But listen that’s the thing. 

We are short staffed almost 97% of the time at my retail job. Because corporate has figured out you can overwork 4 people at minimum wage instead of paying for the 8 people you should probably have to be on the clock.  

Baby boomers grew up with stores that were adequately staffed, with workers who most likely had weeks of training for their jobs as opposed to the 1-2 shadow shift training we get now. Also those workers most likely were able to be full time if they wanted. Now retail, except for management positions, is mostly made up of part time workers, because you don’t have to give them benefits. So you have a workforce of perpetually underpaid, overwhelmed, undertrained people trying to do their best all while dealing with an entire generation of people who refuse to acknowledge that the system has changed and the average retail worker has NO control over that change and is being taken advantage of.

Like we got our customer surveys back, and almost every single one mentioned that they couldn’t find someone to help them or we needed more people on register because it was TOO SLOW, but what did management tell us instead of scheduling more people? We need to be quicker on register and call for backup if necessary. Which makes no sense because we can’t call for backup THAT ISN’T THERE.

Y'all my parents haven’t worked retail since the 70s and they absolutely never believe me about the things that happen at work. I explain the schedule for next week gets hung up on the Friday before and they scoff and go “well when i worked at X they had it a month up your manager is just lazy.” No mom, its company policy to only do “two weeks” in advance. They won’t give you a full month’s scheduling in advance cause it let’s you plan for a world outside of work.

Or about the hours, workload or anything. They just assume its an individual’s failing instead of corporate mandate. Or, if they do believe me (that its company policy) they call it ridiculous and point out some survey that argues its Good Business to do (insert decent thing here).As if they think the higher ups don’t know this and are simply ignorant of Good Business Practices. They don’t understand that retail has completely shifted from caring about its employees to squeezing out every penny now instead of investing it for later.

Cause that isn’t how it was when they worked and they just can’t seem to see otherwise.

   I think there should be a ‘bring-your-parent-to-work-day’ instead of ‘bring-your-kid-to-work-day’, it would shock so many parents and would probably make them finally realize how much retail indeed has changed in the US.

when i first got hired as a cashier, my manager who had been doing that since she was like 17 in 1975 told me that back in The Days, when you were hired as a cashier in a grocery store it was a) a well paid job & you could get full time work easily b) a respected career choice c) the store closed at 6pm and was closed on Sundays so the hours were a lot more pleasant d) they made you go to cashier school for 2 weeks, which was basically a fake grocery store and you just learned the trade completely before even meeting a customer
now its like : you get like 20 hours a week, bullshit shifts like 3:45 to 10:15, a 20 minutes training before being thrown to the wolves, customers tell you you deserve your shitty lowlife job as soon as you don’t thoroughly kiss their ass

The millennial experience is tied to growing income inequality and the indentured servitude of student loan debt

My first day of work for Family Dollar was March 1st 2009. I worked 4-9pm. This is my very first job I ever had in my entire life. Never worked a cash register or anything. All my knowledge came from watching people ring me up in the 19 years of my life. At 4:05 I was alone on register for the rest of the night with a solid flow of customers. I NEVER GOT ANY TRAINING OTHER THAN THOSE 5 MINUTES OF PUSH THIS BUTTON AND GOOD LUCK.

It’s gotten worse since I officially left retail in 2001. As an older teen who only lived 5 minutes away and was no longer in school, I was scheduled a lot of open to close days. They could trust me with the key to open, and they could trust me to balance the registers and shit after we closed. I was NEVER compensated as a key holder or as someone who was basically doing managerial shit. Now, kids are only given a few hours a week, and the minimum wage hasn’t been raised in how long? When I worked at the community college bookstore from 1999 - 2000, I distinctly remember making $6.50 per hour. And the minimum wage is, what, $7.25 now? It’s bullshit. Then again, even office jobs around here barely pay more than $12 per hour to start, and you have to have a bachelor’s and somehow also 5 years of experience.

I definitely remember as a kid that all the lines at the grocery store would have a cashier manning them. Now there’s maybe two lines open and all the rest empty.

I remember being the only person to run ALL of the front one day, meaning customer service AND checkout. Because the place I used to work only schedule two people now instead of three. Not only did our satisfaction rates plummet when we made that shift, but if someone called out and we couldn’t find anyone to come in (and let’s face it you usually don’t…) we’re screwed.

But it’s whatever I’ve done this song and dance before so I’m doing my thing taking care of the line and working two registers and apologizing profusely because “UM WHERE IS YOUR HELP THIS IS RIDICULOUS???” and it’s going as smooth as it can except I keep having to put the phone on hold and it’s the same number. So I’m putting the phone on hold but the lady keeps hanging up and calling back and about the third time I can’t even say hello before I get a “DO NOT put me on hold again I need to talk to someone!” I tell her firmly that I’m the only one up front and if she holds I’ll get to her in a bit.

So I put her on hold again and finally get the line down and get back to the phone. She’s still there and after apologizing for the wait, thanking her for her patients (which she doesn’t have) and calling over another customer to ring out while I talk to her she demands a manager. Now, the manager is dealing with something else so I explain he’s with someone and ask what she needs. She tells me that it’s OBVIOUSLY because she was put on hold. I say “I apologize ma'am, as I said I’m the only one working customer service and checkout because we had someone call out.” “Well the management needs to get you HELP!” “They’ve done all they can ma'am no one was available to come in. What was it you needed today?” “I need to talk to the manager they need to MAKE someone come in this is ridiculous.”

That was at a retail electronic store. She was wondering if we had any of a specific TV in stock in the end and was treating it with the same urgency as the CANCER PATIENTS at my current job treat stuff when they call. People cannot fathom how hellish retail is and honestly I’m glad I was able to get out.