4Cats Reviews

More cons than pros. I've never worked so hard for so little. The workload that is placed on one person is insane. I was once scheduled to work 3 separate parties one Saturday afternoon by myself. I had never done a party before and had zero training on what to do (they told me to just read about what to do). To set up, facilitate, and then clean up after 3 parties of screaming kids, it's too much for one person. Luckily the Friday before was slow and I was able to prep by pre portioning out clay - which you are not supposed to do - or I would have not gotten each party through on time. There are MANY safety concerns at any given time. I worked all summer with another girl and neither of us had first aid training. When I brought up safety hazards nothing came of it. There were constant scheduling changes, and often I would find out about it from a parent phoning in, the parents knew the schedule change but they had not informed us employees, it was embarrassing. I was put on fast track to become a manager, as far as I could tell it was not to do with merit at all, but rather I was the only one with a car and they could get me to commute between 2 locations in a day. I had reservations about the position based on seeing how the current manager was treated...so I asked some specific questions about pay and holidays during my conversation with the owner, and she could not answer a single question, or WOULD not, I should say. Sadly this place keeps going because they are able to wrangle very young, fresh out of high school employees who don't know any better and don't stand up for themselves. It seems like a great job on the surface, but don't be fooled, it will deplete your mental and physical health and you'll have barely compensation to show for it.

DO NOT WORK HERE if you care even the slightest about ethics, or teaching or art. - You will be exploited for your experience and skills and taken advantage of. - No proper training or encouragement, you're basically just thrown in the deep end and have to run a studio without being compensated fairly for all the jobs you have to do which includes being a teacher, a janitor, a nanny, customer service and sales. - You will be talked down to and belittled by management because they do not care about you. Staff are overworked and underpaid. - You have to recite the lesson plans word for word. Kids are not allowed any creative freedom and if they manage to add their own touch, you will be held accountable. - Be prepared to completely paint over work to make it look "good" (whatever that means). - Workshops have to be followed exactly as demonstrated or again, you will get in trouble. - Customers cannot reach management so you will have to deal with all complaints and angry customers even if the situation was out of your control. You will have to deal with awful customers that will yell at you.