Worst Retail Experiences (because Lish is evil)
Saturday, January 18th, 2014 12:33 pm(Library!Ver is a go :D for the December posting meme- ![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
hostilecrayon )
WORST RETAIL EXPERIENCE(S) - GO.
JFC, Lish, I hate you. XD I've tried very hard to wipe as much of that as I could out of my memory. I could probably point to my entire retail career for this question, really. As a retail person working on the floor, I was generally the lowest man on the totem pole, so to speak, so I basically got treated like shit all the time. And I worked that retail job for just shy of ten years. And I'm supposed to be able to pick and choose the worst out of that? Pffft.
If I'm going to cheat, I'd say that this video pretty much covers the overall experience. XD
Alright, well, I can try I guess. Among the worst ones were when people acted as if I was stupid and/or made uncomplimentary remarks about me personally. Like the woman who insisted her total was wrong and I was trying to double check by putting everything into the calculator- but she kept yelling random numbers at me, and then when I understandably screwed up what I was punching in because of the unrelated numbers she was spouting at me, she started telling me how stupid I was. Which of course didn't help matters. Or the guy that asked if I'd had gastric bypass. Also it was equally lovely when I was made to feel physically threatened, which did happen. I remember this one guy especially that kept hitting on me and wouldn't leave me alone. He was making me REALLY uncomfortable, but I didn't feel like I could tell him to fuck off (because the company never EVER supported its employees in anything, so I probably would've gotten blamed even though I was the one being harassed). I kept praying that nobody would need help on the floor so I could stay behind the counter and he wouldn't be able to touch me. That was the one time I was actually nervous going home after I got out, because I was afraid he would be waiting for me. :/ (he wasn't, thankfully) It was FABULOUS when you did what you were told to by a manager and then got in trouble for it later. Um... there was the lady that I'll call "Blinky" (fairly obvious, she blinked a lot) who would come in multiple times a day. She was an absolute TERROR- hated everyone, had complained about everyone working there at least once, always had to bitch about something. If we were all so terrible, I really have no idea why she kept coming in, but whatever. One night, I'd had a really bad day and she came in. I was trying to check something for her, but she wouldn't actually give me half a second to do it- she started bitching and just kept harping and harping and harping at me until I finally snapped at her. She complained about me later and I got in trouble, even though management knew that this lady was consistently a problem, and I'd never snapped at this woman in the many years I'd dealt with her. YEARS I'd put up with that crap. NOBODY IS THAT PATIENT, GOD.
And that's just the customers. Co-workers could be just as bad or worse, depending. There were several people that thought that they were too good to ring register, wouldn't give me any help at all and threw a hissy fit anytime I so much as needed a bathroom break. There was the guy that called me a faggot in front of pretty much everybody and no one said a single word. (I later ended up getting drunk with him at a party and he was much nicer to me after that. Go figure. XD) A lot of backstabbing and gossiping and childish behavior.
Retail, man. I think everyone should be required to work a retail job for at least a solid year, so they can understand just what retail entails and how much shit people put you through (and hopefully make people more understanding)... but I really wouldn't wish more than a year on anybody. While I did get a few things out of it and I met some awesome people, it really is a terrible job. Depending on your crew, of course. If you have an awesome crew, it's considerably less terrible. But still. XD I will point to the video again here. I can't even BEGIN to explain how much truth there is in that.
(Oh yeah, if you have a question/topic/whatever for me, the original post is here!)
hostilecrayon )WORST RETAIL EXPERIENCE(S) - GO.
JFC, Lish, I hate you. XD I've tried very hard to wipe as much of that as I could out of my memory. I could probably point to my entire retail career for this question, really. As a retail person working on the floor, I was generally the lowest man on the totem pole, so to speak, so I basically got treated like shit all the time. And I worked that retail job for just shy of ten years. And I'm supposed to be able to pick and choose the worst out of that? Pffft.
If I'm going to cheat, I'd say that this video pretty much covers the overall experience. XD
Alright, well, I can try I guess. Among the worst ones were when people acted as if I was stupid and/or made uncomplimentary remarks about me personally. Like the woman who insisted her total was wrong and I was trying to double check by putting everything into the calculator- but she kept yelling random numbers at me, and then when I understandably screwed up what I was punching in because of the unrelated numbers she was spouting at me, she started telling me how stupid I was. Which of course didn't help matters. Or the guy that asked if I'd had gastric bypass. Also it was equally lovely when I was made to feel physically threatened, which did happen. I remember this one guy especially that kept hitting on me and wouldn't leave me alone. He was making me REALLY uncomfortable, but I didn't feel like I could tell him to fuck off (because the company never EVER supported its employees in anything, so I probably would've gotten blamed even though I was the one being harassed). I kept praying that nobody would need help on the floor so I could stay behind the counter and he wouldn't be able to touch me. That was the one time I was actually nervous going home after I got out, because I was afraid he would be waiting for me. :/ (he wasn't, thankfully) It was FABULOUS when you did what you were told to by a manager and then got in trouble for it later. Um... there was the lady that I'll call "Blinky" (fairly obvious, she blinked a lot) who would come in multiple times a day. She was an absolute TERROR- hated everyone, had complained about everyone working there at least once, always had to bitch about something. If we were all so terrible, I really have no idea why she kept coming in, but whatever. One night, I'd had a really bad day and she came in. I was trying to check something for her, but she wouldn't actually give me half a second to do it- she started bitching and just kept harping and harping and harping at me until I finally snapped at her. She complained about me later and I got in trouble, even though management knew that this lady was consistently a problem, and I'd never snapped at this woman in the many years I'd dealt with her. YEARS I'd put up with that crap. NOBODY IS THAT PATIENT, GOD.
And that's just the customers. Co-workers could be just as bad or worse, depending. There were several people that thought that they were too good to ring register, wouldn't give me any help at all and threw a hissy fit anytime I so much as needed a bathroom break. There was the guy that called me a faggot in front of pretty much everybody and no one said a single word. (I later ended up getting drunk with him at a party and he was much nicer to me after that. Go figure. XD) A lot of backstabbing and gossiping and childish behavior.
Retail, man. I think everyone should be required to work a retail job for at least a solid year, so they can understand just what retail entails and how much shit people put you through (and hopefully make people more understanding)... but I really wouldn't wish more than a year on anybody. While I did get a few things out of it and I met some awesome people, it really is a terrible job. Depending on your crew, of course. If you have an awesome crew, it's considerably less terrible. But still. XD I will point to the video again here. I can't even BEGIN to explain how much truth there is in that.
(Oh yeah, if you have a question/topic/whatever for me, the original post is here!)
