Pissed rant, go!
I hate retail. Really, really, REALLY hate retail. I know I've had a few job-related complaints in here before, but this time, I'm going all out. Because you're all so lovable, you get to hear my rant. Ode to Joy, right?
First off, allow me to begin by saying that just because businesses are forced to say "the customer is always right" doesn't mean they are. Now, I'm excluding everyone on my LJ list because I sincerely believe you to be good people, but at least 50% of customers are undisguised assholes. They're rude, condescending, insufferable pricks who should be sent to a concentration camp on manners. And no customers are worse than female customers. That may sound sexist, but this is after two years of experience in the front lines in various stores, and I can sincerely state that the worse incidents I've seen were perpetuated by these extremely unpleasant females. Ok, maybe they were having their period; maybe they were having bad days. But that gives them NO excuse to go about being total bitches. If I tell you the sale doesn't apply to this item, it DOES NOT FUCKING APPLY, YOU STUPID BITCH. I WORK IN THIS GODDAMN HELLHOLE: I WOULD KNOW.
Secondly, I AM NOT PART OF THE FUCKING SCENERY. I am a living, breathing person who has to work for lousy pay here. I am often pulling ten hour shifts because my coporate masters are too cheap to give decent pay, so fewer people apply, so I work more. Given this, you are NOT allowed to be rude to me, to give me lip, to try to make my miserable shift worse, or anything else. If I don't say hello to you at the register, guess what? You didn't say hello to me. Unlike the young high school kids I've been training for the past three weeks, this is NOT my first job. I am not impressed by your complaints, your threats, or anything else. I have seen it all, and it was done better the first time. Furthermore, I am MUCH smarter than you are. I can leave you looking like a fish gaping for air if I want to, and not much stops me from doing so. The only thing that keeps me from popping your conceit is that it takes more time than you're worth, especially with a line of people behind you. I will process you with extreme effiency, wish you a pleasant day at the end of it, but I want you OUT. Pleasantly, but still GONE.
Oh, and let's not forget my corporate masters while I'm ranting. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with them? I'm a business management and administration major, oh wise and excellent slavedrivers. Did you miserable lot just not learn the basics? How about the fact they pay minimum wage for work that at the end of the night leaves me sore in back and utterly exhausted? How about the fact that a worker there for three years makes 7.28 an hour, barely better than minimum wage after the law legally FORCED them to raise wages a week ago? How about the fact that two years previous experience is worth a DIME. You read that right, ten WHOLE cents. Morale is low, employee turnover high, and I'm joining the joining the quitting bandwagon soon enough. And how about my own patented Theory of Inverse Employment? While many textbooks can be printed on my lovely theory, the two fundamental aspects are as follows: the less people to work due to quitting the job, the more hours I am forced to work. Secondly, the more obvious it becomes that your part-timer is extremely competant, the less hours you give to your full-time employees, and the more hours you force upon your part-timer.
Oh, and let's not forget that they KNOW I'm a third-year management major, so I'm only a year away from being a college certified manager. So, where do they put me? Behind the service desk as a supervisor? NO, BEHIND A CASH REGISTER. And this is while they KNOW that I have more experience in more aspects of a store than pretty much anyone else. It took me TWO shifts to figure out everything in the store. Sixteen whole hours, people, to figure out a multi-million dollar a year store. And what do they do? They decide I'm not much better than the high school rookies fresh to the slaughter for their first job, and stick me with minial labor. Were I no better than that high school student, I'd stomach it. But utterly wasting experience and ability is just insulting.
And even better is the crap they keep pulling on me, by dumping clueless trainees into my lap. I've had shifts where I had THREE trainees on register, the supervisor and manager were both ignoring them, and guess who had to step in to keep everything from hitting the fan? Yes, ME, the stupid shit that I am, cannot just let things fall apart at the seams, the way I should let it happen so that they can understand trainees need attention. No, I had to deal with three trainees, my own register, and the unending line from hell, all at the same time, just because the higher-ups were too busy being higher-ups to lend me a hand. Or stiffen the trainees with a few more experienced workers. But God forbid they use those ludicrously huge profits to raise pay to at a merited 8 an hour, keep employees happy, and spend time and attention on actually TRAINING people.
