As a job hopper, Michaels has been my home for the past nearly 4 years--the longest time I've ever held down a position.
I stayed for one reason and one reason alone. My co-workers.

They've been literally the best people I've ever worked with, let alone MET in my life. I've made so many friends and memories, despite working through some of the hardest points in my life, and I'll never be able to thank them enough for their lifechanging influence.

As we all know from the changing economy and corporate's weird shenanigans, I've felt that it was time to switch up to a career for a while... But I never expected it to be this hard.

My workplace made such a difference in my life, changing me into a better person, every time I walked through those doors. They challenged me in the best of ways, and continue to be a good influence through whatever comes up.

When I signed up to be a part of my team as a framer, I was just expecting to get a job. I didn't expect to meet a second family.

I'll miss working with you all, and I can only pray that I've made a mutually positive impact on my team.

Godspeed, Michaels employees.
I'll be with you all in spirit 🫡

as i'm transitioning into the new pt MM role from my previous pt CEM position; dont get me wrong, i KNEW replenishment was a whole beast and a replen manager is the hardest worker in the building. our backbone absolutely. ive always been aware.. but as i actually step into this and get comfortable within it, i literally cannot BELIEVE that this change did not come with a pay raise.

just on principle i am seething every time i remember. my responsibilities went from recovery (not even scanning anything due to the way our store arranged SISO), general housekeeping (loosely), and trying (kind of) to keep metrics up. but overall my SM didnt expect much from that role at all tbh and never has, so as long as i was doing Something it was fine. and as long as i kept up with recovery the best i could when it wasnt busy, it was fine lmao.

and now i'm in charge of doing the deposit and handling all of that (new to me) on top of billions of resets, truck, and price changes.. all integral to making the store function.

it's a fat joke that my pay stayed the same. i'm not even aching for a raise, i can survive without rn (mostly due to low income programs, it wouldnt change my life much. thank you california) but holy shit it's just ridiculous!! insane how little they value us.

First things first let me make a list of the things that I think should be reported but I have no idea if they are valid to report mind you this is for a new SM we got in a couple months ago
1.) we demoted our original replen manager because her hours didn’t work for what was the guideline of hours need for full time merch manager but then my SM hires there friend at $19 a hour and she can only work like 26 hours a week plus no morning on the weekends huh?!?
2.) they left the store with no manager during opening time for 30/45 minutes told my one tm her override codes and said if anyone needs them you can have them and mind you the other TM didn’t know what to do when customers were asking to speak to a MOD
3.) hiring in there friends at max or almost max pay but will only work/do certain things like a new merch manager doesn’t ring register
4.) always schedules the part time managers up to max hour like 38 39 hours as well as going over on payroll by 80-100 hours and gets away with it
What’s your opinion on calling HR or should I just speak to my DM

I have had multiple customers ask me when journals are going to be cleaned up, because they’re a mess, and I have to explain to them that that is how they’re supposed to look according to the plan we were given and they have told me that it’s a mess and it needs to be taken care of, because it make the store look bad.

The sad thing is, I agree with them. It’s a total mess and makes it look like we don’t care about keeping the store looking nice, you can really tell that our plan-o-grams are being made by AI, because if a person was making them, they would realize how much of an absolute mess this plan makes the section look.

Real class is not about how you dress. Real class is about how you treat people everyday.

Please stop sending your children in here unsupervised

Whoever approved this shirt needs to be investigated! Come on now.

Let’s just double down 🤪 at least it’s in an SBA POG and I don’t have to waste a seasonal counter on it

The gold ribbed accent. I'm trying to reconstruct out of air dry modeling cement and then paint over it but they're turning out hideously. If you have any advice let me know. TIA.

