectation of safety here, just don't. Beyond nonfunctional tools, many other peices of equipment were damaged to the point of being a safety issue. I wish I could say better things here because the job it's self was very good, but beyond just store management being awful, I belive the issue goes higher and can't in good faith recommend working for Michael's as a company.

The constant pressure to meet unreasonable corporate demands creates  a tense, stressful, and divisive work environment for staff. The scheduling budget allocated to stores is nowhere near what is needed to operate effectively. Evenings and Sundays are particularly understaffed, yet often receive additional mandatory tasks, completely undermining any opportunity staff had to maintain store standards. 

Supervisors spend the majority of their shifts monitoring staff time and accuracy in replenishing stock, and making sure cashiers are keeping track of how many of their customers are members of the mediocre rewards program. At the end of every shift, percentages are calculated and recorded for each employee. These percentages equate to perceived employee performance, and staff with low statistics are given increased coaching and supervision, in addition to their regular monthly observations. Employees are hounded relentlessly to keep their numbers up; a constant reminder that they are only as valuable as their statistics. 

Store staff is further undermined by corporate expectations as they place high importance on quality of service, ranking stores using scores derived from customer feedback surveys. However, when the value of an employee is measured by how efficiently they replenish inventory, customer interactions are unwelcome  interruptions that negatively impact employee performance ratings. This, coupled with value of employees being reduced by every customer who opts out of the reward program, creates frustration and resentment towards customers, resulting in subpar service and poor feedback survey scores. 

Everything about the company is completely counterintuitive from questionable business practices, intentional deception of customers, and utter disregard for employee safety. It’s unfortunate they have the monopoly on craft supplies; there would be no way they would survive in a competitive market. 

As a high school student with a job at Michaels' part time, I honestly believe that the entire experience of the Michaels job was amazing. Usually, I was working the floor as a sales associate, although I was cross trained to literally every position available, aside from support specialist. 

Replenishment is a fast-past job with always something to do; whether it was stocking shelves, building "drive aisles" (portable aisles), or unloading the trucks that came in, it was always very fast paced.

Cashiering is also a fast paced job, but has a lot of down time during the evenings in non-season (pretty much from February through mid September).

Sales Associates/ Customer Experience Associates are a sometimes hectic job, but there is always something to do on the floor. Downstocking, recovery, and serving as a backup cashier are all daily activities done by the sales team. 

Classroom associates are obviously trained and taught how to do their respective classes. The "leaders guides" are very hard to follow, so many instructors just do their own thing. A colored printed version of the leaders guide would help this tremendously. 

At the store I worked at, I believe that during seasonal (early November- January) we were understaffed. Sundays were the worst as the lineups would be 20 customers long with a whopping 2 cashiers and a manager working the registers. No possibility of getting extra associates in without district or zone management approval. 

Communication among co-workers is great. Everybody knows everybody by name, and there is no "bad blood" within the team.

At first, this was a job I thought I would love, seeing as I am an artist and I love being creative. The fun was soon sucked out of this position for me. There is only one floral designer at each location, and they are alone in the department, the managers (who are mostly nice people) have no idea about training the designer, so a designer from another location has to train you. After a week, I was on my own (this is the same across the so cal district). Michaels goes through seasonal production, and does not allow the floral designer much assistance. So, its all about being able to figure it out yourself, and if you get hired during peak season (June to December) you better be prepared to hit the ground running. 

During seasonal production, you are sent pallet after pallet of supplies about 6 ft wide by 7 ft tall (blank wreaths, crosses, little vases with a little greenery) which you are to unload yourself, and have unpacked, designed, priced and merchandised within two weeks. This is the equivalent of about 150-200 units, not to mention the 250 bows they want you to make. During this time, you may or may not even have full time hours, and you will not receive any assistance (although to be fair I did get an assistant for 4 hours a week for about 4 weeks during christmas production:BIG HELP). In the time that I have worked there, June 2013 to March 2014, I have produced approximately 1900 units and 600 handmade bows, and I was told this was not enough! (It should have been about 2400) And what they also don't tell you is your "full time" status is really only honored during seasonal production, between Jan-May you're lucky to get 6 hour shifts, but the production demand is still about 80 units per week. During that shift, half of it will be taken up by helping the sales floor because we're constantly under-staffed, going to the bank and answering overflow calls.

All this, and I make $13.50/hr.

The work was easy; tasks included replenishing the shelves, unloading the truck, setting POGs, and other duties, which meant very early mornings (3 am-4 am), but it differs from store to store.  Usually only one shift a week (5-6 hours max) for replenishment, unless you cross-train into cash or custom framing. 

Store Management was good, although the store manager was very unorganized and forgetful.  They were very accommodating with schedule changes as long as given proper notice.  Upper management was unrealistic; they always cut hours, even though things needed to be done, which caused a strain on the workers and store management.  Not to mention, Michaels is not unionized, and they pay the lowest minimum wage. 

The workplace environment was the best! very supportive, very friendly, and non-judgmental coworkers, LGBTQ+ friendly, racially diverse, and gender diverse as well. They let you express yourself without judgment. 

The hardest part of the job was the customers, some of the rudest people I've ever dealt with in customer service! especially at the custom framing counter. 

Overall, it was a great place to work, but I think that has more to do with the coworkers/store management team than the actual company.  
Only full-time employees got benefits, but the catch is that only management is full-time. Everyone else is part-time.  Part-timers do get PTO, but not during peak season (September-February)  

They recently got self-checkout machines, and it cut the hours down to nothing for the part-timers, so be cautious of that. The discount was 30% off everything, even sale items, just not clearance.  

They do have a dress code, but overall, you're allowed to wear what you want (jeans, t-shirt). The uniform is a vest and a name tag. 



I started off at Michaels before they even opened setting up the store and stalking shelves. When the store opened I started as a cashier and then quickly moved up to the Support Specialist/ Cash office. A typical day for me starts off counting the change drawer, tills from the night before and the safe making sure everything balances out and prepare the bank deposit. Then I go through the paper work from all the cashiers from the day before and make sure they have all the correct return slips and void slips from the day, I complete a daily store funds audit form and then complete the daily business packet. I then call the bank for my coin order if needed then go to the bank pick up coin order and make the money drop of the store deposit. When I return from the bank I take a 15 minute brake and then get right back to work. after my brake I confirm and store use, store damages or custom floral uses into the system assuring that the quantity on hand count is not affected, Then I go to framing and confirm the orders from the day before and file the appropriate paper work, if UPS comes with a delivery I accept and sign for the packages and detail receive any products we got. After all this is done I check the system for any new price changes and if we have any I print them off and go around the store changing the appropriate price labels to the new price, sign off on it and hand them into my store manager. That is the majority of my job all while walking the sales floor and helping any customers along the way but on occasions I make phone calls for my manager, help out in kids club (crafts) and any other things needing help. I get along with all of the other employees very well and enjoy my job very much I am just looking for another job for extra hours. hoping for at least 20 hours a week from a second job as my set hours a week are 16 at my current place of employment.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Sales associate 1 salary reported	$30.90 per hour
Store manager 3 salaries reported	$86,333 per year
Replenishment manager 1 salary reported	$17.00 per hour
Replenishment associate 1 salary reported	$30,000 per year
Cashier/sales 1 salary reported	$20.00 per hour

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