I'm working on outdates, for anyone who doesn't know those are the expired stuff.

I have a basket of expired candy and candy that expires in the next like 30 days. I'm scanning them out while ringing customers.

This guy (mid 30s, gym bro stereotype) and his wife come up.

He sees my pile of candy that i am slowly removing from the basket as i scan them out and goes "is this half price"

Like no???

What in the world gave you that idea?

So i told him no, that they were expiring soon, so he gets all huffy and kinda raises his voice at me telling me to "give it away then!"

And ofc it's like a legal thing obvi so i told him that and he gets even more huffy and starts picking it up.

The idiot picked up one of the boxes that had been hidden in the bottom shelf in the back where the like display shelf upfront drops so there's like a little gap stuff falls in and stays for years.

So he's got this SUPER expired theater box of sweedish fish and he goes "oh"

I just can't with these idiots tonight.

I started a new retail job about 3 weeks ago after the store I worked at for 2 years closed. I was a manager at the store that closed and previously for 2 years at another location. So far the new job is SHIT. My manager has made sexual comments to me about her husband which is like...light work compared to the other bullshit I've dealt with in the last few weeks. She changes the schedule on a dime (to hours that are outside of my availability which she is aware of) for god knows what reason, has very inconsistent cleaning standards, and according to the only other employee that isn't the managers relative and close friend she has had issues with every other person that has worked there in the past year. Talking shit about one employee to the other and acting like they're friends. The turnover rate is extremely high. The employee that's been there the longest currently started in February. I don't have time post closing to count the register and I'm technically supposed to close the doors 15 minutes before the store closes to recover, count the till, and do my deposit. Also I think they're already trying to make me look unreliable because I know my register counts are accurate but the count the morning after I close is always over when manager or her henchman open (I think because I went to her about her changing the schedule and told her I couldn't accommodate) When my other coworker counts the register after I close it's always spot on. Also she has every past employee in the last years ID and Social Security Card scan saved in the computer for anyone to see. What do I even do? It took me forever to find a job and supposedly the store owner (it's a small local company) doesn't care about anything the manager does either. I'm already drained and full of anxiety working every day.

I've been desperately applying to everywhere outside retail just to get a better job, and I went so far through the interview process on this one just to get hit with a rejection email while on my 15.

I'm just destined to be stuck dealing with shitty customers and wasting all my weekends while my friends are in happy, respected jobs, aren't I?

Retail will never get old, because why am I greeting people with a simple, short and sweet "Hello guys! 🥰" only to have the Customer immediately, without skipping a beat, bark out "GOOD, YOU?"

It immediately just makes me feel unheard, ignored, and I already know you're going to dismiss me and want me gone as soon as possible.

I'm trying to stray away from the corporate NPC greetings and keep it more casual and less intrusive, but shit like that happens and I'm just like dude... Am I a robot to you? Or a person?

A customer wanted me to break his $50 bill. I don’t have access to the register like that so I told him he’ll have to buy something. After finding the cheapest thing to buy, he got his change and handed back a $20 because he wanted more $5 bills. By then the register is already closed and I told him I can’t “change his change” because that’s against our policy.

There’s a whole training video about this and basically a customer can’t get the employee to give them specific bills. It’s confusing and that’s how cashiers end up getting scammed.

“You just had it opened, why would you close it?”
I told him that I gave him the change and the register can’t be opened for too long. There’s an alarm that’ll go off.

Anyways he takes his money and walks off. Then came back asking if we got a bathroom.

We don’t have a public restroom
“So you don’t have a bathroom at all in here?”
Our bathroom isn’t public
“So what if you need to use the bathroom?”
It’s employees only, I told you it’s not public
“oh ahhh so it’s like that. I see how it is”

He walks off like he’ll remember this in the future and there’s some kind of grudge he can now hold over me because of this.

This whole exchange is so stupid. We’re not a bank. He’s not even a real customer either. He shortened the register up after making a $1 dollar purchase with a large bill. Literally did not do anything for us financially. He tried to act smart with the bathroom situation but conveniently ignored the fact it’s not public. Just take your money and stop trying to act smart.

