I don’t really have many complaints about the actual work I do now. Occasionally, I get really awful customers who get mad at me for something silly but that doesn’t really bother me too much. I’ve never been threatened by a customer or yelled at at this job which is nice. I get hit on some by clumsy teenagers who think they’re real hot shit but for the most part, it’s not really a problem.
My last retail job was horrible though. My boss hated me I was younger, prettier and nicer. Some of my co-workers hated me I have no idea on this one. I was a 17-year-old kid working there for the summer. I received no employee handbook. I was not told a number of the rules and then would get yelled at when I broke them. None of the other employees were willing to help when I needed help. Often, I would call for customer assistance over the intercom, no one would respond, then I would do whatever the customer needed myself, then get in trouble for leaving the cash register. At the company I worked at, employees got full-time benefits at 30 hours a week. My manager would regularly schedule me for 29½ hours. You wanna know the absolute worst part though? I wasn’t allowed to leave the cash register for any reason. If I was given a task, I had to do it and then go stand behind the register. I was almost never given a task though so even if there wasn’t a customer in sight, I had to stand behind the register. I was only allowed to go to the bathroom on my breaks so, twice in an eight hour shift.
A close second was the Sunday newspapers. Has anyone here ever put a Sunday newspaper together? That’s right, they don’t come to vendors assembled. I had to put all the ads and parts of the paper together which I was never able to do before we opened. Then, I wasn’t able to wash my hands which would get covered in ink because I was stuck behind the register. So, whenever you walk into a drug store to buy the paper on Sunday, thank the employee with ink-stained hands.