At the close of last year, I got The Better Job that I was repeatedly told to get if I didn't like my previous ones. It is better in all aspects to the retail work I did for eight years, and I'll leave it at that, barring questions.
I still believe that the way things are run is screwed up beyond all comprehension.
There is no valid reason someone should have to stand all day, suffer the abuse and brain-cell destroying anti-wit of customers while juggling several different tasks, and still be struggling to make ends meet.
Of course, there are reasons for enforcing such policies, where someone is expected to suffer physical pain while remaining submissive towards abuse and unrealistic standards for below-poverty wages- it not only allows executives to hoard more for themselves, it keeps the worker in a state of debasement and feeling that somehow, this is the way things must be- that being in pain, overworked and underpaid, and frequently punished for the abuse they suffer from customers is the norm, and to suggest it should be any different is socialist, or anarchy, or whatever derogatory term is in vogue.
You want to know what working in retail taught me? Many people are awful. The current state of affairs in so many jobs results in a sort of twisted parable decrying virtues of perseverance and turning the other cheek as an unrewarding self-imposed shackling that ultimately does nothing to better one's own situation.
A certification helped me get The Better Job. Suffering in retail did not. There is a common attitude among so many older people- “I worked my butt off in “unskilled labor” like you, went through the same hardships, and I'm a better person for it!”
No, they did not go through the same hardships. You all are aware things have gotten worse, so let me put that aside and offer my own perspective:
The retail environment did NOT make me a better person.
Being told to stand there and just take it as people treat you like garbage, demonize you to a superior, and then nod in agreement when you get penalized for someone else's vindictive spite is not a character-building experience. It erodes your soul and sanity. And perpetuating this idea that a customer has the right to verbally and physically abuse anyone simply because they have a nametag is an idea that needs to have died decades ago.
I know I'm rambling, so I'll conclude with this- those who succeed without being born into privilege do not do so because of the system that is in place, but in spite of it.