Retail jobs suck. (Or most of them do. Employees at Costco seem to be pretty happy.) Retail jobs used to be exclusively for young guns like us and high school students but with the economy in the crapper retail jobs are a mixed bag of a merry band of misfits. That’s totally fine. There’s nothing wrong with earning an honest living, nevertheless working at a clothing store, coffee shop or fast food joint used to be the memory-making stuff of our teens and early twenties. It was like a grueling summer camp. You had to work but the menial wages were compensated for by being around people your own age and after-work hangouts. At least that’s how my parents described it.
Working retail has only gotten worse as minimum wages have stagnated and of course, employees are totally disposable. Doing a job that “anyone can do” means that employers can treat you anyway they want because if you quit they can just get someone new. It also means you have to treat a douche nozzle with the utmost respect because he can fire you whenever he wants. Not to mention that people have a twisted perspective on customer service and believe that working a register, serving you food or coffee or organizing your groceries somehow means your are beneath them. Retail workers are trying to pay bills and put food on the table just like everyone else, whether it’s for themselves or their family, there is honor in being responsible. Yet, retail workers get treated like crap by everyone around them. The actual grunt work isn’t even the worst of it.
The Customer Is Always Right
Nope. Telling me it’s cheaper at another store, asking why we don’t sell pizza at a shoe store, yelling at me because you believe that service workers work for you is just a reflection of your propensity for psychosis.
Hospitality
It isn’t difficult to treat others with common decency and respect. It is however difficult to keep your cool when you’re being berated by an angry customer. It’s even harder to keep that artificial smile on when your manager is hovering over you.
Double Shifts
A 16-hour work day? For minimum wage? I am so lucky!
So good for your back, tho.
Most retail jobs require that you’re on your feet all day long. It sucks even when you’re young so I have so many sympathies for the old fogies working registers out there. Why on Earth can’t cashiers just sit on stools?
Speaking of old people . . .
They like to do things the old fashioned way. They like to do those old fashioned things at a snail’s pace. Oh, look, the line is getting longer . . .
The music is always the same.
There’s the holiday playlist. There’s the manager’s playlist. There’s Jeff’s playlist. Thank God everyone loves that one Pharrell song. I love to hear it over and over and over and over . . .
Uniforms
Every season I have to buy new clothing from the store that I work at to wear to work . . . that pays me almost nothing . . . I have to pay rent, tho.
Opening
If the store opens at 8AM that means I am in by 5:30AM. Love it! Kill me! Love it!
Closing
By the time I get home and settled in I can hop in the shower and get ready for work.
Holidays
Every retail workers favorite part of the year! More customers! More anger! More rage! More messes! Longer hours! Working my favorite job instead of spending time with my family! And on top of all of that it’s really, really cold!
Sourced from collegecandy.com
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