Post by Deleted on Dec 29, 2014 17:43:44 GMT -5
We've had threads about funny anecdotes and the like, but I want to bring special attention to the soul-sucking nature my retail job.
Before my current job at a locally-owned, discount grocery store, I had a lot of food service work. I got really sick of that, and having to deal with customers and be super-social all day.
But this job? My department is me, and 2 bosses, one of which is a very nice but extremely high strung doormat of a woman in her 40s, and her assistant is this 60 year old man who bitches about liberals all day, and is generally very rude, and clumsy, he's always dropping stuff on my feet or knocking over shit I'm working on. I'm in the warehouse all day, with a price gun, pricing all these "closeout" items, which is basically shit that Target or WalMart can't sell, that we bulk purchase and markdown a ton. The job itself isn't the worst thing in the world, though it is maddeningly repetitive and mind-numbing. Today, in a 6 hour shift, I probably priced 1000 items.
But the part that really sucks is the loneliness. Like I say, there's literally NO ONE else in the department but me. So everyone else is either a cashier, or stocks things, or is one of the asshole managers, and they all have things in common, speak to each other, laugh, joke, etc. The only way I can get in on anything is if I overhear something and try to throw my 2 cents in and join the conversation, this is met with blank stares and confusion. It's this mix of high school kids and lifers that have been there 20 years and HATE it, and neither side seems to want anything to do with me.
The grocery manager is this guy I see every day I'm there, we're always in the warehouse at the same time, a lot of the time it's just me and him. He could not make it clearer that he doesn't think I'm worth interacting with, like not even saying "hi how are ya". And it really feels like just me, because all of his stock boys and fellow managers are always joking around with him. I've tried enough times to be cordial and had my kindness rejected, so now I just don't acknowledge him. Nice management, there, being a dick to someone for absolutely no reason and making things awkward. But hey, I do have the gall to be overweight and be placed the closeouts section, so who could blame him?!
So, the closeouts department is the scourge of the entire operation, yet it's a big draw because they have shit you pay $15 for elsewhere for 99 cents. Old people especially love it. Naturally, we get a ton of shipments every day. They ship us like 10 pallets of shit, that on average take 4 or so hours to breakdown and price, and we have nowhere to put it, and the Warehouse Manager bitches at ME! constantly because the closeouts are taking up more than the allotted 4 rows of the warehouse. He always phrases it personally "this is your stuff". I hear this Warehouse Manager bitching about closeouts all the time to everyone else, he does a lot more complaining than he does work, I can tell ya that.
Sometimes a cashier or stock person will be assigned to help us out, and to help out in this department one day is treated like a death sentence. I hear them joking "hah duuude, you're gonna be stuck in closeouts". Because it's my way, if I overhear this I'll make a good-natured, sarcastic joke about "oh boy wouldn't THAT be terrible!" with scintillating irony, but next time I think I'm going to tell them that what they're saying is crazy rude, because I'm standing right here doing this job you're actively bitching about having to do for just one day.
I bust my ass at this place, and have done as good a job and have had as good an attitude as one could possibly expect, but it's never enough. I started off friendly and trying to get to know everyone, but I realized that, starting at the top, this place is pretty much Satan's asshole, and there's no use trying to make it anything but that. I literally feel like I'm the enemy here, just because I happened to be placed in this department when I was hired. It's all really ugly.
Seriously, I could see this job making someone go mad and kill themselves. I've been through enough shit where it's not going to do that to me, but man, it is a stunningly terrible work environment. The only good thing is that it's a 5 minute drive from my house, compared to my last job where I had 90 minutes round trip every day.
If I didn't have a plan to go back to school and finish my degree, I would be hopelessly depressed right now. But, the job also serves to fuel my desire to go back to school, because if I don't it's going to be like this the rest of my life.
Whew....
now, you go!
Before my current job at a locally-owned, discount grocery store, I had a lot of food service work. I got really sick of that, and having to deal with customers and be super-social all day.
But this job? My department is me, and 2 bosses, one of which is a very nice but extremely high strung doormat of a woman in her 40s, and her assistant is this 60 year old man who bitches about liberals all day, and is generally very rude, and clumsy, he's always dropping stuff on my feet or knocking over shit I'm working on. I'm in the warehouse all day, with a price gun, pricing all these "closeout" items, which is basically shit that Target or WalMart can't sell, that we bulk purchase and markdown a ton. The job itself isn't the worst thing in the world, though it is maddeningly repetitive and mind-numbing. Today, in a 6 hour shift, I probably priced 1000 items.
But the part that really sucks is the loneliness. Like I say, there's literally NO ONE else in the department but me. So everyone else is either a cashier, or stocks things, or is one of the asshole managers, and they all have things in common, speak to each other, laugh, joke, etc. The only way I can get in on anything is if I overhear something and try to throw my 2 cents in and join the conversation, this is met with blank stares and confusion. It's this mix of high school kids and lifers that have been there 20 years and HATE it, and neither side seems to want anything to do with me.
The grocery manager is this guy I see every day I'm there, we're always in the warehouse at the same time, a lot of the time it's just me and him. He could not make it clearer that he doesn't think I'm worth interacting with, like not even saying "hi how are ya". And it really feels like just me, because all of his stock boys and fellow managers are always joking around with him. I've tried enough times to be cordial and had my kindness rejected, so now I just don't acknowledge him. Nice management, there, being a dick to someone for absolutely no reason and making things awkward. But hey, I do have the gall to be overweight and be placed the closeouts section, so who could blame him?!
So, the closeouts department is the scourge of the entire operation, yet it's a big draw because they have shit you pay $15 for elsewhere for 99 cents. Old people especially love it. Naturally, we get a ton of shipments every day. They ship us like 10 pallets of shit, that on average take 4 or so hours to breakdown and price, and we have nowhere to put it, and the Warehouse Manager bitches at ME! constantly because the closeouts are taking up more than the allotted 4 rows of the warehouse. He always phrases it personally "this is your stuff". I hear this Warehouse Manager bitching about closeouts all the time to everyone else, he does a lot more complaining than he does work, I can tell ya that.
Sometimes a cashier or stock person will be assigned to help us out, and to help out in this department one day is treated like a death sentence. I hear them joking "hah duuude, you're gonna be stuck in closeouts". Because it's my way, if I overhear this I'll make a good-natured, sarcastic joke about "oh boy wouldn't THAT be terrible!" with scintillating irony, but next time I think I'm going to tell them that what they're saying is crazy rude, because I'm standing right here doing this job you're actively bitching about having to do for just one day.
I bust my ass at this place, and have done as good a job and have had as good an attitude as one could possibly expect, but it's never enough. I started off friendly and trying to get to know everyone, but I realized that, starting at the top, this place is pretty much Satan's asshole, and there's no use trying to make it anything but that. I literally feel like I'm the enemy here, just because I happened to be placed in this department when I was hired. It's all really ugly.
Seriously, I could see this job making someone go mad and kill themselves. I've been through enough shit where it's not going to do that to me, but man, it is a stunningly terrible work environment. The only good thing is that it's a 5 minute drive from my house, compared to my last job where I had 90 minutes round trip every day.
If I didn't have a plan to go back to school and finish my degree, I would be hopelessly depressed right now. But, the job also serves to fuel my desire to go back to school, because if I don't it's going to be like this the rest of my life.
Whew....
now, you go!