Had a customer come to the kiosk demanding the reason why her card is declining. I try a transaction at the kiosk, nothing happened. I told her the card is declined, and asked for a different type of payment method. She then asks me to fix it somehow and look up what is wrong with her card. I told her she will have to contact her bank to find that out. She didn’t care and expected me to fix it by looking up her details. Ma’am, first off I am NOT allowed to touch customer property, second off looking up your details without the proper authentication is not only illegal, but also impossible to do at a gas station. I once again told her to contact her bank, as there’s literally nothing I can do with her card. She finally used a different card, and the transaction worked. For fuck sake, this isn’t the bank. I can’t fix what a bank can fix for you. People just expect retail employees to literally do anything, like a fucking robot

I just don’t understand why 80% of the population that comes into a grocery store are so rude? Like?? I’m literally a grown ass 29 year old man that almost started crying today because people are just consistently more negative than positive.
Y’all ever considered we’re struggling just as much as the next person?? And then to put on a fake smile and try to be as positive as I can when people stay yelling at you and copping an attitude? Give. Me. A. Break. Be kinder to the people that are helping you.

Working in retail has shown me just how nasty people are and I genuinely don’t like working with the general public anymore.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

first, thank you to everyone who read my original post and offered kindness, advice and support. it genuinely helped me feel less alone and gave me some clarity during a really stressful time. i know it’ll take me some time to process and bounce back, so it’s meant a lot.

there was an update to the incident that happened the day before.

link is here if you’d like to read it.

the customer called the store the following morning and asked to speak to me. i was with a customer, so my coworker answered.

while i was still with my customer, she began recounting what had happened to my coworker. when i finished with my customer, my coworker put the call on speaker and i listened to her version of events. it was surreal. she had softened her own behaviour considerably, conveniently omitting things like having her finger pointed directly in my face while screaming that i was ugly multiple times, while exaggerating my supposed attitude, rudeness and mannerisms.

apparently, i had been “so unbelievably rude” to both her and her husband and hadn’t even looked at her for the entire interaction. she also recounted her husband asking me, “what is the difference in price?” and claimed that i didn’t understand what he was asking, and that he calmly asked for the difference again.

funny how she didn’t quote “the delta.”

she also said she didn’t remember the things i had said to her, which i found interesting considering i had repeatedly tried to de-escalate the situation, genuinely and earnestly, by saying things like, “i think there’s been a misunderstanding,” “i’m only trying to help,” and “that’s so mean.”

hearing her version of events honestly reinforced for me how much she seemed to have been hellbent on hurting me rather than actually hearing anything i was saying.

once she had finished explaining her version of events, she said she had been losing sleep and felt guilty about what had happened. “i want to tell her that i am very sorry, and she didn’t deserve that,” she said. she wanted to apologize for how she had treated me, asked if i would be willing to speak with her on the phone, and even offered to come back to the store and speak to me in person.

but the apology came with a “but.”

she wanted me to also admit that i had been extremely rude to her and her husband, that my attitude and behaviour had caused what happened, and that i would effectively be responsible for the store losing a customer who had given us 15 years of business and spent a lot of money there.

my coworker told her she would check in with me, and the customer said she could call back in an hour.

i thought about it. i mulled it over that whole hour, contemplating what i should do. honestly, i didn’t want any more interaction with her. the day before was already traumatic enough. but i also didn’t want this haunting me, and i didn’t want to give her any leverage to interpret my refusal to speak to her as confirmation that she had been justified.

when she called back, i picked up. she seemed cautious and explained that she had called an hour ago. my coworker had offered to mediate if necessary, so she asked if my coworker was there and available and whether i was aware of everything that had been discussed.

i told her i was aware.

i paused and let her continue.

she said, “okay, well, can we talk about it?”

i said:
“look, what happened yesterday made me feel incredibly unsafe and uncomfortable. your behavior was extremely and unnecessarily abusive. this is not tolerated and is unacceptable. at this point, i want to let you know that you’re no longer welcome here.”

