I guess I just want to vent, so I don't really expect anyone to read this. I have been working retail for almost 4 years now. At the job I'm currently at, I am the first person people see about any kind of issue. As you might imagine, if people need to come in for any issues they are generally angry before they even step in the door. Now, I meet upwards of 30 different customers a day, all for different issues. My best guess is that at least half of them are rude or treat me like garbage, possibly more. Now very rarely someone comes in and treats me with respect, and I will go out of my way to help them out. Those times are just fine, and it helps the time pass. But again, most of the times I can't even greet the person before they are on about "You guys sold me this and it didn't work. Why would you lie to me?" or "Why are they even paying you if you can't do your job?". Yes, those are both real examples, and neither of them had anything whatsoever to do with me (in fact the last one the lady actually completely destroyed the item and was wanting me to return it out of 30 days). As you can see, it's literally just people yelling at me and pointing fingers at me all day, despite me never leaving the counter and having no interaction with them prior to this angry display. It's gone so far as people cussing me out and throwing stuff at me because they are asking for something absurd (like a plane ticket because they flew across the US to return an item when they had the same stores where they live, ie they wanted a free vacation). I've literally seen it all. Of course I usually write it off as people are jerks and ignore it, but it eventually tears away at you. You eventually don't want to work anymore because you know the second you step through the door you will have an angry person yelling in your face for the next 8 hours. Today, I drove to work. Or, more accurately, I drove to the parking lot at my work. I then put my car in reverse and left after having a panic attack in the parking lot. I have no plans of returning, and I don't regret it. No one deserves to be harassed like that every single day. They frankly don't pay me enough for that, and I'm not sure anyone can be paid enough for that. I plan on calling my manager in the morning to say I quit. I'll do it respectfully and thank them for the job, but I just simply can't go back in and face that again. If anything, I've learned to treat anyone in customer service, retail, or the food industry with the highest amount of respect while being overly polite. Working there, I realized how your day can be made by just a single person being kind and respectful toward you. But the fact is, you usually won't get that during the entire day. If you're lucky, people will just be mildly annoyed or neutral at best. I guess I'm just trying to say that I learned that you need to follow what your gut feelings say. I had absolutely no plan of quitting today, but I just knew that I couldn't go in when I got to work. I just knew that I can't spend another minute being harassed for things I didn't even do. I deserve more than that, and I don't regret my decision. Thanks if you read any part of this. It was mostly just for me to vent and feel better about my decision, but if it helps anyone else out, then great!
I worked in retail for 8 years. Thankfully I didnt do retail in the USA as all the stories I hear indicate that every single aspect of it is worse there. Sounds like you did the right thing. :eusa_clap
That sucks. Sometimes people suck. I'm always so nice to people who work in retail and service-industry jobs. I tend to usually ask them how they're doing. If I'm having a problem with their company policies, I know it's not the fault of the employee, and often when I'm nice to them they try to help me if they can. Maybe try to find a job where people generally want to be there.
I can relate, I worked at a grocery store for 2 years and nearly lost it. I ended up being fired because I sort of snapped at my boss. It also made me realize that being nice and respectful to people working in the service industry is very important.
People suck, period! When I was working as a car salesman customers already hated me without even knowing me! I took so much verbal abuse by stangers that I broke down and quit as well....
Well I just formally sent my resignation letter. I feel terrible leaving my co-workers like this (they are all great people), but I just can't take the stress customer service brings me. I let my manager know this and I thanked him and my co-workers for everything (to make sure they knew it had nothing to do with the job itself, just the customers). I hope it came across as respectful, even though I didn't submit a two weeks notice. It's funny how much time I spent trying to make sure the people around me were happy and that everyone liked working with me. While I don't regret that and want people to be happy, I certainly should have spent more time worrying about if I was happy. It's kind of bittersweet leaving my friends and co-workers behind like this, but it will lead to my happiness so I guess it's all fine. Thanks for all your input guys, I'm glad I'm not the only one who felt this way
