I do not know that many morning people. I do know that I am not a morning person myself. Right now, I am sitting at a Starbucks trying to get these articles done or at least almost done before I have to be at work within the hour. I am amazed how alert these baristas seem to be this early in the morning. Here are just a few of my thoughts that run through my mind whenever I have to work an early shift. At least when I work early, I do not get home from work at 10 o'clock at night.

1. Hearing the phone ring over and over again, especially right after opening for the day.

I am not sure what irritates me more, people calling before the store opens or people calling immediately after the store opens. If you know me well enough, you probably know how much I loathe talking on the phone. Combine that with often having at least one other customer in the store at any given time throughout the day while I am on the phone, and that can equal myself becoming flustered. Should the phone ring outside of business hours, I typically will not answer it because we are not technically open. However, once the clock strikes ten, or eleven on a Sunday, I now have to answer those incoming phone calls. I only sometimes ignore calls if I am swamped, and I just cannot answer that phone call.

2. When people start walking into the store immediately after it opens for the business day.

I do not work for a grocery store or a drug store, so I often have a difficult time understanding why people sometimes will begin to congregate outside of stores like mine before it opens since we do not sell food or drug products. Ten in the morning is early enough to be opening for the day during the pre-holiday season. Most mornings there are other tasks that need to get accomplished and we are only given about an hour to do those tasks and that is never enough time.

3. When you have that person, who walks in and has absolutely no idea what they are doing.

Regardless of whatever specific industry you work for, whether it be clothing or electronics, you are bound to have those people walk who have no clue what on earth they are doing, suddenly tasking you with being their expert. I get that part of my job is to help people make informed decisions regarding their potential purchases. However, it can become exhausting, especially when you are the only employee on the clock at said time and more people start to walk in that door, it may not take long to become overwhelming to juggle everything simultaneously. In the end, it can be gratifying knowing that you helped that person get everything that they needed and sometimes they can be exceptionally grateful for that.

Please try to be considerate of your retail employees, especially this holiday season. We are all going into this holiday season even more tired than what we consider to be an average level of tired. Do not think that we are necessary being rude if we are not as engaging in a conversation, especially if it is still somewhat early in the morning. We are merely trying to make it through the day, well at least I know that I am.