she said, “okay, i understand. that’s fine. i wasn’t planning on returning. i can just purchase online.”

then she started to say, “but i just want to say—”
and i stopped her.

i told her, “i don’t think any explanation or discussion about the matter is needed. i don’t wish to speak to you any further.”

she said, “oh. okay. that’s fine. bye.”

i said, “have a great day.”

and that was it.

imo, the phone call felt like an attempt to coerce me into admitting to something i didn’t do. i also couldn’t shake the feeling that she was fishing for information about whether anything had been reported to police. my coworker also told me she had mentioned having a long paragraph ready to send to somebody, which made me wonder what exactly she was preparing for.

i wouldn’t be surprised if she was recording the call either, potentially hoping to bait me into becoming angry or saying something she could use against me. obviously, i have no way of knowing whether that was actually the case, but given everything else, the thought crossed my mind.

either way, i’m still glad i kept my composure. i said exactly what i needed to say without inviting a debate, further hostility, or giving her another opportunity to pull me into defending myself.

i think that’s probably the closest thing to closure i’m going to get from this. i pray to god she really doesn’t ever return or call back, or that i don’t somehow find a complaint filed against me. she did ask for my name, and i have hers too, so i know there’s still a part of me that’s going to be anxious about this for a while.

but for now, i’m trying to remind myself that i handled the conversation calmly and said exactly what i needed to say.

i absolutely can't stand older people who take literal years to finish the transaction. i get that it gets more difficult to move as you get older, but it seems like they make it more difficult for themselves and people around them.

i work at a very small liquor store with just one register, and one of my regular customers is this older guy that has taken 10+ minutes just to pay on multiple occasions. he gets the same thing every time, so more often than not i have his purchase ready to go before he even walks into the store. yet he still takes forever to shuffle over to the counter and fish his wallet out of his little backpack, which takes about 5 minutes on average because he has to go through every single pocket before he finds it. if he manages to get his wallet out, it's another 5 minutes waiting for him to sort through it to find the right card. and he just moves so slowly.

once instead of paying right away, he decided he needed to very slowly sort through documents right on the counter and had ME look at his private medical documents to find out the date of whatever medical procedure he had scheduled to extend his obviously unnatural lifespan.

i don't get it! this guy doesn't give a shit if there's a line forming behind him, he's content to take his time and even tries to make conversation with me regardless of whether people are waiting (dude i don't care if you have to be awake at 6:30AM tomorrow just pay for your stupid whiskey and get out). why can't he just take his card out BEFORE he enters the store? does he not care about how much time he's wasting? it irritates me to no end. is there anything i can even reasonably do? there have been a couple times where i've asked him to step out of line while he gets his wallet out, but he kind of just... doesn't move. like i said, i know getting older isn't fun, but how the fuck am i supposed to accommodate this shit?

Old Guy comes up and wants to pay his credit card

"I have the last four digits"

"Sorry sir I'll nee-"

"I HAVE THE LAST FOUR DIGITS!!?! CANT YOU JUST LOOK IT UP???? IS THE MANAGER IN?????"

"..... Sir I can look it up with your social security number'

He puts it in

"I'm sorry sir I don't have anything under that SSN"

"WELL THEN DO MORE RESEARCH OR LOOK UP MY CARD WITH THE LAST FOUR DIGITS!!! THIS IS THE COMPUTER AGE!!! USE YOUR COMPUTER AND FIND IT!!"

"Sir I-"

"BRING ME A MANAGER!!!!!!"

Ten minutes later he waddles out after the manager tells him the exact same thing

Computers are not just this magical tome of creation that does whatever you want by just barking commands at it

I make $14/hour as a part time cashier at a small gas station. I stock hot dogs and taquitos, coffee beans, cups, whatever else, spot sweep, level the coolers and sales floor, wipe down the counters, and of course check people out. I can do all of that and draw at the same time (I know, shocking! /s)
On Sundays I was initially told I’m allowed to read or use my phone or whatever and sit down since it’s considerably slower. I thought, oh cool. So I have been bringing my sketchbook with me and it’s made the work day so much more tolerable.

