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So 6 and a half years in retail, more if you count my saturday job as a teen. And I'm fucking done with this industry. DONE. I'm getting out.
Just to set you up- our supervisor had gone for lunch, asking the three managers to keep an eye on our skeleton crew down on the checkouts- checkout operators and me, running for SSCOs. I had also been handed the telephonist's phone for some godforsaken reason, despite the fact I am not trained on phones, and with how busy the checkouts were about to come, would not have been able to answer it anyway (I don't know how to answer most customer queries or even how to transfer calls to someone who does). One of my SSCOs broke down, and I was trying to juggle 3 other tills with flashing red lights and that peice of crap, all the while that damn phone is constantly ringing. We were basically abandoned- AGAIN.
I'm having...mental health issues. We suspect several major depressive episodes, high anxiety (which I am diagnosed with already) and a buncha stress all round. I was just about coping, but only just.
Then a customer decides to pull my hair.
This was not a child, or a teenager, or even a lad. This was a man who was in his 30s.
He walked behind me with his chums, took a fistful of my hair, and yanked, hard enough for me to feel pain in my scalp and to pull my head back.
I snapped "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?"
He actually ignored me. To be truthful, not sure which of the 3 it was, but it was one of them- they were snickering to themselves. I snapped "HEY" and they looked back and smirked at me. I snarled "Don't ever come back" while shaking all over. I wanted to scream at them, hell, I wanted to hurl myself at them and fucking smack them, but...you know...working...also wasn't sure which bastard it was. They laughed at me.
I spotted a manager- the manager who recently gave me an official write up for being ill too many times a couple of weeks ago (oh yes, I've been legitimately ill, but our company is cruelly harsh on illness, I even came to work the last time and burst into tears in front of customers because of the horrendous pain of a dental infection I was suffering at the time, but going home 45 mins early counts as an absence- and one of my colleagues recently also had a write up despite the fact she's previously had health issues including cancer, heart failure and a stroke...having the flu is unacceptable with even those on her record!). This write up, btw, has greately added to my stress and anxiety.
Anyway, I said "What do I do when a customer pulls my hair?"
First he asks me why he pulled my hair. I actually answered "Because hes a bastard?" How the fuck am I supposed to know what goes on in the mind of a spiteful cunt? Asking at all seems to imply perhaps I provoked such a spiteful, childish act!!!
Manager then just says "Oh...thats assault..." and walks away.
I was almost in tears by this point, and luckily the queues died down. One cashier gave me a hug, while the other told me she had served those men, and that one of them had been VERY rude to her...and that one of them is a trade customer which means we have his details on file
My supervisor comes back from tea, to find us in a state, furious our managers have abandoned us again, and that the manager I told did nothing about what was indeed an assault.
If we find this fucker, I WILL press charges. I don't fucking care if I wasn't actually injured, thats not the bloody point. My supervisor was looking for CCTV footage when I left.
My day has only gotten worse, and I have now decided to make an appointment with the doctor, something I save as a last resort because the mental health care in this area is appalling. But I am convinced I will have a breakdown if this goes on much longer.
I'm actually hoping to get signed off work, and then beg my friend to let me stay on her farm for a short while (family problems on top of everything else you see). I would gladly pay her for the trouble, I just need to be away from it all.
I'm also now looking for another- NON RETAIL- job. I just can't take this bullshit anymore. If i snap the wrong way, I know where the knives are kept at my store, and I know the best place to put them into other people.
Just to set you up- our supervisor had gone for lunch, asking the three managers to keep an eye on our skeleton crew down on the checkouts- checkout operators and me, running for SSCOs. I had also been handed the telephonist's phone for some godforsaken reason, despite the fact I am not trained on phones, and with how busy the checkouts were about to come, would not have been able to answer it anyway (I don't know how to answer most customer queries or even how to transfer calls to someone who does). One of my SSCOs broke down, and I was trying to juggle 3 other tills with flashing red lights and that peice of crap, all the while that damn phone is constantly ringing. We were basically abandoned- AGAIN.
I'm having...mental health issues. We suspect several major depressive episodes, high anxiety (which I am diagnosed with already) and a buncha stress all round. I was just about coping, but only just.
Then a customer decides to pull my hair.
This was not a child, or a teenager, or even a lad. This was a man who was in his 30s.
He walked behind me with his chums, took a fistful of my hair, and yanked, hard enough for me to feel pain in my scalp and to pull my head back.
I snapped "WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR!?"
He actually ignored me. To be truthful, not sure which of the 3 it was, but it was one of them- they were snickering to themselves. I snapped "HEY" and they looked back and smirked at me. I snarled "Don't ever come back" while shaking all over. I wanted to scream at them, hell, I wanted to hurl myself at them and fucking smack them, but...you know...working...also wasn't sure which bastard it was. They laughed at me.
I spotted a manager- the manager who recently gave me an official write up for being ill too many times a couple of weeks ago (oh yes, I've been legitimately ill, but our company is cruelly harsh on illness, I even came to work the last time and burst into tears in front of customers because of the horrendous pain of a dental infection I was suffering at the time, but going home 45 mins early counts as an absence- and one of my colleagues recently also had a write up despite the fact she's previously had health issues including cancer, heart failure and a stroke...having the flu is unacceptable with even those on her record!). This write up, btw, has greately added to my stress and anxiety.
Anyway, I said "What do I do when a customer pulls my hair?"
First he asks me why he pulled my hair. I actually answered "Because hes a bastard?" How the fuck am I supposed to know what goes on in the mind of a spiteful cunt? Asking at all seems to imply perhaps I provoked such a spiteful, childish act!!!
Manager then just says "Oh...thats assault..." and walks away.
I was almost in tears by this point, and luckily the queues died down. One cashier gave me a hug, while the other told me she had served those men, and that one of them had been VERY rude to her...and that one of them is a trade customer which means we have his details on file
My supervisor comes back from tea, to find us in a state, furious our managers have abandoned us again, and that the manager I told did nothing about what was indeed an assault.
If we find this fucker, I WILL press charges. I don't fucking care if I wasn't actually injured, thats not the bloody point. My supervisor was looking for CCTV footage when I left.
My day has only gotten worse, and I have now decided to make an appointment with the doctor, something I save as a last resort because the mental health care in this area is appalling. But I am convinced I will have a breakdown if this goes on much longer.
I'm actually hoping to get signed off work, and then beg my friend to let me stay on her farm for a short while (family problems on top of everything else you see). I would gladly pay her for the trouble, I just need to be away from it all.
I'm also now looking for another- NON RETAIL- job. I just can't take this bullshit anymore. If i snap the wrong way, I know where the knives are kept at my store, and I know the best place to put them into other people.
and throw him in jail.
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