Leaving retail hell...for now at least

[ferrumaeternum]

Last Saturday, I put in my two weeks’ notice at work. I know I was going to wait another week, but I just can’t stand being there anymore. My back, leg, and feet pain is getting worse, and I already have back problems due to working on art and have to regularly see a masseuse. I can still feel it on my days off. I can’t handle working eight and ten-hour days. Since the economy is bad, we aren’t opening enough charge cards and the store manager told us that if we don’t ask each customer no matter how little they’re buying if they’d like to open one and donate a dollar for the Save the Children fund, we have to give them a bottle of water and we’d be fired. On top of everything, some lady brought a knife in Thursday night when there was only one girl (who is my age at the registers, mind you), took it out in front of her, and started brandishing it. She called the manager who called the cops and they had to shut down the store. The store manager said their behavior for the situation was inappropriate and we lost money by closing the store, so they got written up. Now we have a security guard and more unnecessary drama. Another co-worker also put her two weeks’ in, and there are a few more thinking about it. Even though I would like to work another week to get some more money, I probably should actually do some drawing this summer that doesn’t involve sketching the shell-shaped Belgian chocolates behind the jewelry counter. The good new is when all of this is over, I will have made at least $2,500. I also need some time to relax because any retail job will turn the calmest, kindest person into a raging misanthrope. I'll consider coming back over winter break and next summer if I can't find anything better, but I'd rather work at the Germantown store because it's much closer and their store manager doesn't seem like a total nazi.