LogFAQs > #961416534

Retail did a number on me with showing interest. I worked for a supermarket chain for about 6 years. 2 years in I moved to a brand new location and was training a good 80 percent of the front end staff, and all the front end wondered why I wasn't making supervisor but the girl who joined the company as her first job made supervisor 1 week in. Management said it was because of "lateness", which is a bullshit reason if you ask me. I'd be late for a shift by 4-5 minutes because of traffic, or clocking in exactly on time but taking 2-3 minutes to get to the front of the store (punch clock was at the back of the store), apparently I'm expected to teleport to the my cash. Despite staying late and working extra shifts they kept that position from me till I left to go back to college.

I literally have stories about how bad retail/low end work screwed up my mental state from actually giving a damn about my job. From applying to a competitor and the hiring manager going home before my interview and claiming that she forgot about the interview and how the position was filled, to working as a store cleaner, doing the work of 2 people in half the time it would take normal staff and still getting yelled at, not by our company, but the company that hired our company. Even after the work was done, I was forced to stick around instead of being allowed to go home, unlike other cleaning companies.

The latest, and hopefully last one is the one I couldn't stand the most. We had 1 department manager, not even ours, who would come to our department and yell at us for standing around, which only happened when we were done our work, or were in a meeting to discuss how we would handle the days tasks. Christ, she yelled at one of our associates because he sat down to tie his shoes, as "it made him look lazy", and yelled at me because one of my coworkers went home when his shift ended because they changed his schedule the day prior and didn't tell him about it. Hell, she yelled at me because a customer asked where something was and I showed him. Some days I wish she would get hit by a bus.

Thankfully, I'm nearing the end of my latest college course, Hoping to graduate next June. I'll be honest, I'm nearly clueless with my program with the way its taught, but hopefully I can learn on the job.

Retail for me just drained me of my enthusiasm when it comes to working low end jobs. You can do your job, do it well, and still not get promoted over people that are fresh on the scene. You can show that you give a damn about your company and bring up ways to improve things and it lies on deaf ears, and still get yelled at for things outside your control. Coupled with being shorted hours that you need to pay bills and be told that you should be thankful you have a job, and are not allowed to work other jobs because of the style of your job.