[Long post]
I’ve been working at this certain arts and crafts retail store (I’ll let you guess which one) for officially 10 years this February. When I first started it was a dream come true. I’ve always been an art person, so seeing the products on a regular basis, talking to customers about their projects and the nifty employee discount, would just motivate me to work on my crafts and even do my job with enthusiasm. Oh how young and naïve I was.
I very quickly learned the woes of retail; entitled customers, mean managers, unpleasant co-workers, etc. But I endured, people came and went and for a while there we had a decent staff. There was even an opening for manager position that I originally kept refusing because the I didn’t think the pay raise was worth all the extra responsibilities. Years later I accepted the manager position since I thought it would look good at least in a resume.
We had the Buy Online Pick Up In Store option implemented a while back that didn’t really pick up until Covid came about. And that function has been the bane of my existance ever since. The main problem is that the inventory is never accurate. So instead of the computer subtracting that number of available items when a purchase is made, it just lingers in the system for weeks at a time. That or items get misplaced from their position on the shelf by other customers or they simply get stolen altogether.
Then there’s the shortage of labor hours and the unrealistic expectactions from
corporate. There was a time when we had two people at the fabric counter, two cashiers and the manager on duty. Which gave us enough coverage for one person to work on go-backs while the other would cut fabric/check out customers, or for when it was time for lunch breaks we were set. Now we’re down to one cutter, one cashier and one manager. Yet the corpos are still expecting a clean, flawless store.
From the moment I walk in the store, day shift is clocking out and I’m working on online orders the entire time. There’ll be 10 orders pending, with most of them already past overdue. I scramble trying to fill them out while also trying to help the long line at the counter, which then I turn around and go help the single cashier which the fabric line is now headed to checkout. I maybe finish one online order and now it’s time for the employee breaks.
Now I’m stuck in a counter with no way to help any customers on the floor, or finish orders, or do anything else. Then I’m trying to calm down someone on the phone who placed an order 6 hours ago that I had to short or cancel becuase I couldn’t find the items or don’t have time to dig through 100+ boxes of freight that just arrived that morning and inventory says we have 20 avaiable of it.
I’m always running around and I feel I get nothing done. The store looks just as dirty and disorganized as yesterday, if not worse and I hate that I can’t fix it. I just don’t have the time or the help. Now we got a new district manager person that’s breathing down our necks and has decided that firing our general manager is the solutions to all the problems. This was the last straw. Our GM is very sweet and a real hard worker. She gets paid salary, but she would still come very early and leave late. A workaholic.
This is what made me realize that working here is not worth it. Not worth the pay, the stress, the burnout. There are better things out there. It just so happens that at around the same time, the other managers had the same idea of quitting and are looking for different jobs. We became each other’s references (our old general manager included) for job applications.
I already submitted paperwork to places closer to my home, with better pay and that don’t deal with customers(Thank God). As soon as I get a response, I’m gonna put my two weeks, if not one week notice.
What I’m going to enjoy the most is seeing the higher ups struggling to find management to replace us all at once.
TLDR: I’m quitting my retail job of 10 years due to labor hours shortage, stress from work and hounding from new district guy in charge. Also, all of the managers are looking for new jobs as we are completly over our current one. .