That's It. I've Had Enough.

[kalalanekent]

Two days to Christmas Eve and I can officially call this as the worst Christmas I've had in all my years of retail. Not business-wise. God, no. Business-wise, sales are up everywhere. I mean for the employees. I've never been so exhausted. I will not be doing retail next year if it's going to be like this. I've had enough.

And so help me God, if one more person tells me that we should be thrilled that spending is up because we're lucky to have jobs in the first place, I'm going to punch them in the mouth Mad Dog Lane-style. Seriously? There are so few of us right now that we're trying to do the job of three to four people with one and no significant pay raise. Please don't ask me to be grateful.

ETA: Nevermind on that. My cold exploded on me and I was weeping with pain. Ended up telling them that I HAD to go home. The MOD's pissed, but my co-workers understand. Did I mention a panic attack there, too? Yeah.

Comments

[saavikam77.livejournal.com]

Oh, hon. *smishes you tight, bolsters*

Want me to come kidnap save you from all the insanity? I could use a good road trip. ^_~

[kalalanekent.livejournal.com]

*tries not to wibble* Oh, God, I would kill for one right now. I'm trying to remember a moment when I was this down. And I hate it. I tried so hard this year.

I have a jammed thumb, a cold, we're under-staffed, I'm running customer service alone [as both a return desk and a register for regular sales] after 9, we have insane amounts of business, and we're closing at 11 and having to chase people out each night. And I'm having to do the clean-up alone. I hate whining about it, but I'm done. Did I mention that I end up having the floor workers on their registers most of the night and they're still getting freight every night? At least 300 pieces worth?

It. Just. Fucking. Blows.

I'm sorry. I just needed to get that out.

[saavikam77.livejournal.com]

This whole season just SUCKS. And never in a good way. :(

All that sounds like such insanity. I remember working in the mall back in '97 (good gods, was it THAT long ago?), working 2 jobs, B working in food service, most of our friends working in the mall, and the whole bunch of us working the whole day, going back to our place to game for a few hours and crash, then getting up at 7:30 and heading back to the mall to do it all over again for two weeks straight. O_O You get zombiefied working like that, so I don't blame you one bit for wanting to wash your hands of the whole thing. Nobody should have to suffer so much.

*hugs you so hard*

[kalalanekent.livejournal.com]

What can you say for a girl whose first job was working the food court at the Mall for the holidays. And by that, I don't mean at one of the restaurants. I was the clean-up crew. XD

I just need to get something that doesn't include floorwork.

[saavikam77.livejournal.com]

B used to be the night manager at Steak Escape (kinda like Quiznos, but with tastier food, and the best fries in the whole universe), so he was covered in grease by the end of the night without fail. I also worked at Auntie Anne's one summer, and was coated in butter at the end of every shift. *shudders at the memory*

Food service is the work of the devil, I'm convinced.

And anything NOT involving a cash register is where I would have at least liked to spend my holidays in retail, but alas, it was never to be. Even as a stocker at Michael's one year, I kept getting called up to run register. Ugh.

*smishes*

[kalalanekent.livejournal.com]

It truly is. I've worked as a hostess at Ryan's and Quincey's, as well as an occasional waitress and dish washer. I worked for four years at St. V's as a trayline worker [filling over 1,000 food trays a meal and cleaning up afterwards]. Did a little time as a waitress at Gator's Dockside. Had my ass grabbed enough times that I NEVER want to do that job again.

And I totally agree. I'm SO much happier away from the money. Unfortunately, everyone thinks I'm amazing with the customers. Lucky me. How, I'll never know. *makes face*

[saavikam77.livejournal.com]

Ugh, ass grabbing would be the absolute uncrossable line for me. You touch my ass, you lose a hand. O_o

*snugs you tight*

[babettew54.livejournal.com]

I hear you. hon. Next year will be fourth year in the row with no raise whatsoever, and they keep giving us more people to work for. It's no fun.

But I know what you're saying; I saw the crowds last weekend; the lines were unreal. Yes, sales are up but what is it costing your workers, their health and well-being take second to 'sales' ... It's wrong...

I hope you can find something else hon, for your heallth and well being. It is so not worth it..

*big hugs*

[kalalanekent.livejournal.com]

My biggest problem is the under-staffing. There just aren't enough of us to go around and some of us aren't paid well at all compared to others. I mean, it's taken four years to get back to the rate of pay I was making at the hospital when I left. You can't run a store on a skeleton crew all season and expect to not have people quitting in droves.

I'm scared to see what the place is going to look like after the first of the year. And agreed. It's not worth this. The pay isn't worth it, especially now. It's time to buckle down and look, but not to get desperate to get away. That's what happened last time and look where it got me.

*snuggles back*

[xenokattz.livejournal.com]

Awww! *hugs & snugs*

[kalalanekent.livejournal.com]

Thanks, bb! *returns twice over*

[repmetsyrrah.livejournal.com]

*hugs* I know how you feel, we're insanely crazy too right now and people are calling in sick all the time and in our work we have to have a certain amount of people to function so everyone is jumpy that they'll get called in. I've started taking my phone off the hook on my days off just so I get a little rest.

I hope you find a new job- but whatever you do, don't get a job in hospitality though, trust me. I went from retail to hospitality and it's a huge step in the wrong direction. I dream of getting my old bookstore job back. I thought that was hell over Christmas but it was a million times better than what I've got now.

[kalalanekent.livejournal.com]

The suck is that I've done a little of everything. From working the food court at the mall to two video stores, gas stations, food service at several restaurants, retail, hospital hospitality... I think the only thing I haven't worked at was a hotel. Not sure I'd ever want to do that. either. But you know what, maybe. If the price was right.

I think a book store would be an amazing job, but there aren't too many great jobs like that in Jax. Nothing amazing ever stays in this town. :

[chickadilly.livejournal.com]

*HUGS*

[kalalanekent.livejournal.com]

*HUGS BACK*