I hate my retail job. I hate my managers. So, so much. I'm planning on quitting in the next few days since I'm going back to college soon but fuck every time I have a shift I just fill with anger and hatred.
We aren't allowed to sit down, even when it's when doing something that would make doing the job easier/faster (sitting on the low fitting room bench to clasp a mountain of go-back bras as opposed to standing up and bending over to do it, hurting my neck and back, since the mountain is on the bench) Constantly pressured and shamed into working overtime hours even though it's not on the schedule and theres no call-in time (last week I was supposed to leave at 11 pm, no call-in, ended up leaving at almost 2 am and i routinely have to leave 1-2 hours after my shift is supposed to be over even though it's my parents who have to pick me up) or overtime pay. On the day we left at almost 2 am one of my coworkers, a single mother, was scheduled to leave at //10// and still had to stay!
Managers talk shit about you, make your life a living hell by targeting you, condescending to you and micromanaging you. And corporate doesn't give a fuck about us to the point it's insulting.
Case in point: leading up to the 10 days of Christmas, every year there are 10 daily surprise perks (free items) employees receive from the store (usually free fragrance rollerballs, slippers, bras, etc) for every day worked called “Share the Joy”. It's supposed to be a huge perk to motivate us to work on the high-volume hectic days and it's even advertised as a perk on hiring advertisements. This year? The “surprises” were INSULTING. The first day's 'perk' was a plastic packaged cookie no one liked. For around 3 out of the 10 days they were RAFFLES that only around 5 employees could win, all for items that are worth little and rarely sell (and for at least one of the raffles two of the folks who won were managers so it was really only for 3 employees that day). One of the perks was for a singular underwear (routinely sold for $3.50), and one of the raffles was for another of those cheap underwears. The only 2 good days were a free bra worth up to $49.95 and a free fragrance mist (sells for around $7.60 usually but sticker price is $20) (although you could only get the flop collection mists that don't sell and nobody wants). One day's surprise was a COMPETITION for who can make the most money that day, like how fucking RIDICULOUS I can't even describe it. And the perk for working on the last day before christmas? Complimentary “hot chocolate bar” in the breakroom, aka SWISS MISS PACKETS AND STYROFOAM CUPS. I'm so happy I'm quitting. Theres no point to working hard there unless it's in hopes of making the workload less so we can ACTUALLY GO HOME ON TIME, but our store is so poorly managed that there's ALWAYS more we have to rush to get done to save our manager's asses from corporate even if it means us floor employees (many of us are poor especially the older women/moms) have less time at home. I have only a few days left but I can barely stand it. The only thing motivating me to stay through my last days instead of just up and leaving is that I'm broke from Christmas.