If you have ever wondered what working in the retail industry feels like, it essentially boils down to this: low wages, fluctuating hours, rude customers and cliquey manager-coworker relationships. Now, this is not to make prospective employees scared and stray away from working in retail. The job certainly has its positives, but you must enter the industry with a tough shell, or you’ll be forced to quickly grow one.
Low wages
In the state of Virginia, the current minimum wage is set to $12.77. In the year prior, the minimum wage was $12.41— a whopping 36 cent increase! Considering the rising cost of living in Northern Virginia, the wage barely scratches the surface of what the average resident needs. Oftentimes, a large portion of my paycheck goes right back to the store because I have a hard time resisting the cute clothing drops and employee discounts. While I’ll admit that part is my fault, controlling your savings when you’re at a popular retail store surrounded by tempting deals.Â
Beyond the paycheck, for the amount of work I was assigned during my 4-5 hours, I would consider myself severely exhausted and underpaid. My primary job was climbing up and down the ceiling-high storage racks for hours without access to a ladder in the back and pulling out clothing items to restock the sales floor. By the end of a shift, I always questioned whether the work I was doing truly reflected my earnings.Â
fluctuating hours
When I first started, I worked a solid four shifts a week while being trained in at least 15 different tasks. But once my first three months passed, my hours were cut tremendously, and I barely worked even twice a week. I noticed that the same employees were repeatedly getting scheduled, seemingly because they were the manager’s favorites. To make matters worse, we were overemployed, and numerous employees were in the same situation that I was. I remember around wintertime last year, there were at least 80 employees working at our store. As a newcomer, I debated on quitting my retail job numerous times. Eventually, after around the six- to eight-month mark, I finally started getting scheduled more consistently due to managerial changes.
rude customers
In many instances, I’ve endlessly dealt with entitled, demanding and rude customers, primarily from the older generation. I remember having to call my manager multiple times during a single shift because some customers couldn’t believe that teenagers could be right about something and do their job correctly. I’ve also encountered customers who were entirely flipping over jean stacks after watching me folding them, especially during rush hours— which seemed to be almost every hour. I would fold the same stacks at least five times during a shift. Most customers were perfectly decent, but the few rude ones could make or break my shifts. Retail has taught me that no matter how hard you try to do your job well, it will always be met with complaints.
cliquey relationships
As mentioned before, the managers had their fair share of favoritism. They would often let their favorites slip up on numerous occasions, whereas newer employees were forced to walk on eggshells or risk receiving strikes and having their hours cut. I longed to build a comfortable relationship with my managers, especially when my more experienced coworkers were seemingly able to make the most out of their shifts. That’s not to say I had zero relationships with my managers; rather, the process took nearly half a year to formulate them, and the process was nerve-wracking and frustrating, especially when I felt that my work ethic should’ve been enough to prove I was worthy of closeness.
Overall, working retail has its ups and downs. The good moments are really good, but a bad customer, shift or mistake can quickly change your outlook on the job. The retail field is complicated and messy, but it has taught me resilience, patience and flexibility. More importantly, it has given me a newfound appreciation for employees outside of retail who show up to work every day, doing far more than what their paychecks reflect.Â
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