I've always worked in retail; my whole working life. I wouldn't say I like it, but I would say I have a really good grasp at “being an employee” and customer service from all this time in the trenches.
Recently, I thought it would be a nice idea to branch out, try something new. Boy was I wrong.
I took a job as a merchandiser for one of the big three soda companies. This means I was going in to grocery stores all over my city to unload delivery trucks, stock the shelves and organize the backrooms. Simple, right? Psh.
I had a nasty, belittling bully for a boss who seemed to think I was too lazy and too stupid to STOCK SODA CORRECTLY. He would take photos of my work, tell me it's wrong, and refuse to explain how to do it right. He would publicly shame photos of my work to a group text of all my collegeues, while praising their work. He asked me once if I knew how to read. He also told he was uncomfortable giving me feedback because I might get upset. I was the only woman on the team. Hm.
The hours were a whole separate issue; I'd be expected to be clocked in a ready to go at 6:30am, but there was not one day in the two months I was employed where the trucks arrived on time. Often, I'd be twiddling my thumbs and pretending to work so I didn't get a rude “I'm at Store X and it says you're checked in here and I can't seem to see you doing anything in here” type text while I waited. 11:30 or 12pm rolls around and we finally get some trucks, and I was expected to still complete the 10 hours to physical work ahead of me, despite already being 5 or 6 hours in to my day.
So yesterday, after being screamed at by a grocery store manager because my boss ordered too much they didn't need- I was done. I clocked out for my lunch three hours into my day and shut off my work phone. I wrote a three page letter detailing exact moments I had kept track of my mistreatment and heading to the main distribution warehouse.
Still on “lunch”, I arrived and dropped off my company phone, shirts and letter with no context to my boss's boss, didnt say a word to him and left. Three hours later got a call back from another job I had applied to (as I'd been trying to get out “the right way” for weeks).
I have never left a job so fast or like this, and a part of me still feels so disrespectful for it. But then I remember the nasty texts, rude phone calls, sore body, no sleep, low pay, stress, anxiety, physical sickness from pressure and blatant sexism and I feel like I did the right thing for me in the end.
And I need to work on putting myself first more, because this whole “work first” thing isn't cutting it for me anymore.