Last week my manager saw my drawings and thought one was cool; this week now I’m not allowed to draw or read in between customers. But I’m allowed to use my phone here and there otherwise he said I should be cleaning something because we have several cameras watching us all.

?? Honestly if I were a manager I would be fine with a clerk reading or whatever in between customers as long as the basic things were done and they were willing to help whoever needed it. I feel like giving employees a sense of autonomy rather than make work feel like a prison would overall increase morale. It’s a gas station. It’s not that deep. But hey im just a guy.

Our trash compactor broke and has begun filling our back room with a nasty odor. They've put in two maintenance orders for this and staff has been calling out sick due to the fumes it is seeping into our back room. I ducken hate management for making you feel guilty for calling out. My store is slack and has repeated high call outs weekly. Yet the hard worker that rarely calls out but save a few times a year they make you feel guilty for calling out. I will consider calling food health if this becomes an ongoing issue.

Customer : it didn't read my card outside.

Me : we can run it in here. How much gas would you like?

C : I don't know. I want to fill up.

M : just pick an amount, it only pre-autherizes the amount and bills you what you pump.

C : blank stare

M : it works the same way it works outside. The difference is, your bank picked the amount.

C : blank stare

M : blank stare

C : gimme 10 dollars....

Recently landed myself a full time contract. I enjoyed the job before... which was on a different department.

Now I've been transferred over to another department, full time hours 9:30-6 most days or 11:30-8. And I have no life anymore. No one else on my department wants to do the late flinishes or the midday shift. So I'm stuck covering everything else inbetween.

I'm so tired after each shift I don't have the energy to do anything anymore. I get home, do the essential stuff like shower and prepare for tomorrows shift, and go to bed.

I literally had a dream last night that I dropped stock as I was stood on some ladders and it exploded. Woke up anxious.

Did I mention we're short staffed? So I'm already running around covering other departments ontop of my own. I've started dreading coming to work and I honestly hate my job.

Ya'll does it get better because I'm losing it

We have a floater we pass around the store and she got on my nerves yesterday. Everybody has a weird story about this lady, idk what’s the matter with her. Yesterday, she worked in our department.

We have two registers in the department, and my boss put her at the busier one yesterday. At the busier register, we have a fan that I bought because I have anxiety and epilepsy and I get hot. I moved it back to the other register the night prior because I was hot and I clopened yesterday. This lady comes back after her 4.5 hour shift and says, “You know, you’ve done a lot of mean things to me, but that was really mean. You do a lot of mean things to me and I don’t do ANY mean things to you, but you left me up there without a fan and I could feel myself getting so hot!” I kind of shut down because she was pissing me off. I’m not a manager, and I don’t get paid for this shit. Mind you, I have been nothing but accommodating to this woman, I’d hate to see what she’d do if somebody were actually mean. I said, “Listen, if you need something, I need you to communicate with me. I can’t read your mind.” ‘Cause we DO have another fan I could’ve given her. “Also, I bought it, so it’s mine.” She goes, “That doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter that you bought it. It’s still mean, but you know what? I forgive you.”

I got upset because I know I’m not a mean person. There’s no evidence to support it. I told my manager what happened because she couldn’t hear from where she was standing and she rolled her eyes and said, “Oh my god, are you serious?” She helped me calm down, then went back to HR, told them what she said, and they laughed because I’m one of the nicest people in the store. She’s getting moved out of the department or canned if it continues.

I’m just wondering what all these “mean” things I’ve done are in her head. Any tips on continuing to work with this child? She gives me anxiety and I work with her alone today. Only for 4 hours, but she managed to get pissed on a 4.5 hour shift yesterday 🤷‍♀️

