Many employees of this company are mistreated. One thing I learned is to keep a notebook and document everything that happens. I got to where I trusted my Supervisor at one point and threw mine away. I regret doing so.
I no longer work for them and it is sad. The idea of the how the company should run is a good concept. It is a great environment to work in with wonderful prizes and incentives. As long as the the salon is fully staffed and it is turning out the numbers that they want. But, if you are short staffed or if the numbers start to drop the manager bares the blunt of all the pressure.
The salons are expected to be open no matter what because if they are not it breaks the contract with Walmart. Many think Walmart owns these salons but, they do not they are owned by Regis Corporation.
I was treated horribly by my supervisor for over two years. They micro manage the salons. Managers are not allowed to manage they are puppets.
I understand what you were trying to say but, please don't bad mouth the stylists and managers as a whole. I am very good at what I do. I worked hard to get educated, professional staff into my salon. Not all Smartstyles are run as you described. I do believe US wide the staff is used and abused but, rest assured it is all within the laws of the individual states that you are working in or they make sure to cover their tracks well enough that it looks that way.
I tried to fight the not being paid for meetings, over time etc. only to find that it all falls under the guidelines of the state I live in.
One things that makes it very difficult is once you have made a middle management or upper management person mad with this company it is very hard to go to work in many of the other corporate salons because they (regis) own so many of them. They own Borics, Fiesta, Smart Style, Regis, Mia and Max, Master Cuts.....So when you quit or you are terminated the Supervisor turns in things to Regis main office. You have no control over what that record says and they make sure you don't leave on good terms, making it next to impossible to get a fair shake in another division of this company.
I could not continue to work under the stress and back stabbing that was going on in my area. However I find my self still wanting to defend the company as a whole because I truly feel the concept is good. It is the upper management that has gone asstray and the main office just can't seem to see it.
It is going to take a legit class action lawsuit to get their attention. I was denied a chance of advancement because I had a second job. This was confirmed to me by my supervisor, a regional and the ceo's assistant. Once that decision was made it was a dead end job for me and they knew that they had taken the wind from beneath my wings. I no longer looked at it as a career it was just a job and that did not make them happy.
Stand firm in your beliefs and your ethics. I left, I miss my salon and the company that I poured my soul into however I got my pride and self respect back!