# Do Not Work In Retail/cashier!



## VerdeLemon (Dec 15, 2016)

I just left my retail/cashier job because it's unfair that I did not receive any training and they get angry when they have to teach me how to work the register. They want a total package without going the steps to get there.

I was called in by the manager because I didn't talk to the other coworkers but surprise the other coworkers did not either and everyone is super busy because the store is so messy for the holidays seasons and no one has time to ****ing talk about anything anyways. Someone has been snitching on me and making up lies! then one day I was folding some pants and had to take a quick bathroom break..when I came back someone had messed up all that I had done and I know it was not a customer because that day the store was kind of empty and no customer can make that mess this quickly..I felt some other worker did it on purpose because everyone was desperate to move from a part time to a full time and want to **** up your chances...

Also you are being watched from multiple cameras all day long and all your movements recorded with only a 15 minute break in a six hour shift. You will be standing all day and your back will hurt, mine did at the end of the shift I could not stand it anymore.

Also they would tell me how to organize a big pile of clothes and the next thing you know someone is telling me to do it in a different way. No one can make up their mind about anything and then I'm blamed for other's wrong directions.

So I went to the floor and chat up another coworker about how the manager had instructed me to fold the particular clothes we were looking at and then she called me crazy under her breath which she thought I didn't hear but I totally did. 

So i was furious because it's a damn if you talk and danmed if you don't situation. 

Then I realized that retail it's not a good place for people with our condition. A big store with hundreds of coworkers and lots of competition is totally asking to be singled out. Quiet people are not good for business apparently and your neutral face will be taken the wrong way.

If you feel you have no other option pick a small store that doesn't make you work on holidays and not the cashier position, you can load packages or work on the floor (but eventually they will try to move you to the register if there's a shortage)

So you have been warned lol


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## leamizda (Aug 24, 2017)

VerdeLemon said:


> I was called in by the manager because I didn't talk to the other coworkers but surprise the other coworkers did not either and everyone is super busy


Oh it doesn't surprise me, those are typical managment lies, they want to make you think you are a problem because you create a toxic workplace environment, while so many things are wrong and aren't you, but it's your fault always, epic typical, I don't know how those people can sleep at night knowing they accuse so many people of being a problem even if they quiet, do their job well and doesn't bother anyone.



VerdeLemon said:


> Someone has been snitching on me and making up lies!


typical too, some coworker create lies and everybody believes the liar, people is blind.



VerdeLemon said:


> then one day I was folding some pants and had to take a quick bathroom break..when I came back someone had messed up all that I had done


Maybe that got caught in video but I suspect no one will care about that, abuse is ok on companies standards.



VerdeLemon said:


> I felt some other worker did it on purpose because everyone was desperate to move from a part time to a full time and want to **** up your chances...


it would be pretty typical too, trying to get the coworker career ruined, Its so common, I saw it so many times.



VerdeLemon said:


> only a 15 minute break in a six hour shift. You will be standing all day and your back will hurt, mine did at the end of the shift I could not stand it anymore.


this sounds very extreme, its sad you have to work in such conditions,



VerdeLemon said:


> Then I realized that retail it's not a good place for people with our condition. A big store with hundreds of coworkers and lots of competition is totally asking to be singled out. Quiet people are not good for business apparently and your neutral face will be taken the wrong way.


I never thought about which places are bad for people with our conditions, and I just realized you are right... too much competition is very bad for us, we aren't liked and there are a lot of people who wants your job too. Maybe the only option we have is to provide a service ourselves or being a high skilled with a specific knowledge that is very critical, otherwise it can be not good, bad or hell level, God bless you and thanks for the warning


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## OutsideR1 (Mar 13, 2014)

I spent 3 years working retail part-time while at uni. Never again. I now feel better having a full time office job then a part time retail job, it was just hell. Management treats you like children and you can't even talk to anyone, you have to work until you collapse at lightning speed, always be ready to get approached by a stupid customer oh and get paid a pittance for it. Never ever ever again.


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## sabbath9 (Dec 30, 2014)

I've been unemployed most of this year and my wife and my sister say "go work at McDonalds or Costco". After all this time they are still clueless about what people like us go through each day.


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## misumena (Oct 18, 2017)

Spent six years of my life in retail. I think it broke my spirit in some ways. In particular, I now despise Christmas. So many people become needlessly rude, aggressive, and greedy this time of year. You're right, NOT a good way for people like us to make a living. You'll lose more than you gain.


