While most industries slow down around the holidays, in retail the holidays are the busiest time of year. From October to mid January you can expect your store to evolve from a sane place of business to insanity complete with at least five obstructive decorations.
Pro: You won’t be bored at work!
Gone are the summer days of boredom, when there would be hours of no one even walking into the store. During the holiday season it’s guaranteed that your store will be bustling with customers.
Con: You will constantly be busy.
On the flip side, with everyone out shopping for gifts, you will not have a free second. Forget sneaking out back to check Instagram, and get used to helping grandparents pick out presents, because they assume that you will know what all youth are interested in these days.
Pro: Holidays bring out the best in people.
During the month of December, customers often make an effort to be nicer to clerks and sales people than they normally are the rest of the year. Also it’s the one time of year where you will see more people shopping for other people instead of themselves.
Con: Holidays bring out the worst in people.
The holidays are also very stressful, meaning customers will often project their stress on to you. While a customer may be frustrated that her husband didn’t put up the Christmas tree and that her children are ungrateful, she’ll just yell at you because you’re a stranger who she will likely never see again. It’s the time of year when the lines between real worker and therapist tend to blur.
Pro: Your co-workers will bring in food for the break room.
The holiday season tends to put people in the baking spirit, meaning your co-workers may bring in cookies, brownies or any other baked goods they wanted out of their house so they wouldn’t eat them all. Also the break room is a great place for Christmas party leftovers.
Con: You’ll get roped into the group’s Secret Santa or Yankee Swap.
It’s really inevitable at any job where you have co-workers, but it’s particularly hard on retail employees. Plus on 8 dollars an hour, buying a gift in addition to the ones for your friends and family can be a financial burden.
Pro: You’ll be making more money.
In our consumerist society holidays and presents are synonymous, most would even say the most important part. Well those gifts have to come from somewhere, and that place just might be your store. With everyone shopping, it’s guaranteed that you will be working more hours.
Con: Forget about holiday plans.
You might as well cancel any plans you had for Christmas Eve and New Years Eve, because you will be working. While everyone else is enjoying time with their friends and families, you’ll be stuck at work because someone might need to shop on Christmas Eve or New Years Eve – trust me, they will.
Pro: Christmas decorations.
Instead of being just the boring rows of merchandise and creepy mannequins, the store will be decorated with Christmas trees and sparkly snowflakes from corporate. To be honest the festive decorations make coming to work a lot of fun.
Con: The Christmas music.
While at first it may seem like a wonderful thing to get to listen to Christmas music, only listening to Christmas music every time you work from October until January is excessive. Every Christmas song you have ever loved will be ruined.
Working retail around the holidays is filled with ups and downs, but with a little holiday cheer from customers and a lot of venting to our co-workers, we’ll make it through it. On the bright side, only a few more weeks until January, which to be honest might as well just be called national return month.