Retail slave

This article is an honest review of my first part time job in retail. Generally a bad experience which finally made me stand up and say my opinion.

Unlock the door, turn the lights on, make sure that the shop is ready to be opened...

Nothing but a regular morning treadmill. Although, there was always something that made my very first work experience feel more than unpleasant. Initially, I was truly excited as one would expect. No wonder, this particular kind of work appeared to be an easy way of how to earn some extra money. At one point this was true. As an employee of a small retail shop, my main responsibility was a communication with customers and the sale of our goods itself. Simple manageable tasks, undoubtedly. The only catch in this seemingly amazing work was the boss herself. To quote a specific part of the Czech's work law regarding relationships, duties and rights of an employer and employee - "An employer's duty is to provide a nice work environment.". That's a part where the boss failed miserably. She was neither supportive or encouraging us to do our best nor she was giving us any kudos/compliments. Instead, we were receiving edgy messages that lead to a countless number of arguments. In general, she tore our team spirit apart moreover leaving some of the colleagues in constant fear of her. What kind of boss is willing to nourish bad mood and anxiety in order to discourage you. Due to her character as well as the lack of interest in helping us in times of need, we had to learn how to creatively explain why the specific product is unavailable even though it's displayed on our website. The same course of action followed when it came to returns of purchased goods. Not only our customers were annoyed but we were unable to do anything but to apologise. Unfortunately, these were the exact rough conditions under which we had to work. Apart from this problematics with our boss, I had found difficult to lie. First of all, lying is bad no matter what. Second of all, it is not surprising that if you lie about certain product's quality or appearance persistently, chances are you will sell more things than if you were honest. Despite this "rule" of sale workers, I remained kind and sincere. As a result, I sold fewer goods than my colleagues who were more experienced in what they can afford to say while remaining proficiency in the matter of appropriateness. On the other hand, I had clear conscience about not lying. Truth is truth and if you cannot say it, do not say anything at all.

As any other retail worker, I have met few odd individuals whose intelligence was closely intertwined to their appearance. Inappropriate, rude behaviour of some of them made me think about the nowadays ladder of social values as of a defunct. Some people can still treat you as a slave whereas some can be extremely nice and tip you. Surprisingly, the majority of my tips came from hands of strangers to whom I talked in English.

Penultimately, I want to dedicate few sentences to the problem of incompetence. Not only I was treated the way I was, I was also called stupid, incompetent employee and god know what else despite the amount of work that I had been doing back there. Vacuum cleaning the floor so it looked as clean as new, replenishing goods, sending responses via our web page, equating hangers so they were just 1 cm apart, I didn't know what to do more to please my boss. Despite the fact that I was doing the maximum, the shop was never clean at least according to the boss. One day, when I closed the shop, she came to do a check-up and things went a bit too far The situation resolved in giving a notice since I knew I left the place clean regardless the content of a very rude message that I received. I immediately knew I deserve better work.

Waving my hand with a smirk on my face I quitted.

Practically, I only gained. The only thing that I perhaps lost is the pressure which was generated by anxiety stimulating work environment.

What more could be said but that I did the right thing without regrets. To sum it up, you learn not only from mistakes throughout the life but also by making decisions regardless of their character. Pittyfully, nothing can guarantee you good future colleagues nor determine the true personality traits of your employer. Therefore, the only thing left to do is experimenting, taking challenges and generally trying new things about which you will create personal ideas. In conclusion, I would like to appeal, that no matter what work you find, you have to be at least comfortable with it if not entirely liking it. Don't do anything where they underestimate your skills or ignore your effort!

I wish you good luck! :)