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## versikk (Nov 25, 2013)

misumena said:


> . So many people become needlessly rude, aggressive, and greedy this time of year..


Thank you for this revelation


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## CNikki (Aug 9, 2013)

I hear you. I'm hoping my next job is in an office where I don't have to have too much interaction with people other than making phone calls. We'll see.


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## CloudChaser (Nov 7, 2013)

Don't tell me what to do.


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## Cascades (Jan 16, 2013)

misumena said:


> So many people become needlessly rude, aggressive, and greedy this time of year.


Try all times of the year. People are disgusting towards others. Retail is hell. :bash:bash


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## Anxiety Is In the Past (Aug 15, 2017)

Security cameras should have caught the person that messed up your work


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## LadyApathy (Dec 2, 2014)

If you think retail and fast food is hard, just wait until you do a call center.....it’s hell! 


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## thinkstoomuch103 (Nov 28, 2017)

Hey thanks OP, for posting your experience.

Seems like we have this crap in every single facet of "customer service" careers.

The medical field is also "customer service" based. You not only have to deal with the patient, bu the patient family, and relatives. I've had RN's, CNA's, LVN's, come to me with their horror stories. The medical field is basically "customer service with physical intimacy". From wiping up people's poop, to listening to their deepest secrets - that they don't even tell their family.

In many fields where there is customer service, it will open your eyes to the human condition:

Selfishness
Neediness
Desperation for attention/love
Arrogance
Rudeness
Narcissism
Egoism
Apathy
And the "Me First" Generation.

I finally had to get out of the medical field when i saw a pregnant woman run into the clinic, dodging security guards. She knocked over an old woman who was standing in line to make an appt.

Miss Pregnant, knew the clinic was closing at 4:45, and the last person in line was not going to get something she felt was "rightfully" hers. She was even more pissed that we closed the appt. desk, and tended to the old lady she knocked over.

Miss Pregnant didn't care about seeing that woman on the ground in pain. She wanted to book her appt. so she could find out the sex of her baby, and get ultrasound pics.

Those, like myself who never worked retail, can only catch a "glimpse" of what customers are truly like. Especially during the holidays. How?

*The Walmart Casualities*

Stealing, shooting in the parking lots, wrestling over sale items, stabbings, looting, etc. all in the name of "Gift Giving" "Peace on Earth" and "Good Will toward Men."


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## naes (Nov 1, 2013)

Cascades said:


> Try all times of the year. People are disgusting towards others. Retail is hell. :bash:bash


Off topic, but is your avatar an original?


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## Virgo (Jun 27, 2016)

Being a cashier at a grocery store was the worst job I ever had. I started out at that job a very happy person, always smiling and excited to greet everyone. Within three days, rude customers and terrible management turned me into a totally different person. I worked there 6 days a week without getting a day off for 10 days at a time, which is illegal. I worked 8 hours on Thanksgiving and was not paid overtime because "I didn't work there long enough" and there was nothing they could do because it was hidden in the employee manual, which I never got. Those jerks tricked me into thinking I was getting overtime but they just wanted to save some money.

Customers were horrible. They managed to make me cry a few times, so embarrassing. My supervisor was a ratchet hoebag. She just hated me for some reason. I never called out once, and one time I needed to come in late -- not call out, come in an hour late -- because I needed to drive my sister to the hospital. And she gave me sass about it. Terrible person all around. They also wanted me to be done with my 15-minute break on the dot, no more. And I worked 7 1/2 hours sometimes and only got one break.

My only friends there were the "motherly" older women, who all were actually mothers lol. When I quit that job, I was shocked at how sad they were to see me go. They wanted to announce me leaving on the loudspeaker, but the supervisor wouldn't let them. But as I was leaving the place they all yelled to me across the store "GOODBYE AMBER!!" It was really touching. I wonder what happened to all of them. That place got closed down.


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## Whatev (Feb 6, 2012)

I remember being a cashier and someone would buy a gallon of milk ask me to bag it then complain its too heavy to carry. What do you want me to do about it? Pour some out for the homies?


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## msanangelo (Dec 22, 2017)

What is it about retail that makes people so mean and disrespectful of each other?

I worked at a small retail joint for about 5 years and towards the end, the manager kept cutting my hours because of my "attitude". I must have been oblivious to it because I'd always get the work done on time. The only thing that made it hard on me is when the rules or my job changes on me during my off days and I'd go in to do the thing I'd always do and end up in trouble for it. :/ Why managers get off being general *******s I'll never understand. We're all people, just be nice already. They barely made much more than me anyways.

