Pros
Made friends, discounts on products and hair services.
Cons
Pay is awful, you work for them for years and you might get a dollar raise. Stylists are so unappreciative of the work you do and yet say they wouldn't want to do your job because it looks miserable. It is. When you get hired, they tell you being a receptionist is the second hardest job, after assistants, and have the audacity to start you out at $8. The stress and amount of attitude from not only customers but stylists, coworkers, and managers is not worth it in the slightest. The company is fully aware of all the things we deal with and offer the equivalent of "thoughts and prayers" rather than actually doing something to help us out so we don't feel exploited. Managers do not care that you have a personal life and if you don't come in ON YOUR OFF DAY when they ask, they get mad at you. Favoritism is VERY obvious, they don't even attempt to hide it. Even the favorites get screwed over. The family that founded Visible Changes are nice, sure, but they seem to be out of touch. They do a lot of motivational speeches and such for stylists to motivate them to make more money but most of their receptionists, assistants, and junior levels can barely even pay their bills. A lot of people I worked with still lived at their parents because of how little they were being paid and how low the junior level commission is. Mind you these people were working 6, oftentimes 7, days a week. They shove selling retail so far down stylists throats that a lot of them spend their own money to be at a certain percentage. Imagine paying the company you're working for to get promoted. It's sad. A lot of people I worked with were actively pursuing different careers because of how stunted their growth was with this company. Additionally, the workday schedule is absolutely horrible. Stylists would constantly miss their lunches, have to eat between clients, send a receptionist or assistant out to get them food. Receptionists don't even have a schedule indicating when theyre going to lunch. There are no breaks, if you're in the bathroom for more than 2 minutes then they call you on the PA system to come to the desk. If you worked on a Sunday, you worked 12 hours with no lunch and no breaks, which is illegal mind you. When this gets brought up, managers just say oh well technically you can take a lunch. Imagine working 12 hours for what is supposed to be a high end salon and not even getting to eat. Every year they have a big meeting in Houston to give away vacations & cars and then have the audacity to cry about losing money and underpaying their staff. Their priorities are all over the place. I will say I have met some amazing people who worked for VC at various salons but that is pretty much the only good thing about working here. If you're looking to be a receptionist and have an ounce of respect for yourself, look elsewhere. If you're looking to do hair, you can build your clientele here but I wouldn't advise staying longer than absolutely necessary.
