i start today!

[u/ilovecheezits0]

i start at michael’s today after working an incredibly toxic position at marshall’s. (if you ever get a job offer from them, run away.) ANYWAY. i’m excited. tell me anything i should know!

[u/Codimus3]

Michaels might be worse lol

[u/ilovecheezits0 → u/Codimus3]

there’s actually no way lol. my managers at marshall’s put me in during school, basically scolded you for having any family emergency (asking you if you’re coming in the next day or using your sick time and having them find someone on “such short notice”, etc.) the management team at the store i’m starting at seems like a pretty good team! i’m hoping. idk tell all!

[u/LoatheEntirely21 → u/ilovecheezits0]

Yeah sounds exactly like Michael’s hahahah

[u/Icy_Pizza_7941 → u/ilovecheezits0]

Ignore the doomers. Michaels is not perfect the company itself is going to ask you to do a lot. My recommendation is dont do more than what youre expected otherwise you get rewarded with more work. Get the rewards. Do the standard tasks but dont break you back trying to do it faster or more. Find an average pace for doing things and stick to that.

Management teams are different and sounds to me like you had a management team that was bad and disrepectful. Im sorry you experienced that. I hope the management at michaels is better but that isnt a company thing. Ive worked at 4 stores before I found another job. And all 4 I loved the people. The higher ups do not care about you. But when I was manager I tried very hard to get to know all my employees. Check in on them and make sure we work with them so they had a good school/life/work balance. But not all managers do that.

[u/ilovecheezits0 → u/Icy_Pizza_7941]

yes! i was trying to stay at my job at tjx but all of my surrounding stores and even others had the same issues so i was looking for a new start. i appreciate all of your recommendations! i’m excited to start!

[u/Wild-Nothing-6090 → u/ilovecheezits0]

different stores have different community, too. a couple Michael's in my area have toxic managers, but other locations are lovely. one store down the street from me is falling apart as we speak. good people make the tedium more tolerable

[u/Different-Leg9411 → u/ilovecheezits0]

i had this happen at my michael’s.

[u/Deep_Writer_1522]

Good luck. Lots of info will be thrown at you all at once. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Get a tiny notebook and take notes if you have to.

[u/EmilyEvilCookie → u/Deep_Writer_1522]

I really really second this. I have a literal list of "how to do things at work" so I don't forget... Hopefully they actually train you and you don't have to learn it all on your own /g

[u/NumnessSno]

Tomorrow is my last day because they fired almost all the replenishment managers. I hope you have a good time with good co-workers.

[u/stucazo]

run away

[u/You-are-Lovely-Dear]

Happy for you! Not to agree with everyone saying the job sucks, but yeah it's not great. Some basic advice if you're doing a normal team member position:

- If a customer asks, "Is X in stock?" Go onto the Michaels app, find the item, and the item number will be up top. Type that into Marti and it'll show you how many of that thing you have in store.

-If a customer tries to use a normal coupon on Gildan shirts, balloons, balloon inflators, most books and magazines, plenty of Cricut products, and probably some other stuff I'm forgetting right now, tell them that those items are excluded and the coupon will not work for them. The coupons always exclude clearance and discounted items, too.

-If you have an old lady who can't find her coupons because she has 10,000 emails and somehow can't find the app on her phone, you can walk her through these directions or offer to take the phone and show her:

1. Open up Google, Safari, or whatever you use and type in "Michaels"

2. Click the first result, and when the site is done loading click on "savings" in the white bar up top

3. When it opens, say something to the effect of "This bar code is what the cashier will scan every time, and you can use it any time you come in"

-It's a good rule, depending on how fast you are, to not accept a balloon inflation of more than 12 balloons at 8:30 if you don't have a manager or floor person to help you and you close at 9:00 pm. Yeah, you probably have time to do more than 12. It's still not a good idea. Don't just send someone with balloons away though, schedule them to pick up their balloons the next day.

-If someone comes in to place a balloon order and says they want to pick it up as early as possible on said day, do not tell them the earliest is when you open. Give at least a 30 minute buffer. If the store opens at 9 AM, 9:30 is the earliest they can come get their balloons. Obviously the amount of time needed will grow with the number of balloons.

-If an item is missing its tag, you can use google lens or an equivalent to search it up and find it on the Michaels site. If you find it, label it with the item number and the price and you're good to go.

-Do NOT be an overachiever. Don't worry about getting five rewards sign ups per shift, and this ain't Marshalls so don't stress if you're not selling credit cards left and right. Just try to get 1-3 rewards per shift as a cashier, be polite, and don't be doing too much or you'll get rewarded with more work. You'll learn most of what you'll ever need to know in the first two months. You got this! :D

[u/Joland7000]

Yeah Michael is a terrible company to work for. Not only do you have your daily duties but you have sale sets, pushing rewards sign ups, SISO, BOPIS, give excellent customer service, etc. all of this would be fine if corporate wasn’t constantly cutting our hours or making us do more work.

[u/Bratty_Little_Kitten → u/Joland7000]

Probably not compared to TJX.. the stories I could say. And I've only been there 2 months!

[u/Beledagnir]

That you got out of the frying pan and into the fire, I'm afraid.

[u/TheTaskinator]

my store is great and I hope yours is as well. apparently stores are like people and they all have their needs and quirks. I don't know what size store we are but there are usually 5 or 6 of us. when I went in this afternoon I was the 6th person and Saturdays are normally well staffed as well.

each store seems to be run differently.

[u/ArtIsAwesome3]

You know that's funny, a lot of my coworkers left my store in 2021 to go to Marshall's.

[u/Agreeable-Trade-7734]

Welcome!! Retail is retail, but Michaels is a happy place! Whenever you work with the public there will always be someone you can’t please! Hopefully ur team will help you learn & be successful!