Gibson Guitar Reviews

Pros

Clean place,good benifits.could be enjoyable under correct management

Cons

Poor communication,treat employees like crap,no acknoledgement of good work or working harder or past expectations to get the job done,unreasonable late policy,they dont care if something happens beyond your control that makes you just a few minutes late.supervisors are more concerned with degrading employees than quality of work,they act irritated if you ask questions and then chastize you for not knowing what to do,shop manager didnt even introduce himself,i was thrown in and expected to know the company as if id been there for years

Advice to Senior Management

Be more reasonable and understanding with employees.encourage hard quality work.treat people with respect.get new supervisors!if you want to make more guitars dont fire good workers for being a few minites late one day

Pros

The new COO is amazing. A total visionary and creative genius who will end up running the company. Hopefully sooner than later!

Cons

Current CEO is out of touch with the consumer, retailers, and employees. His misguided frustration trickles throughout the company and has eroded morale.

Advice to Senior Management

Support the COO he will lead us out of the mess that the CEO has made.

Pros

Everyone under management is great to work with

Cons

No decision ever makes sense. Company cares nothing for the employees, owner literally called us "tools" that the company uses how and when they need. Company can not be honest with its employees, and lovesto work them like a dog.

Advice to Senior Management

Management doesn't listen to anyone....this is pointless

Pros

Impressive brand recognition. Your feet are put to the fire so you definitely get plenty of career experiences and are able to expand your knowledge due to performing in so many areas.

Cons

What can I say that hasn't already been said. Most of the negative comments you will read on this website about Gibson are true. Unreasonably dictatorship-like management style from CEO that ultimately trickles down. Reports requested that have no real value. I was hired for my expertise in my field and then when I used it, was told by senior management that I should only do what the CEO wants (even if it is the wrong business decision). So why hire people for their knowledge. Why not get trainable monkeys who can fulfill and execute the ridiculous requests?

Advice to Senior Management

Let your people do what they were hired to do. The CEO needs to step aside and let a real-world management team improve the way the business is run and watch the profit margins soar.

Pros

The simple thought of producing guitars is cool! Just imagine, your favorite musician could be playing a guitar that YOU helped put together! How awesome is that!?? The knowledge equipped from being employed with Gibson guitar is valuable as well. If ones plans to settle for an average lifestyle and agrees to let good enough BE good enough, than a 'slave' for the rest of their life is what you can match up to be if you work within this company!

Cons

Gibson is a VERY VERY VERY unorganized company. As far as opportunity for promotion is concerned, there is NONE! Attempting to excel within the company is equivalent to running on a treadmill. No matter how hard you push yourself, no matter how hard you run, you will go nowhere! All that the company cares about is getting their production number. If you work for Gibson, you will just be another set of hands. They will NOT reward you for your hard work.

Advice to Senior Management

Develop organizational skills. Stick to your word as far as promotions go. If you are going to promote a current employee to a lead or to a higher paying position, actually pay them! Do without the sorry excuses of 'We need Henry's signature!' In addition, provide notice as far as the overtime is concerned. I'm tired of finding out on Friday, an hour before it's time to punch-out, that Saturday morning, I suddenly have to come in and work a ten hour shift.

Pros

Cool brand, great music heritage

Cons

Irrational, reclusive and abusive CEO that can't deal with people and who micromanages to the extreme and makes decision in a vacuum with no thought of the outcome. Toxic work environment with horrible employee morale. Random firings of great people for no apparent reason. Ridiculous daily reports to the CEO that often go unread. Worse than you can possibly imagine.

Advice to Senior Management

The CEO must step down. Let someone with real vision and a level head take Gibson forward not backward. The brand is becoming tarnished and irrelevant because of poor strategy and product choices.

Pros

Brand history
Fantastic product
Wonderful team to work with
Endless opportunity for creative thinking
Independence
Flexible Schedule

Amazing day to day job. Always something new, and we are always working outside of the box. Opportunity to work with a global team of total pros in the music industry. The perspective I have gotten from this job is invaluable - there are no limits to what you can do, as long as you have the creativity to dream it up. The organization at corporate has vastly improved with the creation of the national ER Directors, and I believe that the entire team from the top to bottom all of the best of intentions - except the CEO is pretty scary...

Cons

No direction
Upper management tends to contradict themselves
CEO
unstable work environment

I LOVE my job. But honestly I never know if it will be here tomorrow. The company leads with scare tactics instead of support and encouragement. It seems there is always a cloak of mystery surrounding any employee leaving, getting fired, etc. A lot of folks don't like the way corporate is run, but I tell you what, it is the most amazing day-to-day job I have ever had, and I've never seen another opportunity like it. I'm very grateful to Gibson for the chance to work for this brand and for the amazing musicians that we help every day.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your team! You have the best of the best representing you, yet you do not listen to us when it matters. This won't change, but the CEO needs to stop using scare tactics to get what he wants. The job would be so much more rewarding if we were recognized for our successes as much as our "failures"

Pros

Rich brand heritage
Excellent products
Great team and team spirit
High level of independence (at least in my field)
Chances to really prove myself and come up with plans that get implemented most of the time
Great support by all elements of team
I can say that, every time I took a chance on something, I received backup and support and, contrary to many other places where you have "double managers" on everything, I am free to make my decisions in my field of competence and expertise.
I was never "employed" before (have been self-employed since university) so this came somewhat natural to me.
I cannot comment on the environment in Nashville or other locations but can say that my visits there were pleasant.

Cons

There is no roadmap on how to work at Gibson and a high level of self-starter mentality is required to go places here. It does take time to get approvals on certain things. Certain processes could be slim-lined but there is large efforts made to improve things across the board.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep on listening to what the fans want without losing direction. Keep up the support you give to many artists worldwide as they are what makes people want to continue to play our instruments or discover them. You have a great team and many, many people that really care about the brand.

Pros

Good brand. Good people. The vast majority of the employees are dedicated to the company and really work hard to make the company successful.

Cons

Lack of communication. Lack of authority given to managers to go along with their responsibility. Many polices make it very difficult to react in a timely way.

Advice to Senior Management

Let managers manage. Let them do what they were hired to do. Many great people have been through the company.

Pros

Benefits and compensation were good due to their difficulties in finding new employees that do not know about the company.

Cons

Management and co-workers were paranoid and cut throat. My job was eliminated by management that did not know the skill sets of his team well enough to make informed decisions.
I have never worked for a more dysfunctional company

Advice to Senior Management

Henry needs to step down. Until he does nothing will change at Gibson.