r/RantsFromRetail

I recently moved from one store to another (same company), at the first store everything was completely fine but bare in mind it was a little less busy than the new one.

I work in the busiest shopping centre in my city and spend my entire shift on the tills and I’m constantly getting called in because of my voids and I think I’m about to start tweaking out. How am I supposed to control when a customer decides they don’t want something??? Am i supposed to force it on them? like what!!!

It makes me feel like I’m being treated like a criminal honestly. Now my manager is putting a book on the till and I have to write down the reason for every single void which I wouldn’t have minded if this hasn’t been such a long issue for me and I know its not going to make a difference because the reason will be the same as always, “Customer changed mind”

The worst part is whenever my manager is on the till beside me she gets a void not even an hour in, nearly without fail🫠

I think I’m going to quit today. YOLO

How does the Stockroom work at Ross? I worked 8hrs and I didnt get a Lunch break. After 4hrs working in the Stockroom we have to do a Job transfer to a different department on computer register then we go back to working stockroom. We only get 1 break. Also no one told me when I was hired that i would never get off at my scheduled time. I work over my schedule time to get off. Like i just dont understand how they do this? I also had a problem with another lady in another department. My mom called me at work because my daughter is at home alone and i told my daughter and my mom i would get off at 1:45 unaware it wouldnt be till 5pm. My mom called at Work while i was stocking to ask what time i would get off so if she needed to call my daughter to check on her she could. I walked to the breakroom to take the call and I took the call right before I got to the breakroom and another employee saw and started to yell at me. I told her I was going to the breakroom to answer a call as my daughter is home alone and i needed someone to check on her. After she yelled at me I politely told her my situation that Im a single mom just got divorce and my daughter is home alone and I needed someone to check on her since i didnt know when i will be home. I even pulled her aside and told her sorry that I had to take the call and that i was going right into the breakroom. She made me walked back with her to the stockroom and told everyone my business in front of my manager and other employees after I privately told her away from everyone my exact situation and that i wasnt told when hired that i would never get off at my scheduled time. Thing was I dont even know who she was and if she was another manager for another department. She never told me who she was. I did tell my manager after she left that I was sorry and that i had to take the call and they wasnt even mad about it. They just laughed at it.

I’ve been through a lot of garbage at past jobs where I felt like the bad bosses always won, but this week I finally stood up for myself, I was working the dressing room stall. For those who don’t know, you cannot leave the dressing room unattended. I was on my period and my stomach was absolutely killing me. I did the professional thing and called over the store walkie-talkie for coverage so I could use the restroom.
Someone came up to cover me. But as I was walking away, my manager decided to blast me over the open store radio channel for every single employee to hear. She started scolding me, claiming I was taking "too many breaks" and that I had already used the bathroom twice in three hours. She kept calling normal bathroom trips "breaks" over the walkie to publicly shame me.
I went and used the restroom anyway because, hello, human anatomy. While I was in there washing my hands, she walkied the person covering me and told them to stay put because she was sending me home.
She called me into her office and told me I couldn’t use the restroom every 30 to 40 minutes (which I wasn’t even doing, but even if I was, my stomach was upset!). She then proudly told me that she had already manually clocked me out five minutes prior—before she even called me into the office or told me I was being sent home. She told me if I was using the bathroom that much, I was "too sick to work" and forced me off the schedule, making me lose my wages.
Here is the thing: she thinks because I am young, I am naïve and dumb. She thought I would just go home, cry, and accept being pushed around. She would never try this with an older worker.
But I completely outsmarted her.
The second I got home, I bypassed our store completely and called the corporate HR Hotline. I didn't just report the walkie incident. I logged into the portal and added every single legal violation she committed:

