Working at great clips for hair — Reviews by Employees

I have been with GC and enjoy my job. they have vacation pay, holiday pay and health insurance. The GC I work at is a successful one. I made great tips and good pay. I would not make it a place to work for to long. anyone that wants more flexibility and would like kind words and great management then go to a full service salon. You must cut hair under 17 min or you will be fired, 8-9 hour shift and 30 min break. You are working fast,fast,fast like at a warehouse. One after another. People put yrs into this company just so they can be degreated, and then fired on the spot. If you been cutting for yrs and go to there training class to learn to cut there way but you see the trainer sucks. You are out of a job if you say anything about it. Just think about it GC only does cuts. You will lose all that you have been train at cosmatology school. if you stay to long with GC. The pay is great, But you will be treated unfairly.

I have been with GC for 14 years and enjoy my job. With every job there are things we like or dislike. I have full paid benefits, vacation, holiday pay and health insurance. If have an IRA that the company matches my contributions. Have a yearly retention bonus I get paid for just being with the company evey year. The GC I work at is a successful company. We see average over 2000 people a month. I make great tips and good pay. I would recommmend it to anyone that wants more flexibility then a full service salon. GC is not cut throat..... if customers like you they will find you, it's all about getting them to come back. You need to find a GC organization that believes in the value of family and walks the walk themselves.

I have only worked here for about a year.. I have been doing hair for 10 years. And for someone who is right out of school its a great job. For someone who has been doing hair a few years it is ok.. Not sure if I will say or not...

I have been at Great Clips for 18 years. I think it is a great place to work. All you people that are bashing it.....I am guessing you got fired! (for a reason that you can't admit to or are in denial).
Most employees that are good love great clips and stay there. I have seen many stylists come and go and many that leave beg to come back!!!

First of all... it sounds like all of the people who posted previous reviews about Great Clips worked at stores that were managed poorly. Saying that Great Clips "forces they're stylists to stand for 8 hours with barely a 1/2 hour break" has NOTHING to do with Great Clips as a whole. If you aren't getting breaks when working more than 6.5 hours then talk to your manager about it! If that doesn't work talk to your franchisee! DO something about it and if nothing works then it sounds like you are working for the wrong person. Try another Great Clips location. Just because you have one bad experience with a store it doesn't mean all of them are run that way. And to say that they force you to do 3-4 haircuts per hour causing you to have carpal tunnel and bad knees is completely ridiculous! Did you not know before you finished cosmetology school that issues like that were part of the job?! No matter where you work you are going to have problems with your back, knees, hands, etc. as long as you are doing haircuts. THAT'S WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE CONSTANTLY USING YOUR HANDS AND STANDING ON YOUR FEET FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME! Not being able to take a potty break because you "are only allowed 3 minutes between haircuts"? How long does it take you go use the restroom? The 3 minutes (or however long your non-cut time should be) is the PREFERRED amount of time you should take between serving customers. Think about it, are you really going to be punished for using the restroom? And the reason Great Clips prefers you to be able to do a haircut within 13-17 minutes is because Great Clips is all about convenience, which is something you should've learned in orientation. Seriously, what kind of punishment do you get for not keeping your haircut times within the preferred range? A "documentation"? HOW HORRIBLE!

About the pay... I'm sure we would all like to make more money than we actually do. There's nothing wrong with that. But where the hell can you work as a hairstylist and make $9+ an hour, plus commision, plus tips?! I know a ton of hairstylists that would kill to be able to make $8-$9 an hour and to have a definite paycheck. Not all franchises pay minimum wage for training. Honestly I can't believe someone would complain about being payed anything for learning! You are being taught valuable information (whether you think so or not) and being payed to do it! Literally all you have to do is show up, watch videos, and do certain haircuts on mannequins. If that was going to be such a problem then why agree to do it? And just to clear this up; Great Clips DOES offer benefits, it depends on the franchisee you work for. If you aren't getting benefits because you work part-time it's because hmm... think about it... you're working part-time! Which could mean less than 20 hours a week! But I'll bet money that if you were offered benefits you would then be bitching about how much it costs for insurance!

