photographer

retail sales associate

studio manager

machine operator

account specialist

Shutterfly

It’s a fun place to work because of the benefits. Working for Shutterfly is much better than working for their temp agency. But they really only let you move up to being officially a Shutterfly employee until after you have been with the temp company for a while. Took me 2 years to move from the temp company to being actually considered a Shutterfly employee. Shutterfly employees get the benefits of ton of free products and free shipping. Temp employees can only get free shipping. Which is still great but they don’t get medical benefits. Shutterfly however provides great medical benefits. Above average from other companies. Plus free any flavor soda machine, coffee, water, and tea bags in the break room for everyone. 

The environment is good and bad. It just depends on which department you are in. 

I heard management is a poor environment with ridged rules and many get hired with the idea that they will move up in the company. You probably won’t move up any more than the role you were hired for. The benefits of management is comfy meeting spaces and lots of mostly useless meetings of just talking about your home life if you like that sort of thing. Very little problem solving so if you want to solve issues probably not right for you because it’s not that common of a practice. So I hear anyways. 

Customer service is laid back and friendly environment to work in. Though don’t expect to be kept very long if you were hired as a seasonal agent. Customer service get the best things though with comfy work environment and ability to take more breaks. Higher pay as well. Only downside is the phone calls with customers can sometimes be rough but you’re allowed to give lots of things to angry customers to defuse the situation. Unlike most other companies that are stingy with giving things away. You can actually help the customer! 

Working in the warehouse/ production lines is probably one of the worst areas to work in. Loud environment with people who don’t always follow the rules. Not to mention lower pay and less breaks with strict break time periods. A lot of the employees in production don’t speak English or in general just don’t want to talk to you. 

And if you’re thinking about a janitor job that job is about the same as the production/warehouse job. But they have to clean up everyone’s mess. The bathrooms are the worst in the production areas. There is water spilled all over the floor constantly and toilet paper that was used to dry the water but then left on the floor in multiple piles. The janitor has to clean each bathroom 2 times a day. So keep that in mind. 

I wouldn’t recommend a production position or a janitor position to a friend but the others I would consider recommending. 

They promise you incentives for every sale but then take away your commissions on bundles. You earn $1.. If that... that you have to split if someone is selling your photos. This company hands you an old refurbished camera and has you shoot in auto... TADA you are now a photographer And a sales person.

They'll praise about how much the company love sales because that's all they care about. Getting customers in and out as fast as possible to buy their mediocre photos. And trust me they will be mediocre because you're so stressed out overworked and uninspired because you have to set up the camera room take photos do a half a*s "edit" and sell the photos all in 15 min because they will double book clients every 15 min. Because money is more important than quality or good mental health.  This is the hardest part of the job. Being quick but also personable and loving and caring and SMILEY.  You will over worked and underpaid. But you'll try to push thru it for "experience" SAVE YOUR SELF.  Do not work here. They will pay you minimum wage and NEVER give you a raise. It's all about "commission. You have to give a whole script to get people to buy a bundle to warn the three dollars max all to take it away and leave you earning nothing. Get a dollar if you sell a pillow maybe. And it's not worth it after tax.

My studio has 2 great photophers who have been there almost 2 years and never gotten a raise. They'll hire anybody and pay them the same.  You can move up in this company unless you wanna sell your soul and become a manager. You'll be over worked but Hey you'll make $30 an hour and take naps in the back camera room on the clock and make the minimum wage staff do everything. This place sucks.  Cameras always break.  Register and computers and software is prehistoric and the props are old and dingy. Work culture s*cks. No work life balence. You sl*ve away and then they lay you off when the peak season is over if youre lucky. If you're one of their top salesmen and photographer you'll get to stay... Yeayy??? While the manager gets a thousand dollar bonus and you get a pizza and a thanks for your Hardwork. But NEVER A RAISE. They'll cut your hours and use you until you're just about ready to off y*urself. Too harsh?  Stay away. I'm telling you. I feel bad for the ppl who still work there. Managers district managers the whole company is terrible. 

I worked in the Fort Mill location from 2015 until 2017. During that time there were massive lay-offs. They had no problem eliminating veteran employees, including team leads and supervisors.

They will hire you as a temp first which means no benefits simply you will not be there long enough for the benefits to kick in. There is very little chance you will be converted over to a full Shutterfly employee. The pay was only $13-$15 which does not support the cost of living. If the call volume drops they will force people to go home. So not only are they not paying you enough but you can lose hours, making your paycheck even smaller. No paid lunches at this location either.

