"She do too much!" Chaos at Guitar Center.
By The Horse
@TheHorse (233219)
Walnut Creek, California
December 24, 2025 12:36pm CST
We have a new "Lessons Lead" at Guitar Center.
The Lessons Lead is responsible for signing students up, making sure teachers get their daily schedules, and making sure we (the teachers) have the resources we need to teach effectively.
Our new Lessons Lead is a woman of 25. She "hit the ground running," with all sorts of plans for how to "improve" our Lessons Department. Our Lessons Department is one of the most highly rated in the US,
To "cut to the chase," her focus on "big plans" has led to utter chaos at the teacher level.
Yesterday, she was supposed to observe a lesson I gave to a developmentally delayed male student. She did not show. There were no printed schedules for any of the teachers. Once the schedules emerged (on one of the teachers' cell phones), there were massive conflicts, with more than one student being assigned to a given teacher at a given time. I gave two lessons during my break times to cover for the errors. After a couple of "trial lessons" I gave to prospective students during the day, the students wanted to sign up. They could not sign up because she was nowhere to be found. I wanted to mark my piano keys keys with "kid markers" for a 4-year-old piano student, but my kid markers (bought by me at Dollar Tree) had been "disappeared."
Near the end of the day, I wanted to copy and print out Bach's Minuet in G for a teenage student who has been with me for two years. The book I intended to use was gone from where it had sat for weeks. I searched but could not find it.
Finally, it was my time to go home. I was pretty pooped and pretty frustrated. But there was a teenage boy and his parents there, waiting for a trial lesson. No teachers were available. The other teachers were there, scratching their heads. The Lessons Lead was nowhere to be found. The teenager's parents, who looked Middle Eastern and did not speak much English, looked pretty angry.
I volunteered to stay late and gave the young man a guitar lesson. He was a beginner, but a quick learner. I showed him how to hold the guitar, how to label the strings, and four basic chords. Of course, I also taught him the main riff to "Iron Man." Boys need Iron Man. I told him I would chart out the four chords I had taught him. When I got to the file cabinet,there were NO CHORD SHEETS there.
I was so done.
I improvised and wrote out the chords on a "guitar tab" sheet.
And then I turned in my resignation.
Not really, but one of our best guitar teachers, Steve, has taken a two-month
leave of absence. I'll have to learn why.
Have you ever worked in an environment where a new hire led to complete chaos?
11 people like this
8 responses
@snowy22315 (200450)
• United States
24 Dec
I had a supervisor like that once who would never show up at stated times, and generally was a PIA. It turned out she was doing something very inappropriate during the time off.
2 people like this

@LindaOHio (209042)
• United States
9h
No; but I have every bit of sympathy for you. I'm sorry she ruined the good organization that you had.
1 person likes this
@GardenGerty (166883)
• United States
17h
Yes, I have. Often have had people who tried to tell everyone how to do their job when they basically had never done said job in their life. It does not sound like you had a very good day at all.
@JudyEv (367926)
• Rockingham, Australia
20h
That is just so wrong on all levels. Where on earth was she? It was good of to stay back but so frustrating with all that had gone wrong beforehand.
@RasmaSandra (92108)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
22h
Don't really remember but I wish you and Kitty a very meryy Christmas Eve,










