Deliver Me From Retail (Hell)
I've officially been at this job for seven months now (hold the applause), and I am so over it.
But I'll start from the beginning.
I took this job to escape my previous one, which involved directing drivers in a hospital parking lot. And I started that job in the height of winter, and left in spring. Dodging cars and the weather was not my ideal setting, but the job had many perks. It was a five minute walk from my apartment, I could listen to podcasts and audiobooks during my shift, and the pay was good.
But as always, management drove me away.
This current job has been toeing the line as well, but at least I'm not in a customer facing role. I work in the back of a clothing store, processing stock for the sales floor. When I started, we were short staff and relied on temp workers. Those were also the days we had less than five pallets to contend with.
After two of the hardest working employees left, back in summer, the amount of pallets we had gradually built up. This was partly due to my less focused coworkers goofing off or being distracted by their cell phones.
During all this, we got a new store manager, who shuffled our work station around. I didn't mind this too much, as it was far more efficient than our previous setup. We then started breaking down and sorting out pallets by three departments: apparel, shoes, and accessories. But unfortunately…
We are buried deep in pallets. Over 30 and with little room to navigate, especially since we can't reach the baler to condense our discarded boxes.
We're better staffed at the moment, but need to make more arrangements. My direct supervisor plans to move our workstation back some, so we can stack the pallets in one big area. I liked the convenience of sorting pallets, but the process of doing so was time consuming and tedious. Not to mention crowded…
They’re having a big “pallet party” tomorrow, until midnight. I have no intention of showing up, because it just feels so hopeless. We cleared three or four pallets worth of stuff today, which barely made a dent. There’s still a forest of pallets blocking our way to the baler.
I’m hoping for a clear path to it by Monday, but I’ll try not to get my hopes up.