I still speak to at least one person who still works there and they have shaved their customer support center down to 14 permanent people. You will hear the management brag about how they try to bring jobs back to the US but it's not true. I got transfer calls from more reps in Jamaica than any of the US locations. They still hire a big group of temps for the holiday rush but then they fire them after it dies down. The permanent employees are very clique-y and mean to temps.

The work itself is stressful. You will be expected to put up with unending verbal abuse from the customers and you are not allowed to disconnect the call no matter what. One girl was told by a customer that they hoped she would get into a car accident and die on the way home. And this is over cards and mugs.

Work/life balance does not exist. They use a points system where you get 3 points for every day you call out of work. 15 is your limit. You have to leave early? 2 points. You only get three days for bereavement. They typically won't fire you out-right once you hit 15 but you can be certain that you will be one of the first people let go once the rush season starts to die down if you go over on points. 

I would only recommend working here if you are out of options and keep in mind that you will only there for 3-5 months at the most.

The training program was two weeks. They feed you a lot of information about the company in a short period of time.  There is a lot to digest. 

They do not plan everything correctly. For instance, they put the time clocks inside the production area. This creates so much traffic that the large 9 foot solid wooden door slam every 5 seconds throughout the entire day. They had one group use i3 processors which put that entire group as at a disadvantage in productivity.

The work is good. They give you all the tools and software necessary to do your job. At times can feel very zen like (except for those darn doors and time clocks OMG!)

They send you progress reports on your mistakes and how many orders you completed and per hour.  However, there is a disconnect between a high level of quality vs. a ton of quantity.  At this company the curves do not mesh well and if you do a really good job, it looks like you are not doing your job on your weekly progress report. Dumb.

Their numbers were down this year. If Shutterfly focused more on a maintaining an actual high quality product, they would get more repeat business. They say customer first, but actually it is get 110 orders done in a day with zero mistakes. There is no way to put the customer first when you have 6 minutes or less to get their order down correctly. Make one change and there goes your time. Go out of your way to help a customer in need and there goes your numbers. They lost sight if being a startup company and what their motto really is. 

This company strings their temps along. Chews em up and spits them out when they are through with them. They get you in there to help them through their holiday crunch time which is 50% of their business. And the end of your term, the trainers and full-time employees barely talk to you. You can sense when you are a dead man walking. They let go 75% of their temps in fatal swoop.

Working at Shutterfly, Inc. provided experience in a fast-paced production environment, but there were significant concerns that impacted my overall experience.

During non-peak periods, full-time hours were not consistently available, which created financial instability and uncertainty in scheduling. This made it difficult to rely on consistent income despite being hired in a full-time role.

In my experience, workplace culture varied by department. I observed patterns that felt like inconsistent accountability and perceived favoritism in scheduling, task assignments, and opportunities for advancement. Some employees appeared to have better access to opportunities based on informal relationships rather than consistent processes.

There are a group of people connected that eat lunch together regularly in the front office that include LPAs, Production Management and Human Resources.  Nepotism is RAMPANT here.  If you are not accepted or liked by this buddy system (clique), and/or related to them; your work life will be horrible and you will never advance.

Communication from leadership and follow-through on employee concerns also felt inconsistent. Issues raised were not always clearly addressed, which impacted trust in the feedback process.

There were also ongoing employee concerns regarding how workplace injuries and safety incidents were handled and communicated. While I cannot speak to specific cases, there was a general perception among employees that reporting processes were not always fully transparent or consistently reinforced, which affected confidence in workplace safety procedures.

Despite these challenges, I did gain valuable experience working in a high-volume production setting, including improving speed, adaptability, and the ability to work under pressure.

1. A typical day at work would include setting up the cameras in the room and making sure the settings are correct, printing out session sheets, and opening the studio. If you work with someone else it’s always helpful to make sure the 40+ calls which are necessary to make each day are complete. You’ll photograph your sessions and then sell the images. When all is said and done you put the cameras away and make sure everything is cleaned up for the day. (A session is 15 minutes or 30 minutes if they pay an extra fee)
2. What I have learned…I have learned to think creatively while taking photos and always check the minor details before taking a picture.
3. Management…Higher up management was inconsistent as was the rotation of studio managers. The many changes being made internally definitely pushed more buttons instead of making a positive difference. There wasn’t much help to studio managers nor the photographers offered unless it was asked several times. Studio managers did their best with what they could. 
4. The hardest part about the job…The ever changing standards/demands that had to be done each day. A few people left from these changes, myself included. It could be very stressful to deal with customers with multiple asks and no concept of time as well. There is only so much than can be done in 15 minutes. If you’re by yourself and have appointments that are less than an hour between them it was very frustrating. 
5. The most enjoyable part of the job…Sometimes the customers would be wonderful and you’d make some great memories for them. It’s hit or miss. It wasn’t always bad. 

