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I've only just signed on to be a consultant - received my starter kit about two weeks ago - and I must say that although I look forward to making MK available to those women who are favorably impressed after sampling the products, I have strong reservations about many aspects of the "Mary Kay Way" - not only when it is clearly abused for a consultant's or director's personal advancement, but even when it is applied in a more "normal," or accepted, fashion.
For starters, like Laura, I am troubled by the repeated denigration of J.O.Bs, many of which in the "real world" are NOT exploitative, but instead serve sound purposes, and well reward the worker(s). And it's a disturbing logical nonsense, as well, because if no one had a J.O.B, and, presumably, all worked for MK, who would buy our products? - or would we just barter the remaining stock amongst ourselves as we all fell into bankruptcy? There is an unsettling undercurrent of us (superior MK consultants) and them (foolish, sadly ignorant people who don't see "the truth" according to MK) in this sort of propagandistic presentation. No one should be badgered about becoming an MK consultant if all she wants is to buy cosmetic products she likes - after all, this is supposed to be a BETTER experience (or at least not worse) than shopping at the mall or in a department/specialty store.
There are also structural weaknesses (not to mention ethical flaws) in any system that depends on always drawing in new "bottom" players; and although it can be argued (and often is) that MK is not strictly an MLM or so-called pyramid scheme, it does suffer from just such structural weaknesses, as the need for endless recruitment, with all its attendant problems, reveals. This particular problem, is, I believe, headed for a forced change: the claimed (by MK) status of the consultants and directors as independent business operators has been seriously and successfully challenged by the IRS, and in civil court, and if recent decisions are upheld, the contracts (agreements) will have to undergo considerable revision, in either the direction of direct employment, with all the attendant benefits, or the direction of truly independent contracting.
The much discussed "MK image" mandate of dresses/skirts with hose and closed toe shoes is a case in point, if a relatively minor one: employees have dress codes, independent contractors do not. Far more serious, in economic terms, are the limits and restrictions on business supplies sourcing, and marketing and promotion options.
I should also point out here, that the much touted 90% inventory return guarantee on investment is not a matter of generosity or ethical propriety on the part of MK, but rather one of a number of things the company must do, by law, to avoid being adjudged a form of (illegal) pyramid scheme.
All that said, I do think that MK is essentially a good quality product that can be offered to the consumer in a sales environment more accomodating and personal than usually found in the traditional brick and mortar store, mail order, and/or e-commerce; and, I believe that Mary Kay Ash really did intend to establish a company that would offer women a far better opportunity than any they had previously enjoyed.
However. All those atavistic glass ceilings notwithstanding, women today have a variety of wonderful opportunities available to them that were wholly inaccessible to all but the very privileged (and in many cases, inaccessible to even the very most privileged) up through the 1960s - and I'm old enough to know, by personal experience, just how true this is - I have been, in my lifetime, denied both education and work solely on the basis of my sex, and told openly that this was the reason for denial - such was the world before civil rights legislation.
Today, a career with MK is just one among many opportunities, one that should learn to coexist peacefully with the others, rather than dissing or dismissing them, especially since the other paying opportunities out there afford women the (important to MK consultants) wherewithal and freedom to buy and use cosmetics!
Finally, making a decent living is important to all of us, unless we are among the few independently wealthy of the world, but people choose work for other kinds of rewards, as well: the chance to create, preserve, or restore beauty; to heal and care for others; to teach or guide; to repair damage and right wrongs; to protect the vulnerable; to steward the soil and feed the nations; to invent and devise; to discover and reveal; to entertain and amuse; to connect need with resource. A career with MK can fit nicely in this "big tent" of options, but will likely do best, and prove most durable, if it addresses people as people, rather than prospects; offers an opportunity that (really, not just as lip service or a recruiting come-on) serves a larger purpose than just making gobs of money; and offers real independence in business operations, free of anachronistic (and counterproductive) encumbrances like dress codes and closed sourcing.
And to those who will counter my last point with assertions of the need to "present a professional image" and "maintain standards" I would say: 1) in today's world of women as everything from physicians to shipping agents to fighter pilots, and everything in between, a dress is hardly a requisite component of a professional image; and 2) modern successful innovation, in every field, amply demonstrates that open sourcing and systems actually raise standards, not just maintain them.
Just one woman's opinion, of course.
Bunny Watson
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