u/withoutacare01

I'm coming from a different retailer as an associate, and my job has been a nightmare. I'm putting in apps and was curious how people felt about AE or their individual stores.

At my company, the credit card pushes are insane. We are aiming for 12 a day at our store, and we get punished if our conversions are low. Our stats are all posted in the backroom and we are often singled out on walkies and taken off registers and reprimanded when we aren't excelling at pushing them. I typically do very well at my store, but I don't want to hate coming into work if people just aren't interested in the cards.

How are yalls experiences?

Update: I was taken to the back office and lectured in front all the AM that were on the schedule, told I needed to step away from registers and was made do the shipment that the AM shift didn't complete. Then I was lectured again up front before they had me back-up on registers. But we fell below card conversion today and I only had a handful of transactions. It's crazy that one weekend of average performance gets you ostracized and publicly shamed.

Anyone else feel this way and have some advice on how to get through it? I already have a very toxic, almost cutthroat, work culture. Everyone is catty, competitive, and eager to put others down. Since I started, I've been in the top 3 for card earners, have good conversion, and it's caused rifts with my coworkers who have been there longer. Snarky, juvenile remarks to jab, etc.. I don't even like getting cards because it feels incredibly predatory, but my work environment makes me feel like I'm utterly failing if I don't- So, I make an effort to get them just so my GM and AMs stays off my back. They constantly put people on the spot on the walkies, and create so much pressure around it.

Except, I'm going through a lot right now some seasonal depression, my chronic illness is getting worse, and a host of regular life issues, and maybe it's affecting my conversion? I know getting cards is often just luck of the draw, but everyone at work is noticing. My performance this weekend was abnormal for me. My AM would hover/ stand next to me and watch me, "check-in" with me, and ask when I thought I'd get one. One coworker started saying she didn't want to share that she got cards because she felt bad for me and another coworker was laughing at me for feeling stressed. I'm probably going to be pulled off of registers now, after this weekend knocked me out of the top-5, which is almost used like a punishment and way of shaming at our store (I know it is to balance conversion too, but it's definitely weaponized at mine).

Maybe I need the break. It just feels like a cycle- feeling crappy -> bad conversion -> feeling even worse -> bad conversion. I don't know how to get out of this when it feels like I'm under a microscope.

This minimum wage, retail environment shouldn't feel so hostile and overbearing that I'm crying in the break room and in my car after work. My anxiety is through the roof and I genuinely hate going into work lately. I just don't know how to navigate this.

Anytime I have to clock out late, my GM or AM changes my timecard in UKG to reflect the time on the schedule, so essentially deleting any time I worked past my shift, which I think I legally have to be compensated for. I don't clock out late on purpose, I get stuck at the register with no backup or happen to be in the middle of a transaction. It's usually only 2-5 minutes, but I think that should still be reflected as time worked.

It notifies me in UKG when it happens, so I just wanted to ask. They've been doing this the last 3 months I've worked here.

I hope this is allowed, I'm the involved aunt of an autistic 12 year old who is looking for guidance and advice. I myself am both autistic and have ADHD, but was diagnosed late as an adult and didn't have these same challenges and I'm looking for guidance. If my understanding of things is wrong, please advise me in the right direction.

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I guess I'm just going to pose the questions and then my reasoning for asking. Will some autistic children, upon receiving their diagnosis, start excusing abusive behavior as part of autism if enabled to do so? I also know autistic children, can and do lie, like other children meeting healthy developmental milestones as part of their social and emotional development. Is it possible that my niece is lying to get out of consequences for known abusive behaviors? Is it possible for children with autism to fake other diagnoses? I don't mean this in any disrespectful way or to imply anything hurtful, I just didn't know if this happens or I'm just completely ignorant and seeing things poorly.

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Lately it appears as though my nieces autism diagnosis is being used to excuse (as in permit), really abusive and unkind behavior, and no one is allowed to question or challenge these behaviors because then were being "ableist" or "abusive".

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My niece has been having behaviorial difficulties for awhile which is what led to a diagnosis of level 1 Autism without impairment and combination ADHD. There has historically been a lot of aggression and some violence, and for whatever reason it got significantly worse after the diagnosis. It's at a point where my niece had to be handcuffed after physically attacking and injuring a teacher after breaking the schools windows out after the teacher told her to wait to have her question answered in class while she was helping another student.

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My niece has attacked me (she's bigger than me), her grandparents, and her friends. It's becoming impossible to handle with her size. My niece's parents seem to be okay with this behavior, and excuse abusive behaviors as part of the autism and think there's nothing that should be done to help my niece. They basically tell her the behavior is okay, and now she parrots that- that it's just her diagnosis and anyone who says it's not okay is ableist and abusive. She does a lot of research, knows the terminology for everything, which is healthy and good to understand, but it's like it's being used inappropriately.

