Ima hoppin

Little Toy Gun-honeyhoney

ok so I just read Christine’s latest blog about how she told her manager/boss that she was quitting and I got inspired to share my “hoppin” story because ours were very similar but ended very differently.

I use to work retail and anyone who works retail knows that 5 minutes before closing time you have at least 10000 people walk in and spend an hour looking around. Well, the night I had to close wasn’t any different.

Now, I had planned on telling my manager that I was going to quit because I had already found another job and I started soon. (Rule number 1, if you need the job NEVER quit until you have the second one under your belt). Anyway, according to them, I was the best employee because I was the only one who did what I was suppose to and I was the only one who did extra. 

Back to the story…I was not a manager or the assistant manager so I didn’t have a key to any of the stuff in lock-up or in the glass cases. My department manager and her assistant ALWAYS leave 4 hours early and leave us to fend for ourselves in the terrifying jungle of retail. We have store managers but to call them over for the key was like asking them to give up a kidney. That night we ended up with a line that wrapped around the store, 5 minutes before close, and only 2 employees in my department. We were running from left to right trying to help everyone but it was impossible to keep everyone happy. 

After everyone left, we were left feeling exhausted, disgusted, and incompetent because of the immense amount of scolding from the angry customers who thought they should have priority because they have shopped there before or because they know someone who knows someone who dog-sat for someone who worked there like 100 years ago. Well, it was about an hour past close so we had to hurry up and leave. 

The next morning I walked in, and my manager said “punch in and meet me in the back, I need to have a talk with you”. Confused, I did as I was told. She sat down and said “I’m writing you up”. I looked at her and said “ok, is that all?” By that time, I was fed up with that place and being written up didn’t mean anything because I was leaving anyway. She looked at me, bewildered, and said “That mean’s your in trouble. 2 more and you are fired. Aren’t you going to ask what you did wrong?” Well, being the smartass that I am, I said “well it’s probably because you left 2 of us on shift yesterday, before close, and you are angry that you were caught by Ron (store manager). Whatever, I don’t care. I know I didn’t do anything wrong but how could you argue with a mule.” I started to walk out of the office. 

She stepped in front of me and said “No. It’s because the place was left a mess and we had to spend an hour cleaning up and because customers were complaining that you weren’t helping them.” I said “if you were here to open lock-up, we wouldn’t be having this discussion.” 

Knowing that I wasn’t going to back down, she said “you’re the best employee we have and we don’t want to have to fire you but I still have to write you up.”

Feeling like my opportunity was bashing the door down, I said “no need. I found another job that doesn’t treat it’s employees like garbage. I quit.” Ok so maybe that wasn’t the only reason why I wanted to leave. Working for that place (can’t say the name) was probably detrimental to my mental health. I was harassed EVERY DAY by the customers and other employees. 

I hate leaving a job that way, but it had to be done. 

I asked a friend, who still works there, if N (my manager) was mad that I left and he said “Well, lets just say her mood seems to change whenever your name comes up”. Oops

So that’s how I left the WONDERFUL world of retail.

~ by psyphial on November 19, 2008.