Retail Sucks
There is no doubt about it. Anyone who ever has or currently is working in a retail store knows that going to work everyday can be quite the struggle. The hours are long, the people are ungrateful and the work is repetitive, unrewarding and grossly underpaid. Unfortunately, everyone keeps shopping, some people even enjoy it. After four years in the game, I feel like a qualified representative of the community,
Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, we are not alone. Aside from the community of unhappy sales associates at my own store, there is a larger community of individuals working in a multitude of stores who understand just how we feel. Though members of this community come from all over the country, different generations and backgrounds, have different levels of education and career goals we are all united in the single way that essentially defines our entire community: we hate our terrible jobs.
Just tab over to google for a second and search "retail sucks" or, if you want less stigmatized results, search "working in retail." Below are my #1 and #3 results, respectively:
More of a visual person? Click the image tab and hundreds of images and memes appear. What is the one thing they have in common? Complaining! Which is definitely the most prominent form of communication in our world. The vast amount of internet memes, Buzzfeed articles, quizzes and even traditional text articles (gasp!) helps reassure us that we are not wrong, the job really is that bad but at least we aren't suffering alone.
Our community reassures us that everyone single member feels the same. We are united in our struggle. We also remind each other the fundamental reason most of us make this job work; it pays the bills. In this ever-changing world a stable job, even one you hate, is better than no job. Belonging to a community of individuals who sympathizes with what you’re enduring in order to meet your basic needs definitely gives us the little push we need in order to clock-in and keep on smiling through our shift.
Now before you go on thinking that every retail employee you've ever encountered has been overwhelmingly miserable, rest assured, sometimes it's not so bad. At least we get a discount, right? And we're actually closed on Christmas.
All jokes aside, some employees really do like their jobs, but even they have days, or customers that make them feel like a founding member of the disgruntled retail employee community. If any employee tries to resist the community forever, taking the high road and internalizing the inevitable frustrations that come with the job, they won't last. This community was developed because of our inherent nature to express ourselves and our feelings, and thats not always pretty.
Convinced? Scared? Promise to be nice to every sales associate you ever encounter for the rest of time? Ha! Yeah, right.
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