Most Nightmarish Retail Job I've Ever Experienced
Pros
- Employee Discount - Hours were available if you needed them.
Cons
- Hostile Work Environment (Employees greeting me with skepticism about how I was qualified to be hired in as a CSS before they even truly interacted with me, management asking me if I've even ever had a job before, claiming to "be supportive" yet never actually offering any form of support. - Incredibly rude, entitled customers (Sworn at and/or insulted for not taking 6 month to multiple-year expired coupons including ones with expiry before COVID lockdown, screamed at for not hearing customers well through masks and plexigass screens, seeing customers turn on a dime when they realize you won't capitulate to their every wish.) - In fact, it was like the customers knew exactly what buttons to push, understanding that if they were loud enough or rude enough, they could get exactly what they wanted. There was too much power placed in their hands, and none placed in mine as an employee. (One customer even told me, "I bet you if I call customer service, they'll give me exactly what I want." to which I responded, "I'm sure they will. I'll even bet you my next pay check on it, even though it's not very much." Her response, "Yeah. I'd bet mine, but I bet it's much more than yours". Okay, lady.) - Understaffed store as well as odd choice of where they liked their employees in numbers, such as when there were 5-6 footwear associates in the back of the store while I was alone on the sales floor covering nearly 15,000 sq ft of clothing and customers. Nobody was happy when I rightfully called them out about that, though they could not dispute how little sense it made. - Other CSSs had no desire to be in the front end and were often found in other zones (or off the sales floor completely), assumedly so they did not have to deal with the rabid, coupon-crazed customers more than they had to. I could be wrong but I was sure that the CSS role kept you primarily in the front end to lead the cashiers and be present to authorize certain transactions and register issues, as well as handle customer complaints. How are you able to do that if you're nowhere to be found? - Lack of training, most people are thrown into the job. For me, this is no big deal, but I can imagine the level of intimidation and stress this can put on younger people and inexperienced retail workers. - Frequent and normalized discussion of rate of pay between employees, not a smart idea. I learned that a 17 year old new hire as sales associate made the same amount as I did even though my role is technically higher up the store hierarchy than theirs was. - 0 coaching. Most retail establishments will do housekeeping with employees that come in for their shift - go over sales goals, any company announcements and news, as well as anything else that staff needs to know to succeed for the day. We did not do this here, it almost felt like every man for himself. I worked in what was described as a lead role, even though my hands were tied in terms of the amount of actual power I carried. - It was quite awkward to make a distinction between myself and the associates, as the only real difference between my job tasks and theirs was that I had manager credentials for transactional problems. This did not elicit any respect from customers, who will apparently only treat you mildly humanely if you are in a managerial position (although they were no strangers to terrible treatment the same way.). This also did not elicit much respect from other employees, who were young like me, and frequently talked about me behind my back, trying to figure out exactly how I was able to pull off being hired in as a CSS. They did not hide their confusion from me to my face, so I can only imagine the conversations going on while I wasn't present were far from pretty.