Used to be great, new CEO did 180 degree flip on culture - Anonymous employee Guitar Center Employee Review

3.0
17 Jun 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Good schedules and relatively medium workload for retail

Cons

- New CEO has gutted much of what made company worth sticking around at. Laid off or fired many people to save money - New CEO has ruined employee purchase and financing programs which is what kept a lot of part time staff on board - New uniform programs go against the "Be yourself" ethos company was founded on - Corporate management can be both overly micro managing and inept at realizing what's going on in stores ate the same time - Many "In the field" jobs that people aspired to have and were vital to proper training and morale have been eliminated

Explore other reviews about Guitar Center

5.0
5 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You get a good discount

Cons

You work retail, which is difficult

1.0
21 Apr 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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