American Greetings Reviews

Former Employee – worked at American Greetings part-time for more than a year

Pros – There were no pros to working for American Greetings. Its not a positive company to work for.

Cons – Where do I begin? You get reprimanded for going over in hours, (which in some stores you are lucky to get one hour every other week) yet it's impossible to straighten "clean sweep" even half of your department with the minimal amount of time allotted, let alone put out an order, place and order, and deal with shop-backs and other tasks that may arise. There were many times when I would stay over my allotted time and not report it so that I could try to get the department looking halfway decent. So in short, that meant I was working for free because if we were to go over our time, we were threatened with negativity. Speaking of negativity, it apparently must be a criteria for the area supervisors to be stone cold and brainwashed by company procedure that in short, is so outdated right down to the clunky scanners that have to be at least 20 years old. There was never any positive feedback. I am a hard working, honest person by nature, but unless you want to bust your butt for little pay and no appreciation, I definitely would look for a job elsewhere and skip working for American Greetings.

Advice to Senior Management – Try some positive reinforcement for once. Also, standing behind your merchandisers would have been nice, as well as acknowledging that they are hard-working and deserve to be paid for the time put in without having the fear of being reprimanded. It's not like being scheduled 1 hour every other week is going to come even close to overtime.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Greetings part-time for more than a year

Pros – I can't think of any Pros.

Cons – High expectations yet little hours given. Always told never go over hours and yet get reprimanded for things not getting satisfactory completed.

Advice to Senior Management – A major revamp is needed for your processes, especially for disposing of season cards. It's such a sad waste of paper. Too much is demanded to be done when calls are only scheduled every other week with few hours even when there is a call.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Greetings part-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Somewhat flexible schedule, no other pros

Cons – no place for advancement, under staff, little training, very little pay for work done

Advice to Senior Management – All of upper management changes or has been moved to India

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Greetings full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Very creative people and good technical tools.

Cons – Not innovative or market focused. Marginal chances for advancement and mediocre compensation.

Advice to Senior Management – Let creative people be creative and pay them for their talent.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Greetings part-time for more than 10 years

Pros – It was a nice company to work for at the begining.

Cons – The company was not giving enough work hours. There is no communication between the supervisors and workers in the Pittsburgh, PA area. When a problem arises nothing seems to be done about it. The supervisor never shows up when is suppose to. The pay and advancement is poor.

Advice to Senior Management – To train supervisors with more of an emphasis on people skills.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at American Greetings full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – My division was very casual, I could wear jeans every day, and we had free soda.

Cons – They are very fickle about who they value as employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at American Greetings

Pros – Our schedules are fairly flexible. I enjoy the actual work involved in merchandising and working with other merchandisers at revisions.

Cons – I've never worked for a company that criticized their people about the silliest things. No matter how hard you work, it is never good enough. They expect you to complete tasks in very small amounts of time and when it doesn't get done, they don't understand why. Many people work off the clock so they don't get in trouble for going over hours. When raise time comes around and you are rated as "Exceeding Expectations", they tell you that you can't get the raise that goes with it because you make too much money. If I were supporting a family alone, my wages would be considered poverty level.

Advice to Senior Management – When you want to criticize your employees, at least make it something that makes a difference in sales. You shouldn't make criticizing a required part of workwiths. If someone does a good job, give them the raise they deserve - you really don't pay that well. Stop telling us that the budget for merchandising is your biggest expense. Without us, you would have no sales.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Greetings

Pros – This is a review for what is now known as Papyrus-Recycled Greetings located in Chicago.
Wonderful people, young and old who are a pleasure to work with.
Everyone works hard to get their jobs done.
Located downtown with excellent transportation options.

Cons – Recycled Paper Greetings is dead. AG killed what once was a lovely company to work for. Job security is always an issue and stressful to one’s life. The attitude is be thankful you have a job which creates very low morale. The hours are not flexible AT ALL, except for management. Can be difficult to get time off. Don't get sick since the health benefits won't cover much and are very expensive. No diversity.

Advice to Senior Management – Be honest. Be modern. Stop treating adults like children. Think about what you're doing and the horrible, humiliating environment you're creating.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at American Greetings

Pros – Very creative environment
Starbucks inside of the building
Inspiring building with lots of art and color
For some, the move to Westlake

Cons – The work environment is not very inclusive
Management team lacks leadership skills
The benefits are horrible and expensive
Lack of diversity in thought and ethnic background
No career path. You get stuck in the role you are hired in.

Advice to Senior Management – Take care of your current associates if you want to get more. Network with your peers outside of the company to learn some of their best practices.

Former Employee – worked at American Greetings

Pros – Just to be completely clear - this review is for the Chicago office of AG. It's also referred to as Papyrus-Recycled Greetings, or PRG.
The Cleveland office of AG seems to have everything together. People seem happy for the most part - morale is okay overall. And I worked closely with several people in Cleveland who were just awesome. Seriously - really great people. I'm blessed to know them.
The Chicago office, however, does has some perks that are nice. It's downtown. There are some really great people that work there. Some of the best, and possibly most interesting people you'll ever work with actually.

Cons – The Chicago office has some of the worst senior management that I've ever worked with/for/under. Very manipulative and "read-my-mind"/"kiss my butt". There's constant turnover - and very low office morale.
Most everyone obsessed about leaving or fantasized about being let go.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop being so insecure and passive aggressive - or in one case, two-faced and overtly aggressive. Great leaders aren't made of that stuff. You were put there for a reason (and I want to think it wasn't to run that place into the ground - but I'm not completely sure). Trust your employees to do their job and do it well. Also - it's okay to offer constructive feedback and offer/provide direction instead of expecting people to read your mind.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend