Tomorrow will be a complete year since I left that retail job, I’m a lot happier person and I now LOVE my Friday and weekend. I also now can reflect on my experience at retail and here is a list of all the things I don’t miss working in retail.
I used to absolutely hate Friday…
I was the bear with a sore head, the complete Friday Grinch; just ask my husband and he would tell you that I was unbearable on Friday. While most people were celebrating that #fridayfeeling – for me it was the #fridaydread. As most people were celebrating the end of their working week, mine was just beginning. I had people saying to me, ”you should be happy it Friday,” when I know I was anything but happy. Why was I so unhappy on a Friday? Because I knew that was the day I have to go back to retail job and start my working week, I knew there was an invisible string pulling on me and I had to be there at 5pm on the dot.
I would dread my weekend as well, like literally break down and cry. You must be wondering what was so bad about my weekend? Ok picture this scenario, you are on the desk with hundred and thousands of people all crowding at you talking at once, you are there on your own and no one will help you. You will have people screaming at you, throwing stuff at you and at lot of huffing and puffing. That was my weekend at my retail job in a nutshell, it was a place of hell.
The Customer Is Always Right
We’ve all heard this? Ok, well those of us working in the retail know that actually the customer is USUALLY wrong and it’s a very outdated saying. Oh boy! you really do hear and see everything that a person can spit at you. The amount of time I would calmly informed a customer that the price on something say a tin of biscuit is wrong and the correct price on the cash drawer is correct, is enough time to travel round the earth 300 times. There be some who would just except they go the price wrong and get on with their day, and there would the one who would demand to see a manager and would threaten to sue the company as the price is all wrong. They were the one who gave me the biggest headache.
The Evil Corporate Overlord
I think we all encounter the evil corporate overlord, a Darth Vader with high heels and a clipboard. The one who isn’t afraid to punish you if you do something human error-wise, it would be that person who would silent observe you with their piggy eyes and making notes on their clipboard. I had one who I was convince this person was the living off-spring of Darth Vader, and I knew from the moment this person laid on eyes on me, we would be completely enemy. I always try to be nice to people – even to my enemy, but nahhh this person straight-up hated me, you can see it the way this person spoke to me, this person just didn’t want to help me from the get-go. Made working environment very difficult.
The Bonus Culture
Not all retail has end of the year bonus, but mine did and toward the end of me working there, I was convince it was a way to entice us to keep working there forever! Every conversation all year-round was based on the end-of-year bonus, “oh no we don’t want to fix cash drawer number 15 as that would be money taken out of our bonus“. Everything was about the bonus, it was all about how much money can they invest into the store without affecting the bonus. It became unbearable. Which does bring me to my next point…
The Performance Meeting
The kind of meeting where you are taken away from the shop floor to sit down and listen to the evil corporate overlord explain to you about the store performances. Now this might be interesting to some who enjoys listening to facts, figure and business chatter; for me I seriously couldn’t care less. And also the kind of performance meeting how the company is changing, when you know that nothing is changing and everything is staying the same. What use to make me laugh is the fact that after the performance meeting – there would be a meeting about the performance meeting and then a newsletter, I got the point first time around.
The Back-Stabbing Friendship
Kids, if you think school/uni/club/etc is bitchy and back-stabbing – oh man wait till you enter the work place. Working in retail, you genuinely meet some lovely people; I mean I met Richard while working in retail. But there are a few who don’t mind to back-stab you to get ahead. The real ambitious kind who can picture them self with a shiny manager badge and a corporate car. The kind who is nice to your face but bitch behind your back, and also the one who don’t want to be seen dead with you outside of work. Yes, I had a few of these. I eventually just laugh it off and ignored them, working there for me was about earning money – not building a social club.
Christmas/Easter/Bank Holiday
I never actually dread Christmas/Easter/Bank holiday, I mean who does? But I never could properly enjoy that time of the year due to it being the busiest time ever. People truly goes crazy during that time of the year and this is for me when you really discover everyone’s true colours; both the public and your friends. You’ll find out which of your friends are lazy and do bugger all while you’re the working your arses off. And the public and see how greedy and money-hunger seem to corrupt a person.
Appearances Is Everything
If you’re lucky enough to get to wear your own clothes in a retail job, then really do count yourself lucky. Throughout my time in retail, I wore a uniform. I hated it, The trouser and shirt was always too long and too stiff to move about in. The corporate overlord will take delight in the fact that your socks isn’t black when they should be or you are not wearing your name badge. This particular retail job I worked in doesn’t allowed people to dye their hair, what that is outrages! A woman who worked with me dyed her hair pink – like bright pink! She was doing it in aid of cancer research, so a noble cause would surely bend the rule a little bit, right? The next thing I knew she was crying her eyes out over the facts she was on discipline and had to dyed it back to ‘more business-respectable’ colour to keep her job. I really felt for her.
So as you can see, leaving retail completely saved my sanity, do you have anything else to add? Tell me, comment down below, Things I Don’t Miss Working In Retail….
