Pros
The pay was quite good, and there is a gym and nurse practitioner on site. The company's location is nice; there are many good restaurants and many apartment complexes to choose from. Employees get a very good discount on the products.
Cons
Micromanagement is common; despite having 12 years' of work experience before joining Mary Kay, it was a year before I could send an email without my manager reviewing it first. I heard similar stories from others. I had very little decision-making ability, even over small aspects of the job. It is hard to get time off because the workload is high and there is pressure to work on your days off. When I left, I had over 2 weeks' worth of vacation that was paid out to me. It would have been great to actually use that time to recover from my job. Because it is hard to actually get time off, I am rating benefits lower. You do learn to walk on eggshells because it is easy to offend someone. You learn also that only the highest-ranking people are allowed to speak at meetings; my manager asked another manager for permission for me to speak at meetings. When you are allowed to speak, you learn there is a script of things you are allowed to say. If you veer off the script, you will be punished in some way, even if it's months after the offense. New ideas or ways of doing things are not welcome - someone is bound to be insulted by anything new suggested. Horizontal movement is almost impossible, and promotions are rare. Overall, it is the most demoralizing company I've worked for so far. I left worse than I arrived.
