Worst mistake coming here - Anonymous employee Ulta Beauty Employee Review

2.0
30 Oct 2017
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Weekly (or nearly weekly) desk drops. Some stuff is good, some is meh. - Renovated space, so it’s clean - After 6 months, you can work from home one day a week - Offices in the city. You can work there one day a week. - Additional discounts on certain brands throughout the year

Cons

- Ugly building. It’s a shared building with other companies, and communal hallways are painted yellow. - Location. It’s Bolingbrook. Enough said. - CYA culture (as a previous post mentioned) - Lack of accountability by leadership - Weak leadership who are afraid to say no or push back - Unqualified leaders who have limited knowledge of the area they were hired for, which leads to a lack of vision, strategic thinking, and mentoring for their team. These leaders are well intentioned, but incompetent (and some are just plain old dumb, too), and they ultimately create more useless work for you. - Seems to be a lot of mediocre talent. Have yet to meet anyone who’s exceptionally talented or intelligent. A lot of people come from Sears. Seriously, Sears. - Very meeting happy culture. You have meetings about everything! - No work life balance. You’ll bust your behind for little pay, reward, and recognition. - Very much “do as I say not as I do” mentality with leadership. Oh, the hypocrisy that runs rampant as a result of this.

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5.0
17 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Fun place to work, fast pace and always newness

Cons

Very demanding of all levels of management

2.0
4 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

good benefits for full time employees from what I hear. hourly pay if commission goal isn't met which is nice for those building clientele

Cons

this could just be the case for my store, especially because it's a very high volume store, but as a stylist I don't feel valued at all. I expected this to some degree coming to a huge corporate salon, but the biggest issue is that they try to pretend they care about you. but at the end of the day, if you're not meeting the sales they want/growing quickly enough, they don't care about you as a stylist. if you don't already have an established clientele, business is highly unreliable as there is no late cancellation/no show policy. many services are underpriced in my opinion, making it hard to meet their sales goals as an entry level part-time stylist unless fully booked every day. all they care about is getting as many clients in and out and quickly and possible and they hire more stylists than there are chairs, making every day inconsistent and chaotic. the relative stability of hourly pay is commission threshold isn't met seems enticing for stylists still building a clientele, but the hourly pay is wildly inconsistent between stylists, even those of the same tier. as a stylist of over 3 years who moved and is starting over with no clientele, I make over $2 less per hour than a fellow stylist who just got her license a few months ago and started taking clients for the first time last week. you're better off working at a place like Great Clips or Hair Cuttery because at least they're honest about what they are.

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