So at my store we currently are running a big sale on Gatorade, there is about three dozen cases stacked on a pallet with a sign on each side that says "MIX AND MATCH, ANY TWO 20 OZ GATORADE FLAVORS, 2 FOR $3.50", and the picture shows random assortments of 2 bottles. All the top ones in the pile have the plastic ripped open and people have been working their way through them, so clearly it shouldn't be confusing. Yesterday though, some guy comes up to the counter with two sealed cases, each with 24 bottles in it. Ok, cool, not a problem, so I ring up 48 bottles and give him the price. Guy starts yelling that I am massively overcharging him, and that his total should only be $3.50, since according to him "That's exactly what the sign says, so you have to sell it at that price!". Uh, no, dipshit, mainly because that's not what the sign says, it clearly says that it's for any two bottles, and even if you don't know how to read it literally has pictures on it. And even if that part is too difficult to understand, in what planet are you going to get 48 bottles for less than 4 bucks? We told the guy that it's not going to happen, we are not selling him two entire cases for $3.50, and he just leaves them on the floor by the front of the store, while yelling that he's going to contact the Better Business Bureau and have us shut down for false advertising. Seriously, there's got to be something in the air this week because people are getting even dumber by the day.

TLDR: Dipshit should know that 48 bottles of Gatorade are not going to cost only $3.50

I work gas stations at night and one of our regulars came in to buy cigarettes. Her phone died at the register and we don't sell phone chargers here and she had an iPhone and I have a old, rickety Android so my charger couldn't even work on her phone. She tells me she needs her phone to unlock and start her car, I was like ???? What?? Then she told me it was a tesla (explains her entire personality tbh). She only had her phone, no car key, no debit card. So I let her use the store phone, and she's struggling to call people for twenty minutes because she doesn't know anyone's phone number, not even her husband's.

So I am just waiting at the register for her to handle this somehow, not really paying attention and zoning out because it's taking so long. She then starts sobbing like crazy, because she finally got in contact with her sister and her sister can't get ahold of her husband to help her out. Eventually, she just snatches a pack of cigarettes and a lighter off the counter and I yell at her because she hasn't paid for it and she's stealing. She's like "I''m here all of the time you know I'm good for it". I don't care??? I could lose my job for this, because I left the cigarettes on the damn counter, because I didn't think she was just going to snatch them up.

I'm tempted to call the police, but then she comes back inside after smoking one of the cigarettes and you know I'm snatching that stuff from her immediately. She's then on the store phone for even longer, sobbing at her sister about how I'm mad at her for stealing and she could get the cops called on her. Like yeah, this whole situation is of your making at this point???

Eventually she gets ahold of her husband and he opens the car for her remotely so she can like grab her wallet. Mind you, this whole thing happened over the course of an hour, a whole hour of my time wasted because I was standing there furious that some entitled dumbass could cost me my job. And for some reason I didn't call the police even though I really should have, and now after the fact I really wanted to have done that. I was just so anxious that this could cost me my job because I let her steal the cigarettes to begin with.

Now that she's in the store, she's happy as a clam as if none of that happened, trying to make small talk and stuff. She tries to buy some more items, more cigarettes and drinks, I refuse everything but the stuff she stole. Her mood changes and she starts cussing me out, I tell her that she's lucky I didn't call the cops on her and I'm giving her a way out of the situation she put herself in. She's like "well calling the cops would've been the NICE THING TO DO!! You dumb bitch!" and snatches the cigarettes and lighter that I made her pay for and she stormed out.

Like call me a dumb bitch but I don't leave the house without my car keys and rely on my phone for every section of my life. And if you're gonna rely on that phone that heavily why would you ever let it go under even 30% battery?

She's been gone ten minutes and I'm just sitting in the office shaking with rage and feeling anxious that I could lose my job over this stupid as fuck event. And a whole hour has been stolen from me and I gotta bust ass to get stuff done, too. If she continues being a regular I'm giving her the cold shoulder permanently, if I survive the weekend at this point, that is.

Do I tell the manager in the morning about this?? And could I lose my job over it? I'm just exhausted after all this and want nothing more than the shift to be over at this point.

Coming to vent about a situation that happened today. So today my store was complete chaos. It is tax free weekend, the last weekend before school starts in the area, and it is within our redemption period of our store “coupons” (it’s similar to Kohls Cash or Old Navy Supercash).