Publicly shaming an employee over store radio (violates corporate respect policies).
Telling an employee they can't use the restroom (massive OSHA violation).
Secretly clocking me out while I was still on the clock (literal wage theft under federal labor laws).
I also reported another manager who previously threatened to write me up if I ever called out sick, which is why I came to work feeling unwell in the first place.
By trying to send me home "sick," she thought she was covering her tracks. Instead, she left a digital footprint of wage theft in the corporate timeclock system and a dozen coworkers as witnesses to her walkie-talkie stunt.
Corporate HR is now investigating her for multiple corporate and federal violations. She went from having all the power to being under a giant corporate microscope. I have my next shift tomorrow, and honestly, it’s kind of funny because if she even breathes in my direction wrong, it counts as illegal retaliation and she will dig her own professional grave.
Treat people how you want to be treated. Don't let toxic managers push you around just because you're young!

So I work at a resort's pool as a summer job (I'm a college student), and one of the duties is doing pool admission. Today that was my job. This pool is mainly for resort guests, however it's pretty common for non-guests to show up. They can pay to get in.

Well, today there were two guys (late 40's I would say) that came in and bought admission ($20 total). I ring them up, they pay, everything's normal. Until about 15 minutes later when one guy comes up, says he is a guest at the lodge, and wants a refund. I call up my supervisor who says it's not possible. It's all chill at this point. Then maybe another 15 minutes later, the second guy comes up all pissed off that I can't give him the refund.

At first he says "Fine, then give me cash!" and I think it's a joke because it's 20 fucking dollars. Then I realize he's not joking and we have a brief argument. One thing I remember is that he said "So you can't do your job?" I just passively aggressively responded "Yep, sure is!" and I closed the booth window and called my supervisor. I wish I could have said something like "I'm not the dumbass who failed to tell me you were a resort guest," but I guess it's better I didn't say that so I didn't get fired.

I call up my supervisor, who shows up with HIS supervisor, and they get the whole thing taken. The asshole puckers away back to the pool with $20 back in his bank account, and I go back to my job. That's the end of it.

This was my first negative interaction with a customer since it's only the third week and this is my first job (I cannot wait to quit at the end of summer). But it's now a few hours after my shift and I still feel bad. I still have that sinking feeling and that fast heart rate. And my evening is ruined now.

How do you learn to let stuff like this go once you're off the clock? I keep telling myself "I don't get paid enough to care even while ON the clock" but that doesn't seem to be working at the moment

All my jobs in my life have pretty much been just retail and customer service. And for years, I never really had that many issues dealing with the public aside from the occasional giving attitude back part to both customers and management when I feel disrespected. And for years, I never cared about pay or time off.

But now, I'm just mentally done. I literally got yelled at by a customer because their fucking kid was in my walking path when all I'm trying to do is clean my assigned section before I clock out. This lady berates my security team, myself and my manager and tells us that she's reporting me to corporate to get me fired because she comes in to shop and not to be disrespected by a worker. I said nothing to the kid or the mother prior to her berating me. My body language was just annoyed that the fucker was in my path. Fuck discount retail and fuck Karens and their annoying ass gremlins. I'm not gonna continue to tolerate being disrespected for $18/hour. If im gonna be disrespected, my price is $75/hr. Rant over.

Could also be a "corporate rant" because why is keeping a tip something I can get in trouble for, but come on, people. (I've seen the training video. Trust me, I don't have the authority that would make it the conflict of interest they're talking about.) If you're trying to be sneaky about it, that means you know there's something to sneak. I'm not risking my paycheck over five bucks but I hate that reporting it to management is my alternative.

Hell, the "corporate rant" part could also be about how they need a system for donating it to a charity of my choosing or something like that.

Happened twice in the last couple of months. Blame my autism for my responses 😉 but first time I legitimately thought the guy was handing me something my klutzy self had dropped and didn't realize he'd handed me cash until I was far enough away that it felt too awkward to find him and tell him we don't take tips; the second time a woman and I were right under a security camera when she offered and I told her it wouldn't be very "surreptitious."