The job took some getting used to I worked in the call center. It was fast paced and training was fast . It’s cut throats and u have to be on top of it. The team who makes the schedule can basically make up what ever they want as far as hours between 8am &12am they will also give u your hours with as little as 3 days notice and change them last minute w/out any notice and if u r absent it still counts against u also temps where offered a bonus if u worked your full assignment but no one mentioned at first you could not be absent the last week btw workforce changed my hours the last wee 3 times and this was the week before Christmas. The 3 rd time I was off on Thursday and Sunday but on Thursday they decided they needed me to work a 12.5 hr shift Sunday as I said in the beginning of the week I was off Sunday . I had a family emergency to attend too Sunday I asked them to change it back they refused so I called in that day but then Monday I got an email saying u couldn’t have been absent the last 10 days of the assignment which was from 09/22 -12/22 this was never mentioned until after I was absent so they took my bonus . Also even though I knew I was a temp they gave u hope that u could be asked to stay and then on the 23rd just called us in and laid us off at 4 pm and we where suppose to work till 5:30 up to that point they let us think we could get asked to stay( I also herd a girl lost her dad and they took her bonus too)

I currently work here in a supervisory role (I was hired on as such). I immediately felt right at home here. I'm very lucky to report directly to a great manager and leader, so I'm in turn given the freedom to lead as I see fit - and I know my manager has my back. Working 3 days a week (4 during 'Peak Season') is a DREAM. Really allows for killer work/life balance. Yes, 12-hour workdays can be tough, but wear some comfortable shoes, and you'll be set!

Aside from keeping up with emails every so often, I feel I'm completely able to disconnect from work when I'm not there. To me, that's huge. 

I also feel that the potential for advancement here is great. You certainly have to give it effort and show your worth, but I believe little is out of reach here if you work for it. 

The pay and benefits here are also very competitive. Less than a year before I started here, all hourly employees' wages were brought up by $3/hr. That included temp employees contracted from outside. It's really made this a place people want to stay and work.

I have very few complaints, but I also acknowledge that I'm very fortunate to be in a supervisory role under a great manager; not everyone can say the same here. Most can't. Still, I believe this is a great place to work - if you make it a great place to work.

People are nice, and for the most part upper management is okay depending on who you get. There is very little chances to move up in the company, but they will train you to do more work without proper compensation. Even though I'm just a machine operator, they would have me do things outside of my job description like set up computers, tear down cubicles, load box trucks, and move heavy furniture over Icey parking lots. Even though we have I.T and Maintenance staffed to do those things. Since this is a seasonal job that's based upon people taking photos, there will be about 5 months of the year where you will be basically working part-time, to help with that they will ask to do what I listed above along with working in other departments where the pay is much higher in that department, but you won't be compensated for the difference, but they will say that at least you're hours. Also, I would say that there is very ways to improve and move up within your department since they will want the person that is older and has less work experience than the younger person with more experience. 
Also, the pay isn't that great compared to working in fast food. All in all, I would only recommend this job to people that just graduated from high school and they need something temporary to do while planning for the next big chapter of their life.

During my time at LifeTouch, I was met with unprofessionalism and a lack of empathy that deeply affected both my work and well-being. Management frequently broke promises regarding essential resources, such as necessary field equipment, leaving me and other team members unsupported. When I sought assistance or provided constructive feedback, I was often met with abrasive, dismissive responses that made it difficult to address concerns and discouraged open communication. In addition, favoritism was openly displayed, creating an atmosphere of distrust and discomfort among the team. Particularly troubling was the dismissive and unprofessional response to my health needs; on one occasion, after an emergency room visit, my partner was pressured to bring in my work equipment despite caring for me at the time, and management even questioned the validity of my medical condition. These experiences ultimately drained the passion I initially had for the role and made the work environment one of stress and discouragement. In addition, you have to sacrifice your entire vehicle for the equipment that they failed to mention you would have to cart around everywhere.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Photographer 48 salaries reported	$16.47 per hour
Retail sales associate 295 salaries reported	$15.99 per hour
Studio manager 85 salaries reported	$21.69 per hour
Machine operator 4 salaries reported	$17.25 per hour
Account specialist 5 salaries reported	$21.56 per hour

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