It sounds to me that these people worked at stores that were run by managers who didn't know what they were doing. But believe it or not, some managers at Great Clips do know what they're doing and it can be a great company to work for. Final words: All of the "rules" are laid out for you to see and hear before you start your job, if you don't like them find somewhere else to work!

I have worked for greatclips for 4 yrs now and love it. The crew at our store is awesome. We work together as a team and have very little turnover at our store. Our four owners are so kool to work for they have 11 stores now and are so careful and try to only hire quality stylists I never have to be embarresed or worry about picking up someone elses slack.. they seem to care about their employees and treat us all with respect. I feel so bad for the other people after reading some of the post on here they must have had really crappy franchisee owners. So if your ever in cincy check out Cincyclips dba greatclips....Truly a great fun work enviroment and i have worked at 6 of the 11 stores in there great clips (cincyclips) franchise corp. I never had to put up with all that bullcrap i read on some of the other posts. Heres there website if anyones interested in job listings go to Cincyclips.com
Have a great day!

I actually use to work for Great Clips in Lima ohio as a stylist in 2006/07. I loved my manager and my job. The pay was decent for what i was making, the Manager was fun loving, hilarious to work with and always wanted to make sure that everything was running smoothly with no cauos. We had a strong team there, where we would pull shifts for each other if one was sick or kids were sick. The manager did not live close by but she would cover shifts or come in early to help out! The manager truley cared about all of us girls by giving love and caring to each of us. The location was awesome and work enviorment was so good that you actuallly enjoyed going to work. It was a great job and I miss it. I had to move away with my mother and the Great Clips in my area are not as great as the one in Ohio. My manager at the time made sure she took the time to have a going away party for me and gave me the most beautiful book with sayings in it to get through life, I will truly never forget her, she was one of a kind. My manager always made sure that we each had a life with our family as well as days off as needed so we could do what we wanted with boyfriends and friends and she always gave each and everyone the most respect ever by talking with you about problems working through them rather then blowing you off. She truley cared and It was the best boss i have ever had! So KUDOS to you GREAT CLIPS FOR SUCH A GREAT MANAGER and GREAT EXPERIENCE! and SORRY to the rest of you who have had bad experiences with great clips, im sure every employee has something bad to say about there employer wheter its great clips or hospital jobs, walmart, etc......

This shop is great. The ladies that work there are skilled. The manager is flexible and makes an effort. I don't mind working there, it's actually fun. The owner of the shop is a nice guy.

I have worked for great clips for 6 years and I enjoy it. My franchisee is wonderful.He provides us with everything we need and is always respectful to us.Pay could be better but thats how this company works.I make excellent tip money so that makes up for it. Benefits are offered but they arent the greatest but what hair dresser does have good benefits. My manager is the best manager that I have ever worked for. I go to school and raise a family and my manager has always worked my schedule around my needs.We have a very busy salon and I have known the girls I work with for a long time.Everyone gets along great.

The Franchisee that I work for is the greatest. He pays his employee's very good, great benefit package ranging from 3 weeks paid vacation, health,dental, disability insurance and more. Really makes you feel at like you want to come to work. The manager of the location I work at is the best, very caring, professional, willing to go out of his way to help. We all really feel like a family. Since our manager has taken over our location the salon has turned around and even the customers notice the change. Our manager has trained every employee how to open and close the store and has us help him with other stuff around the shop. We all feel like we are assistant managers and gladly take on this responsibility since we all take great pride in our salon. Our manager has already turned one location around for our franchisee and has worked wonders at our location. We are all sad that he will be moving on to the next location soon but the light at the end of our tunnel is that once he gets all four locations turned around he will then be working in all 4 of the salons as our GM