Retail is not easy, especially on the mind. It can be draining to work at a retail store where thousands of people come through a line, and then add to the fact that the cashier has to be friendly to angry people.
“The people are very unhappy and rude,” said Richelle Cop, a cashier at a big box retail store.
"The customers in retail complain a lot," she said of her cashiering job. Some shifts can be long when there are no items to put away, as is the case with Nancy McCue, who is a sales associate at the same store. By the end it’s draining to the point where a person can crash after work.
“It takes you two hours to unwind from the over-stimulation, especially if you work nights,” said McCue, “Research indicates specific parts of the brain are utilized for certain tasks.”
Some jobs require scanning and bagging items the entire day, and some involve standing and running around eight hours a day. Sometimes the shifts will be five hours, like when the company has to cut hours, and then someone with 40 hours will wind up with 32 instead. When a department is short staffed it can be even more stressful since it involves running around answering questions, and cleaning up after messy customers. It’s not as easy as folding clothes, and scanning items day after day. There is a rule to greet the customer when they get ten feet in front of you.
It’s difficult mentally dealing with several departments at once since a sales associate has to answer questions, trouble-shoot register issues, and solve situations with a manager if needed.
"The stress is enough to make a person scream," said Jessica Jefferson, a sales associate at a retail store, “Retail can be stressful to the point you drink yourself to sleep,” said Jefferson. “Managers thinking you are blind and tell you to do your job. Some days, if I get pushed to that point, I will scream out of the blue.”
Even though it’s mentally draining there are outlets that help see the humor in retail, thanks to social media. Websites like "Retail Hell Underground" offer an outlet for sales people to tell their stories about rude customers and even telling some of them off. Then there is a podcast called "The Retail Rant" which talks about the many facets of retail, and the humor in it. Books called "Retail Hell How I Sold my Soul to the Store" by Freeman Hall tell the mental horrors a person working retail has to deal with on a daily basis. There are Facebook groups that will let a person vent about it, and there are actually people who understand the craziness that goes on.
One example of this is Retail Hell Underground and it lets people who work retail vent about their job.
Freeman Hall author of the book "RetailHell," and site owner of "Retail Hell Underground": “RHU was created in 2007 and the words 'social media' didn't exist as far as I know back then! lol MySpace was where it all started. Facebook didn't start becoming popular until 2009-10... (I believe it's birthday was 2004)The way I started the RHU blog was by connecting it to MySpace. On myspace there were groups of people for work. They were by company or group. So like there was Macy's, Old Navy, Retail Sucks, etc...so I would send invitations to all of these people for the myspace page and the website. Then they started sending in their stories and ranting about their jobs. This gave them a chance to have a voice and also get support from one another.”
Freeman said, and he is also author of the book "Retail Hell: How I sold my Soul to the Store," “Social media in today's world has made it possible for anyone with a phone, device, or computer to voice their opinion and get instant feedback! Twitter, Facebook, youtube, reddit, instagram...they have all become platforms for people to share their experiences either publically or privately with a group and get immediate comments and this gives people a chance to vent and get support from others. On the flip side, it also gets people fired from their jobs if they are identified for ranting about their company. Since there is no way I could have created something where folks could post instantly, RHU has changed over the years and we now post stories from social media platforms like reddit, tumblr, facebook, and the news as we don't get as many submissions. Folks can post to twitter, reddit, and facebook and get immediate results. I created RHU to give customer service workers a voice and also have a place where they could have a chuckle or two..Interestingly, RHU is turning 10 next year!”
Unwinding at the end of the day after a stressful shift helps. Sometimes there are people who work retail that don’t let anything bother them.
“Some days it is mentally stressful somedays it isn’t. It depends on how I feel,” said Iris Judkins, a fitting room associate at the same store.
It’s also mentally stressful, “Because the general population treats like you're less than human most days. Not always, not every customer is like that, but the bad is piled on a lot harder than the good can dig you out of it. Plus, standing for eight to 16 hours at a time really hurts the arthritis.” Said Shannen Heard, a gas station clerk who does a little bit of everything.
It can be draining dealing with customers, coworkers, and especially, “all the bullshit co workers and bosses,” Said Amanda Rousseau, who was a cashier at a box retailer. “The ones who expect the impossible from you and punish you when you don't complete it.”
All in all retail is not for everyone, and it’s not a job to have for a very long time. The turnover rate is high due to poor management, horrible scheduling, and people who use you as a verbal punching bag over stock which an associate has no control over. A sales associate can’t special order stock, and they don’t keep everything in the back.
Although it can be stressful, social media has given an outlet to retail people everywhere, and they can use it to vent about their job. People submit stories regularly to the site, and even Youtube videos allow people to talk about what it’s like to be a cashier, sales associate, and talk about the customers that made their day hell.