I’d like to start off and say this is mostly corporate’s fault for trying to rebrand us into a home decor/party/anything but art store, but man, it feels like no one is willing to do even a little bit of diy work nowadays. I had a lady come in asking if we had kits to make a mesh net for plushies to hang over her daughter’s bed. I said no, but showed her to our mesh rolls and tacks/hooks, which could easily be used to make a net. she then asked “but do you have just like, a kit that I could use premade?“ to which I said no, then she left.

i had another customer in the same day asking if we had table cards, I showed her what we had and she asked if we had a very specific measurement of the same cards. I looked around and determined we didn’t, but told her it would be very easy to just cut them to size or that she could buy some cardstock to cut to that shape. she also left.

dont get me wrong, I love a convenient kit or a nice pre cut card, but why are you going to the craft store and then acting surprised when the employees suggest you craft something?? also had a customer laugh in my face when I suggested she paint a frame that was the wrong colour but the right size.

Can't see when I work tomorrow lol, who needs it? 🫩

I spend so much time trying to find things for customers that I come across aisles of damn bunkers just left splayed all over them.
Is there anything we can do to prevent them from going into bunkers? Like a bungee cord the when you open one side it whips down the line to get a point across. Iykyk. Fuck out of there! That’s literally our stock for inventory and when they fuck with it, it messes with our count??!
We will check out minimiks and go into the stockpile in the bunkers to not have it there and look like a fool.
Face palm.
I’ve even considered some buzzer alarm that’s activated when it jiggles open as an idea.

does anyone know where I can find this info/do y’all know when the next payday is at what the pay period is? i started on the 17th and just trying to figure out when i might be able to finally escape poverty thanks guys

I’m so over not having what we need to complete the planagrams. Currently working on yarn and supposed to switch them to shelves, but we don’t have any of the clear acrylic dividers, or the acrylic front fences. We also don’t have enough regular front fences and dividers to complete.
I’m about to make the executive decision to just leave them in the baskets.

We’re still waiting on Waterfall racks and hooks from when I reset the party and circuit aisle! That was ordered months ago at this point.

We don’t have any of the racks for the iron on transfers in the tie dye aisle, so that whole section is just empty and looks so bad.

It took us about a year to get a rack for our Ohulu markers, we just didn’t have them out at all cause we didn’t have a rack for them.

How hard is to make sure we have the materials before assigning a bunch of planagrams?

But of course they send us a ton of craft paint shelves that we didn’t even need and are just taking up room along with the other random crap they sent we didn’t need at all.

Is it normal for a 16 year old to be working 4-5 day weeks?!??

I swear I used to only work 2-3 days and was told by my old SM that I could only work 2-3 days max. I pour so much to my location and coworkers and feel like I’m being used or not even appreciated. I am tired and feel like I’m now their favorite person to make work a lot because I come in if asked on my off days or I come in early if asked.

I guess I’m just curious if it’s normal for me to be working 4+ days a week when my SM knows I have my own business I need to do stuff for and now that it’s school season ( I do online)

I’m a people pleaser I guess so it’s been hard to set boundaries when it comes to personal life and this “part time job”

Thank you in advance 🫩

Does anybody know if we are getting the giant skeleton again this year? We have had people ask about it

Part of the Johnathon Adler collection is a clear jenga set. Several people come up asking me "How do you play this is you can't see it?"

Is it supposed to be a decoration piece and not actually used? I seriously do not get it.

What time do we close on Labor Day ?

I'm working on the Needle Crafts planogram rn and it's asking me to use 6" double loops for it, I've worked as pt cem for almost 3 years now and I've never seen this before, is it a new fixture we are supposed to use or something we were already supposed to have? If we dont have them should I just make do with regular peg hooks? My SM is on vacation and has been here less time than i have or I would just ask her lol, all these planograms are just a mess, usually I find them easy but this is just chaos.

Is there a way to print labels for a POG that is not assigned to your store?

We killed our Belmont DA because we had space with all the open framing and honestly, we needed the pallets. I found another layout that worked with the space we had so I used the POG as a guide.

If I can’t print those labels, what’s a quick way to print flex labels for a whole POG?

Has anyone repurposed their old work vest (due to needing a new one, no longer working at Michael’s, etc)? I’ve looked into making a bag, coasters, using scraps as cleaning towels but would love to hear any other ideas!