Mary Kay reviews

3.9

72% would recommend to a friend

(1,019 total reviews)

Ryan Rogers

73% approve of CEO

61% positive business outlook

Mary Kay has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 1,019 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Mary Kay employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Produktion industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

1K reviews
4.0
Sep 22, 2023

Corporate Employee Review

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

This review is from someone who actually worked at the HQ as a full time employee, not by an independent sales consultant. Overall, MK is a good company with a senior leadership team who made decisions with employees in mind, at least when I worked there. The benefits were excellent and the pay was decent, though not top-tier. Profit sharing into the retirement fund was generous, while it lasted. For most departments, the work life balance was good. Turnover was low and people were in general happy, as long as you drink the pink cool aid. For a number of years, the company enjoyed excellent growth and sales in emerging markets. The HQ sits in a beautiful building in a central location in Addison, with underground garage parking and on-site cafeteria, clinic and gym. Many tenured mid-level employees have private offices. The dress code used to be stuffy business, but they have been relaxed in recent years. Every holiday season, the company would give employees gifts and small bonuses. Employees can buy cosmetic products at a significant discount.

Cons

With a highly tenured employee base, the company has a very change resistant culture. "The Mary Kay Way" is often used as an excuse not to adopt industry best practices. Career MKers are deeply entrenched in their ways and closely guard their limited knowledge and archaic systems and processes. Many old timers have figured out how to appear busy while slacking off. Any attempts to improve practices by fresher minds are bitterly resisted and fought. Some larger departments are polluted with toxic politics and long-running personal grudges. Promotions are pretty much based on tenure and popularity. The company's global sales have suffered significant setbacks in recent years. There have been a lot of changes in the top leadership. Competition in this space is fierce with a lot of new companies with trendier products. MK needs to revamp its product lines and shed the "grandma" image to attract younger generation consultants and customers. In the short run, it will have to cut some fat.

3.0
Nov 8, 2017

You make money when you have money.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Working for yourself independently. You are your own boss that you get to plan the hours you work that makes it really convenient . Decent money if you have a good customer base & You team build & promote yourself to director. You can earn tons of prizes from the company as well as your director. Training entrance which is always wonderful. A lot of wonderful amazing women you get to work on side of every day. You make women young & old feel like a million bucks- feel gorgeous-feel pretty-AND look instantly younger! A lot of happy people that will look stunning as they age. Guiding other ladies down the path of self care. Giving back to the community through fundraisers, etc. I’ve helped the Boys & Girls Clubs, nursing home residents, hospital patients, school children, contestants on gameshows, the list goes on & on. Finally, personal growth. You can team build anywhere in the US, and when/if you become a Director you can team build around the world. I believe it’s 33 countries that MK sales in. Love the 90% buyback guarantee. The opportunity to earn the use of a FREE car isn’t so bad either!

Cons

It felt like I had become a member of a cult. My family & friends felt the same way too. It was MK this, MK that, MK, MK, MK everything. Every waking moment I was engrossed with it in some fashion. There’s A lack of training in many areas. On the business side it’s a disgrace! As far as the training on taxes, having your office in order, and how to run a successful business -it is pretty much nil until about a month before tax time. Even then there is very minimal training- one hour tops. And they waste more paper! Everything has to be printed, because the training for everything is online just go and look in the filing cabinet on any Dierctors MK team page. Omg! I can’t tell you how many times I needed just a little help, non the less my Director would just toss me to the side & send me down the wild goose egg aisle. Once in said filing cabinet, you’ll peruse until you can’t peruse anymore. There is SO many awesome ideas, themes, omg it’s every woman’s wonderland! Except you’ve spent 4 hours looking for something that you never found, you can’t remember why you went there in the first place, you’ve wiped out 3 large oak trees that are happily now pieces of paper that are strewn across your lap, the couch, half the living room floor, into the kitchen stealing your entire kitchen table & all semblance of peace & order in your home. Now you have 22 SUPER ideas, that when you speak to & run past your Director she interjects before you can even get momentum-no, the reason why blah blah blah take this out do that different etc, spend 2-4 hours on the phone with her confusing your brain that’s already busting at the seams from information download to immma gonnnna blow! And indeed there she blows- my time, my emotions/ego, my spirituality, me-everything I have-a heart willing to do the job to the best of my ability-change the world one face at a time, make a difference, make everyone feel special, loved & cared...except me. I was a number. My ExDirector is part of the cult heritage that sadly has dictated this amazing company for many a decade. They have you invest as much as you can in inventory (5K retail investment in inventory is the golden goose of MK-that’s $10,000 in retail worth of makeup & beauty products. That’s a heck of a lot! This product mainly all has a shelf life, so it’s been sitting in a warehouse 2-4 years, you get it, it has to be sold before expiration. That should be easy enough to know-The expiration date – you would think, but nope it’s some Davinci code that’s so complicated & weird. Impossible! Once I figured it out (I think I did anywho) it seemed like my product only had about a year to two years left to sell it. You don’t sell it, it expires...you’re the brand new owner of old beauty products you can’t sell-you can’t wear, it’s useless & now trash-garbage yep.heres a good question: Why would you punish your loyal Independant beauty consultants? Why have us write off the loss? Wouldn’t a big, huge company whose sales annually are in the millions- wouldn’t it be beneficial for everybody if they would write it off? Here’s what happened to me- Everything trickles down to the person that invests in themselves to become a part of Mary Kay- as an independent beauty consultant who invests everything they have in their heart- their songs- their dreams and passions and every time it comes out of our Pocket. Lots of prizes, but they’re cheap little trinkets that are sparkly and shiny oh so pretty-for a few times that you wear it then the copper starts rubbing off- from China for our prizes and then they don’t even have thebdecency to takeThe tacky round Made in China stickers off. This company feeds off of their salesforce that is their bread-and-butter. The lack of training -true training and having a quality leader someone that isn’t a cult queen- my ExDirector literally teaches that people are numbers & you have to just go through them-next, next, next in order to earn the car or become director. Not all are like her and most of the Mary Kay cult is finally retiring & leaving. Thankfully! Excellent company & a great way to make money if you have money. if you don’t have money do not get into direct sales. go get a regular job, get on your feet-meet people at that job and you’ll be meeting your future customers that will be the catapult to you leaving your 9-5 & being a lady BOSS-operating your very own business! Be smart work smart & Good luck!

Viewing 25 - 27 of 1,019 Reviews

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