LogFAQs > #978993057

I worked in retail full-time for three weeks during the summer of 2008. It was in a Zellers (similar to Wal-Mart and Target) and business was not doing well. After completing my training, I was the only employee in the electronics department. During the same year, its main competitor (Wal-Mart) had five times the number of employees because business was booming. There were rarely any customers during my shifts. I also worked at a jewelry kiosk a few times as replacement, and once as a cashier at the entrance (mostly grocery shoppers).

We kept receiving new stocks of landline phones (same model) that we couldn't sell. I personally sold only one. We didn't have any shelf space left and my boss wanted me to magically figure it out. Why they kept ordering 15 new phones per week when we were lucky to sell even a single one is a mystery. We were just hoarding them.

I only had three difficult customers. One of them was a regular. I didn't dislike him because he was chatty and it was a very boring job. I consider him difficult only because my boss told me not to talk with him unless it was about buying stuff. It's not easy to politely ignore someone amicable who just wants to chat.

My second difficult customer was a middle-aged woman who wanted me to follow her to the entrance of the store. The details are a bit fuzzy, but I think she needed to return something. Whatever it was she needed, I didn't think it was part of my job description and it also required me to leave my post, something I was specifically told not to do unless another employee was present. My boss was unhappy about it because I was supposed to follow that customer and leave my post. Apparently, she could have been a thief or something.

The third one was an old lady. She asked me where the toilets were. I walked a bit with her and gave her the right directions by pointing. It went something like this:

Me: "Do you see the fast-food store over there?"
Her: "Yes."
Me: "Head there, but stop right before entering the store. Look to to your left and the toilets will be right in front of you."

She then complained about how they were so far away (they weren't) and that it was hard to walk. What was I supposed to do, carry her there or bring the toilets to her? All I could say was "sorry" and telling her as kindly and politely as possible that I didn't know what else I could do to help her. She actually complained to management and I lost my job.

It was very clearly an excuse to get rid of me because I wasn't the perfect slave. probation was about to end. I was planning on quitting a month later when school resumed. They expected me to do way too much work for way too little pay. Some employees were killing themselves at the job. The store went bankrupt the next year, and the entire chain went defunct in 2013.

What I hated the most was that I wasn't allowed to sit down even when there was nothing else to do. If there were no customers and all of my tasks were completed, I was supposed to wait and do nothing while standing. I was forced to wear cheap black sneakers with metallic parts slicing through the back of my feet. I was young and didn't know my rights as a worker, and we weren't unionized. Management did several things that were illegal.