5 Reasons Why Your Retail Job Might Suck

Have you ever met someone who, within seconds of being introduced to them,  nothing would make you happier than to never cross paths with them again? In fact, if it wasn’t for the sake of keeping up appearances, you’d probably tell them exactly just how much you dislike them,  with no regards to their feelings on that matter. Now imagine if you had to encounter that same type of person several times a day, several times a week, and several times a month… Congratulations, you’ve probably worked in customer service.

Unfortunately, that’s only one of the reasons why working a retail job  becomes harder and harder with each passing year. As someone who has worked several types of customer service jobs,  I’d like to think that I have a pretty well informed opinion about working in customer service… Honestly, it somewhat, kinda sorta, mostly sucks.

In all seriousness though, here are five things that will play a significant role in your job experience:

 

The Customers

Let’s just go ahead and get the Elephant in the Room out of the way  first. Even if every other aspect of working a customer service based job was great, one consistent form of aggravation would be the customers. When I was younger, I used to believe that only the higher income areas had the holier than thou/ god complex types of customers but I couldn’t be more wrong.

We’re all guilty of some level of entitlement, but nobody feels like they “deserve the “best” like your average customer. I get it,you’re a paying customer, and, yes, any money you spend will contribute in some way to every employee’s paycheck that happens to be working there. How this translates into a mentality that every person there with a name tag is now at your beck and call is what I have a hard time comprehending. If I had $1,000 for every time I’ve heard “Do you know how much money I spend here a WEEK?!” I’d be pulling in six figures a year, easily.

If the customer is like a spoiled child who pouts when they don’t get their way, then most of your supervisors are like the parents who enable the behavior by giving them exactly what they want just to shut them up. It also doesn’t help that the idea of what constitutes as customer service is becoming more and more diluted and the line between “Service” and “Servitude” becomes more blurred.

They tell you that the best way to survive customer service, especially in retail, is to not let the customer get to you. “Oh they’re just one person, you shouldn’t let them ruin your day.” Which is true, but what about the 3rd person? or the 5th? or the 20th? How many unnecessary insults does an employee have to take before someone is “allowed” to “get to them?”

I will say that those type of situations make you appreciate the customers who treat you like an actual human being even more. The only catch is that it’s getting harder and harder to find those types of customers.

 

 The Boss

This is one of those spots on a list that might not apply to you and your job, depending on how your boss is. I’ve had good bosses, horrible bosses, and a mixture of both depending on the day of the week and the type of weather outside. Generally speaking, having a boss that will be “on your side” is the best kind of situation to be in because when various customers try to get you in trouble based off of trumped up charges and facetious allegations, you know that the boss knows enough about you to vouch for you.

What sucks is that ultimately the boss will sell you out in a heart beat if it comes down to it AND they’ll do it to your face, which always makes for an uncomfortable working relationship on your end.

The Company

It’s hard to determine what factors into a company “caring” about their employees. Does any company willing to cover the bases( Benefits, 401k plan)  count? If they give a little more effort (employee appreciations) does that count? I’m still not sure. As far as I’m concerned, once a company starts making decisions that put their profit before their people, I could care less about the perks.

If the job you have puts the concerns of the employees on the back burner you’ll know, because it will certainly show. It’s already bad enough that the customers could care less about you but the bosses too? That doesn’t sound like too great of a place to me.

 

The Coworkers

Having the right coworkers around you is essential to surviving or loathing any place you might work at. A terrible work environment can dull even the perkiest employee, but finding people you can bond with can at least bring some level of enjoyment to the job.

The downside of  having coworkers is that most places of employment function like a glorified high school, complete with all the hooking up and petty drama you thought you left behind however many years ago. The two rules of dealing with coworkers is 1.) Never get involved in the pettiness and 2.) never date them.

You

Finally, the only person who can decide your working experience is you. Some people stumble onto certain jobs and fall in love with them, which leads to a career they thoroughly enjoy. Others get a job because it’s the only thing between them and homelessness and try to suffer through it until they can find something better. People like to think that there’s a gray area when it comes to things like this but there isn’t. You can’t fool yourself into liking something if you really don’t, and jobs are no different. If you have to work in a place that you don’t truly enjoy, eventually you’ll start to hate it, and who wants that?