I was a hard worker, did what I was told to the best of my ability. The only thing I struggled with was climbing silly ladders. They had a 3-step with a deep 3rd step I'd use to do my thing and sometimes they hide it to force me to use the little 2-steps that I could never ballance on. *sigh* My feet have to be firmly planted to feel stable, else I risk falling or locking up.


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## abiologicalblunder (Dec 22, 2017)

Customer service oriented jobs expose one to the most irrational aspects of human nature. I could never handle one myself.


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## Johnsheppard99 (Mar 1, 2015)

Ive worked in retail now for 16 years.
God knows how ive manged it so long, but theres nothing else I can do 

My first job was in tesco (for those not in the uk, the uk rival to walmart)..I grew to despise that place and the management more than anything. It would make me so depressed. It was so authoritarian it was just missing snipers in lookout posts to keep us in check. No room for advancement or anything. By the time I left after 13 years, id started on trolleys on the bottom rung, advanced to checkouts, made it to 'team leader' level, but due to budget cuts and not getting on with management, id been pushed all the way back to the bottom again, so felt I had to leave. By the end everyone knew how much I hated it there and how depressed I was.

Went to Next then, a change of retail, but that actually wasn't much better. I was there for two months (xmas temp for a month, then a 3 week gap and they took me back on as a permanent) but I never really got to know anyone or speak to anyone, was very lonely in work as was usually on my own and didn't really know what to do as didn't get actual training..but it did me..some days I did feel like I wanted to cry though because of how some of the managers would speak to me still.

Eventually got a job offer for Asda at a brand new store being build near me. Thought I know food retail more, but I applied for all the positions AWAY from customers. The only job I was offered was a shift on self scan department. Was going to keep both asda and next going, but both wanted me for a thursday at the same time and neither would relent, so I quit next as it was further away and cost me more to get too.
Asda was fine for me personally for the first year or so, however a LOT of people left in that time, either due to finding better jobs, or even having enough of asda and going back to their old jobs like mcdonalds! In the last year though, things have really gone down hill. Many staff have had to take time off with stress, and im talking 3-4 months mainly, but the guy I used to work closely with and was probably my closest friend there has now been off 5 months and counting, and doesn't speak to anyone after having a mental breakdown due to retail work. Mental and physical illness is rife. Its widely noted in the store I am the ONLY self scan attendant who HASN'T either quit, or had some kind of breakdown by now, probably due to my years in tesco, but even im starting to feel myself cracking..
Disciplinaries are being given out like candy for the most trivial of things. I myself got one a couple of weeks ago for telling a customer she had a bad attitude, even though she was verbally being abusive to me!! Some have had them for being IN HOSPITAL sick. Some have had for being 30 seconds over on a break (they time us). Some have had them for not filling in paper work correctly (because they still do everything on paper!) Those who get a disciplinary lose their bonus in feb conveniently! 
The managers can't organise anything, and that includes staff rotas, or even break times.

Retail is probably the worst job I could imagine, and is truly horrible. I hate it and would love to get out of it and do something else, but as mentioned at the beginning I don't know what else to do as its all call centers and care work (of which neither I could do) and I can't afford to quit and live off benefits.


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## DanielaC121 (Jan 4, 2018)

I worked retail for about 2 years and it was the worst experience, especially for someone with social anxiety. You HAVE to make small talk with clients, you HAVE to come up to them and say hi, you HAVE to ask them to buy things from you. This is all a HUGE feat for those of us who wonder around the grocery store for hours because we're too scared to ask a person for help finding the pickles. 

Oh and you're right, management is BRUTAL in retail. I hated it. And they dont care one bit about your personal struggles, they just want your sales :')


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## The Notorious D.B.L (Aug 2, 2016)

Whatev said:


> I remember being a cashier and someone would buy a gallon of milk ask me to bag it then complain its too heavy to carry. What do you want me to do about it? Pour some out for the homies?


:laugh:


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## Fever Dream (Aug 18, 2015)

Thankfully my experiences in retail weren't nearly as bad as others. Not to say that they were good, but I've heard a few people "horror stories". Maybe it's because the store I worked at had a decent store manager. At least for most of the time I was there. Although when the new manager took over, he ended up driving the place into the ground.



abiologicalblunder said:


> Customer service oriented jobs expose one to the most irrational aspects of human nature. I could never handle one myself.


I don't know if it's always irrational or not, but it definitely exposes some the worst nature of people.


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