When I turned 18 I got my first job in a retail environment. I had worked at a Dunkin Donuts for two years prior, but it never seemed to have the same effect on me. When you have social anxiety it becomes very hard to hold some jobs when you're in high school and college because having to interact face to face with people that you don't know every day can be very difficult. You have to constantly be greeting and asking common questions. I always think that I'm annoying people and making their "shopping experience" less enjoyable. I was terrified to talk and have conversations with customers, it seemed like it was never going to get easier. I would actually ignore them when they walked in the store and would wait till someone else go the chance to take care of it.
When I first started working at my current job, more than two and a half years ago, I was very timid and shy. I would hide behind the register and make as little conversation as possible. And let me tell you, my boss was not having it. It can be really hard to find your voice in that particular environment. In order for me to get the courage that I personally needed my boss put me on the floor to greet and help customers with what they needed to fine. I thought at first it was just a coincidence that I had to be on the floor a few days in a row, but it soon turned into every day I worked. For months. Until I was able to be comfortable and overcome the anxiety that I unfortunately have to deal with nearly every day. She did it on purpose, she had worked in retail for over 20 years, she knows how to help her employees even if it doesn't seem like help at the time. After a month I was pissed, she knew how much I hated it and she still made me do it for 6 or more hours at a time. In the end, I thank her for forcing me out of my comfort zone because I don't think I would be the person I am today, I would probably still be avoiding eye contact and stuttering every time I talked.
Now don't get me wrong, I still go running for the hills when a huge group of customers walk in all at once or when they are especially rude. But I am now able to be confident when talking to customers and it's helped me be given the opportunity to train new workers and even get promoted. We've had a bunch of new girls start lately, and I make sure to tell every one of them that if they avoid people that the will get stuck doing the job that they hate the most until they get over it. As unsympathetic as it was, I had told one of the girls to go talk to customers that had just came in, she said "Well I can't, I have social anxiety" I straight up told her "So do I, you have to just get over it and do it", which is the truth, no one's going to do it for you forever. I understood what she was going through and I completely sympathize, but in the end, you got the job for a reason you just have to push through the awkward parts.
Even though I can perform better at my job I still find myself with so much social anxiety anywhere else than in my store. I'll go into stores while I'm shopping and I will completely ignore the people who are greeting, even though I've been on the other side and I absolutely hate those customers! I'm able to seem very outgoing and approachable while I'm working, I have full conversations and even make jokes with customers, but the second I walk out that door I am a completely different person, it's pretty strange to be honest.
If I can give anyone who is going into a new job and has a lot of social anxiety, it would have to be to go at it in little steps, my manager threw me in it all at once to mold me into the worker I needed to be, but that might not work for everyone and if you can't stand up to that amount of pressure then retail may not be the job for you, and that's perfectly okay. Living with anxiety is hard, you just have to find where you fit in. This is just a small overview of what how I've overcome my anxiety, maybe not completely, but just enough.