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I understand meltdowns are an involuntary reaction to too much stimuli or processing- but they've been recommended classes to help with emotional processing, awareness and coping mechanisms because this is one of those non-negotiables, violence in adulthood will result in serious consequences for her. I never experienced these- I would shutdown. We're all trying to recognize triggers and help mitigate the meltdowns and keep my niece confortable, but I'm starting to think not all of these instances are autistic meltdowns, but sometimes just reaction to not getting what she wants.

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Lately, everything causes a meltdown and violence. My niece suddenly needs a wheelchair, without explanation. She's suddenly having leg pain and dizziness, but refuses any kind of testing because of "medical phobia". They can't do scans, blood tests, table tilts to check for POTS, because my niece won't allow it. There could be something very wrong, but her parents have accepted that they won't know what's wrong. It is concerning, but also inconsistent. Her aunt is autistic and in a wheelchair for CP, and she really looks up to her, and my niece tends to mimic behaviors of people she likes. I don't want to immediately assume it's "faking" because I genuinely care for her health and wellbeing and think her parents need to force testing through children's hospital in the event that there is something seriously wrong. However, her parents don't seem to think it's a big deal or that it is concerning, so I just don't know how to think.

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I have physical disabilities myself, so I can understand ambulatory wheelchair use. However, the chair is only needed to get out of situations she doesn't want to be in. She can go to parkour parks, trampoline parks, do obstacle courses all day and not need the chair once or the days following. However, if we're doing something that isn't focused on her, she'll suddenly need the wheelchair and demand we stop anything else. The other day at an event, she changed her mind and decided she didn't want to do an activity that both her friend and cousin also wanted to do, and as they were about to take their turn she said she couldn't walk, and demanded they forfeit their activity and we go get her wheelchair and leave immediately. When we asked her to wait for her cousin and friend to take their turn, and we'd get the chair right after (10 minutes), because she was sitting comfortably before that in shade and a comfy chair, and the entire day had been focused on what she wanted (we tailored a lot of it to her special interests to make her happy), she had a meltdown and injured her friend.

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She is now lying about the situation, claiming people were insulting and berating her and that we are ableist and unsafe. Then, after lying, being comforted and being asked not to insult and make up things about others that aren't true, and recalling the situation, she claims she "blacked out" and doesn't remember anything except people being abusive to her and says that we're not allowed to question it now and have to take accountability for our abuse. Is this sort of demanding and reaction normal to not getting what one wants, and a part of the diagnosis that I'm just not understanding?

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It feels very... manipulative and I hate even saying that because it very well could be part of autism I just don't understand and have the correct information on. There are definitely times I think she's having meltdowns, but some of these seem like traditional tantrums, with terminology being misused to excuse violence. Some of these instances really only seem to escalate when shes asked to do things that she doesn't want to do, or doesn't get her way automatically, like neurotypical kids throw tantrums- and that is behavior that is corrected through kind, consistent and appropriate consequences for their developmental stage/circumstances.

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Her autism assessment seems to agree that the behavioral issues need to be corrected that way, but am I just entirely misunderstanding the situation? Am I seeing things incorrectly and being hurtful, because I don't want to ever do that. But what can I do in these instances, especially when her parents insist that this behavior is acceptable? I feel like I'm not equipped to take my niece out anymore because if I don't immediately do what my niece wants, there's a serious situation, and is that typical with autistic pre-teens? I feel lost and if I'm completely ignorant, please let me know. I just want to help my niece and preserve health and our relationship as well.

When I was hired, I was told to put the availability we agreed upon in UKG for my permanent availability schedule. So far, my GM has denied it twice, even after I extended my hours some days (which I regret) and keeps scheduling me outside the availability I was hired on. It's as if she's denying it intentionally so I can fill in gaps where they don't have coverage, despite what we agreed to when I was hired. As long as it's not in UKG, they're not doing anything wrong? So, in UKG, it shows I'm available at any time, except my two school days, since I was hired and it apparently isn't changing.

What do I do at this point? There aren't any issues with the formatting in UKG, it's just my GM wanting me available anytime, and the AM seems to have no idea.

This is a small, independently owned nail/hair school program. I submitted my $600 enrollment deposit and I'm supposed to start classes in a few days. I was sent a a very rough schedule after pressing. My correspondence with the owner has been disappointing and lacking and I've had to email multiple times to get one response back (I waited a week). I asked her to confirm the time of our first class as it wasn't on the schedule, and said she'd be sending out information over the weekend. She didn't. I asked her if the offical paperwork would be filled out the first day, and she didn't even respond to that part of the email. It's not the best school, it's cheap, but it's been around awhile and one of two options aside from cosmo programs that hardly touch on nails.

I checked, the school is licensed, the owner is licensed, and I've seen students come out of the school and get licensed- but it is a new owner (previously taught there) and honestly I'm getting freaked out. The owner doesn't have her situation together and I'm hoping I won't get burned or that this is going to be 7 months of a disaster.

I know nail school is just about getting the hours and experience to pass the state licensing exams. Is this kind of dysfunction normal in small, private nail/cosmo schools? Any advice or thoughts are welcome and appreciated!