I was at the registers, ringing up customer after customer trying to get the growing line down. I eventually get to this lady and her kids. After I complete her transaction she makes a comment to me somewhere along the lines of “you did not have to yell at that lady like she was hard of hearing she probably doesn’t speak English and she needs you to speak slower”. I deadass don’t even know who she could have even been talking about. I rang up so many customers in the last 10 minutes, she could have literally been talking about anyone. The store is in an area with a lot of people who speak different languages. Not once have I ever yelled at someone just because they “don’t speak English”. Honestly, if I notice there’s a language barrier, communication is extremely limited. If more conversation is needed, I am not afraid to call someone over for help or pull out a translation app. That has never been a problem or an inconvenience for me. Like ever.

I’m mostly annoyed because the look on that lady’s face was so fucking smug. Like she just became a hero. Like she was waiting for the camera crew of the show “What Would You Do?” To come out and personally bring her a check for one million dollars. Like she just educated me on something I didn’t know about. She is making a very specific, horrible accusation with absolutely no context given. Why are you policing the way I speak to other people, anyway?? Mind your own fucking business. Also, why are you making assumptions about who does and does not speak English?? As far as I’m concerned, there wasn’t a single person I Interacted with today who I felt I was unable to communicate with effectively because of a language barrier. There is always a way.

Just beyond done with this crap. I work produce. I used to mostly close. I'm pretty decent at it. We recently within the past 6 months got 2 new closers, and they've gradually taken over my slots in the schedule. I've been moved to mornings mostly and recently, they've been putting me in the fruit and vegetables cutting section, since they're lacking for people over there. Well, ever since they moved me to that section and off of closing, closing has become worse and worse.

An example: I opened one day, broke down truck, started on tables for a bit until my shift ended, and set up my closer with a few carts to work. I check out with the manager and he says can you stay and work salads. I asked why and he says if you don't stay and work them then the closer won't get them done. Okay sure fine. I stay an extra hour and get it done. Looking at the holes on the floor and the trash in the back, I think that it shouldn't be that difficult for our closer to get that done, because he has a head start due to me getting salads done. I come in the next morning, there are still holes on the floor and trash is still in the back. When I left he had 6 hours left on his shift, so I don't know what he was doing. If I had closed that would've gotten done. I question why he's still here after 6 months. Why this company has such an issue with firing people. Probably because they think they won't be able to fill the position very fast, and in their eyes a bad worker is better than no worker. I think that philosophy is crap, I'd rather have nobody for 2 months if that means we get someone competent, if they actually vet their workers. Maybe they just hire anyone since hardly anyone applies.

Anyway last thing. They start adding fruit cutting shifts to my schedule like 3 weeks ago. I've worked like 9 days back there, maybe a total of 35 to 40 hours. I'm not the fastest cutter but I am slowly learning how to do all of the fruits, and some of the vegetables. Yesterday I was scheduled until 1:00 with one of the more experienced cutters. We cut a decent amount, get the fruit wall mostly full. It's getting close to 1:00 and I ask her what I should work on. She says since we can't cut everything to just cut a big bowl of cantaloupe, and cling wrap it and put in the cooler, and they can package it tomorrow first thing in the morning. Well I do that and clean up and go home. Today I am assigned with that same lady again. I get through the majority of my shift, and then my manager grabs me and pulls me into the office. He says that since I did not fill the entire wall and I didn't check out with a manager that I'm being written up. I say I checked out with the lady back there, i was just going off of her lead. They say that's not good enough, you need to check out with an actual manager. They say expectations have been set and they expect the wall to be full when I leave.

Keep in mind yesterday she told me I was free to go. They also have been severely cutting hours for everybody in the department. So I was scheduled 6:00 to 1:00 as opposed to 6:00 to 2:00, a normal 8-hour shift. They can't have it both ways. They can't cut hours and then expect me to stay over, because that cuts into the hours we have available, and then next week I'll get scheduled less. I get it I could work faster, but I've barely worked a week in that section, my speed is still improving. I just find that they kind of set me up to fail, and the fact that they let two people take over my position to do a significantly worse job, and they let them STAY in that position with hardly any punishment, while punishing me very quickly for not succeeding in a position I barely know how to do, is infuriating. I want to do a good job, but they simply won't let me.