First off, allow me to begin by saying that just because businesses are forced to say "the customer is always right" doesn't mean they are. Now, I'm excluding everyone on my LJ list because I sincerely believe you to be good people, but at least 50% of customers are undisguised assholes. They're rude, condescending, insufferable pricks who should be sent to a concentration camp on manners. And no customers are worse than female customers. That may sound sexist, but this is after two years of experience in the front lines in various stores, and I can sincerely state that the worse incidents I've seen were perpetuated by these extremely unpleasant females. Ok, maybe they were having their period; maybe they were having bad days. But that gives them NO excuse to go about being total bitches. If I tell you the sale doesn't apply to this item, it DOES NOT FUCKING APPLY, YOU STUPID BITCH. I WORK IN THIS GODDAMN HELLHOLE: I WOULD KNOW.
Secondly, I AM NOT PART OF THE FUCKING SCENERY. I am a living, breathing person who has to work for lousy pay here. I am often pulling ten hour shifts because my coporate masters are too cheap to give decent pay, so fewer people apply, so I work more. Given this, you are NOT allowed to be rude to me, to give me lip, to try to make my miserable shift worse, or anything else. If I don't say hello to you at the register, guess what? You didn't say hello to me. Unlike the young high school kids I've been training for the past three weeks, this is NOT my first job. I am not impressed by your complaints, your threats, or anything else. I have seen it all, and it was done better the first time. Furthermore, I am MUCH smarter than you are. I can leave you looking like a fish gaping for air if I want to, and not much stops me from doing so. The only thing that keeps me from popping your conceit is that it takes more time than you're worth, especially with a line of people behind you. I will process you with extreme effiency, wish you a pleasant day at the end of it, but I want you OUT. Pleasantly, but still GONE.
Oh, and let's not forget my corporate masters while I'm ranting. Seriously, what the hell is wrong with them? I'm a business management and administration major, oh wise and excellent slavedrivers. Did you miserable lot just not learn the basics? How about the fact they pay minimum wage for work that at the end of the night leaves me sore in back and utterly exhausted? How about the fact that a worker there for three years makes 7.28 an hour, barely better than minimum wage after the law legally FORCED them to raise wages a week ago? How about the fact that two years previous experience is worth a DIME. You read that right, ten WHOLE cents. Morale is low, employee turnover high, and I'm joining the joining the quitting bandwagon soon enough. And how about my own patented Theory of Inverse Employment? While many textbooks can be printed on my lovely theory, the two fundamental aspects are as follows: the less people to work due to quitting the job, the more hours I am forced to work. Secondly, the more obvious it becomes that your part-timer is extremely competant, the less hours you give to your full-time employees, and the more hours you force upon your part-timer.
Oh, and let's not forget that they KNOW I'm a third-year management major, so I'm only a year away from being a college certified manager. So, where do they put me? Behind the service desk as a supervisor? NO, BEHIND A CASH REGISTER. And this is while they KNOW that I have more experience in more aspects of a store than pretty much anyone else. It took me TWO shifts to figure out everything in the store. Sixteen whole hours, people, to figure out a multi-million dollar a year store. And what do they do? They decide I'm not much better than the high school rookies fresh to the slaughter for their first job, and stick me with minial labor. Were I no better than that high school student, I'd stomach it. But utterly wasting experience and ability is just insulting.
And even better is the crap they keep pulling on me, by dumping clueless trainees into my lap. I've had shifts where I had THREE trainees on register, the supervisor and manager were both ignoring them, and guess who had to step in to keep everything from hitting the fan? Yes, ME, the stupid shit that I am, cannot just let things fall apart at the seams, the way I should let it happen so that they can understand trainees need attention. No, I had to deal with three trainees, my own register, and the unending line from hell, all at the same time, just because the higher-ups were too busy being higher-ups to lend me a hand. Or stiffen the trainees with a few more experienced workers. But God forbid they use those ludicrously huge profits to raise pay to at a merited 8 an hour, keep employees happy, and spend time and attention on actually TRAINING people.