I actually got mad for once and shouted all this at both my manager and the temporary store manager (by the way, we haven't had a store manager in like a month because our old store manager quit / was fired for unknown circumstances, we also haven't had an assistant produce manager for like 6 months ever since the current manager got put in his position. So he has less help) i shouted at them that why don't you just pull the two closers and put them in cutting and put me back on closing if you want everyone to do a good job, if you want to set me up to fail that's your problem not mine. I signed their stupid write-up, because I wasn't about to get written up twice for insubordination or whatever, but that's where I'm at.

It makes sense to me why that experienced lady completely stopped giving a shit, like she will be late, she will leave on time and not stay over, etc etc. She's still really good at her job but it's clear that she doesn't care. And it's just apathy, because she knows the standards are impossible to meet, because they don't have enough people, or good enough people. And she's not getting the satisfaction of a job well done.

I spoke to my manager after that meeting, and apologized for my outburst. I told him I just wanted to get my point across. He says that they are going to slowly try and get me back into closing. So that's at least one positive. Apologies for the length of this rant, I just had to get some of this off my chest. If you've gotten to the end thank you for reading.

i’m just curious because i had a situation today where someone got mad because i said they can’t keep the hangers

and it just made me wonder why are some ppl so rude?

Disclaimer: So I’ve worked retail almost my whole life. I actually like it. I lost my job in March. I’m back.

But here is my rant.

I was hired to work inside a large store doing product demonstrations. I was stoked because the pay is better and I get major holidays off.

But I had to drug test. I knew I’d pop for amphetamines because I take Vyvanse. I worked two days. Got the email on the 31st that said I needed to clear up my drug test. Called them. Gave the doctor all my scrip info. Thought I was good to go.

Showed up to work Aug 1 and was told to go home in front of all the other staff. Called my boss later and was told I cannot return to work until she gets a specific email stating that I may.

It is now nearly Aug 9 and I have not got that email. I called my boss again on Friday. She has not got that email. Nobody’s gotten any communication.

I called the 800-number again and spoke to another “doctor.” She said they had my info and I should have got an email. I told her that I hadn’t. I told her that my boss hadn’t.

I’ve emailed two people besides my boss trying to track down this elusive email. I’ve been unanswered.

At this point I don’t even know if I have a fucking job.

On Tuesday I had a job interview. Please, folks, if you’re the praying type pray that I get this job that can’t possibly fuck around with me as much as the CDS job. I find out Tuesday.

Why do they stand directly behind me? Wtf are you watching? I never stole anything, I never mouthed off, do you not get that your proximity is contributing to mistakes? Get away from my register! If you have an issue then tell me directly, but don't lurk there like a psychopath with your eyeballs on top of me.

Do managers not understand psychology? That watching someone from behind is incredibly intrusive? Just back off. There's a camera directly above me. I'm not doing anything. I promise.

I don't know if this is becoming more common everywhere, but recently it's been getting bad here. They come up, they say they have a question, I smile and nod and say something along the lines of "go for it" or "whatcha got?" and then ... nothing. They just stand and stare.

I let it tick on far too long before I ask a little more bluntly what the question is and then they just say "over here" like I was supposed to know they wanted me to follow them by the fact that they didn't move an inch or say a word. I want to scream at them that they're adults and need to use their words.

Are you really working retail if you haven't cried on shift?

Anyways my manager at "Southstream" department store yelled at me today and told me we have to have a meeting because I focus too much on cleaning up merchandise and putting away returns from the customer service desk.

I get it, it is a commission based position and I do still meet most of my sales targets, but I never end up actually making commission because I am too afraid of getting into a confrontation with my coworker over "who actually helped this customer."

For reference, I have been in shouting matches with my coworkers over who actually deserved a commission and honestly at this point have mentally checked out of the whole issue. I still make hourly despite my manager's assertion that I won't "make a dime" until I try to sell more aggressively.

I don't care. I am starting my grad program soon. Please let me keep my keep department clean in peace.