You really want to tip me? Ask me what charities I support and donate to them. (For the record, research into either migraines or autism will do though I don't have specific organizations in mind.)

I recently got hired as a merchandiser for a thrift store and the supervisors tell me to collect items from the housewear department and make some displays on their end-caps.

This one old guy who comes in a shops makes comment at me and I can never tell if he is being sarcastic or not. Sometimes he does sound rude. Says your not supposed to be shopping while working...

I have my vest and name tag on and the rolling cart the supervisor gave me to collect the items to display.

It is getting annoying...

I'ts actually the fridge fault (too cold and it's always open and near the cash register) but never mind.

Today I came to work with a cough and after 2 hours begin feeling really bad and I mean really bad with heart rate of 120 at rest and I actually felt worse after eating and taking my break.

I told my manger and of course he ignored me although I felt terrible and couldn't work properly at all. I asked him again and then he told me I can't leave early because there is no one (fine for me) and how it's not OK that every shift I have some kind of pain or sick and need to leave early (lies) I actually stayed until the end because what could I do? but I wanted to punch his face 😒 he made me feel so angry. It's not my fault getting sick and feeling bad.

I need to work tomorrow but really don't want to

It was a very busy afternoon, I was putting my u-boat back as I was about to go on break. This customer then proceeded to open the door to the backroom to ask me if I could help him find something. I didn't really see it as a big deal as it wasn't interrupting anything important. He led me to where it usually is and then proceeded to ask me if we had the exact product that he wanted. When I told him I was unsure he replied, "Well can you look in the back for me?"

Sir...we have a ton of products back there, I am not spending the rest of my shift trying to find your specific product. I didn't say that directly to him though, I can't remember what I said exactly but it was something along the lines of "I'm not exactly sure where I'd find that in our storage, my apologies" (half lie, it would probably be in dairy but we have so much stuff scattered even just in that freezer and I'm still new to the team so) and then he kinda huffed and asked one of my co-workers instead thinking that she'd give him what he wanted.

Entitlement is NOT cute, you are a grown ahh person 😭

I got offered a full time position at a gas station a little ways out of town. It was the first offer I got after 15+ interviews and I decided to take it, though it wasn't ideal since I was 13+ miles out.

Told them I was relatively flexible with shifts but was concerned about 6am starts as I would have to pay £30+ for an Uber to get in per shift as well as a small 4 hour commitment, was told I had no say in availability. Second shift in and I'm casually talking about the potential of moving over to the cafe area of the store some time in the future so I could pick up some more skills, get told to go home and come back for a meeting another day.

I ask the manager what was going on as this was pretty out of nowhere, she goes ballistic and starts screaming at me about how I was "unacceptable" for considering a transfer (which was stated as something I could do in the interview), how I was late to one of my shifts (which wasn't even my fault) and a bunch of other small things.

Walked out, handed my work uniform in and told them I wasn't coming back. I'm kinda bummed because I'd been looking for full time and I was genuinely really good at the job, but I since got a better offer elsewhere with a manager who seems like a genuinely nice person and the location is way easier for me to commute to.

I think I dodged a bullet, but I want to know what you guys think.

I have been working at this company for 10 1/2 years now. Was shift lead for 5 years, but switched back to a regular cashier about 3 years ago because my boss was the laziest person on this planet and I got sick and tired of doing all the work for him (work that HE was supposed to be doing).
After countless of arguments, I switched the store and my current boss was nice and understanding at first, but got more and more demanding over time:

My contract states that I am supposed to work 21 hrs per week, and that my company can schedule me +25% which is 26.25 hrs. If I get scheduled 26.5 hrs without being asked, I could theoretically tell my boss to cut it down to 26.5 hrs and he would HAVE TO do that.
Now I don't complain about having to work up to 30 hrs, especially if someone called in sick or something, and I have never told my boss ever to cut down my hours even if he did schedule me for 26.25+hrs without asking because I am grateful to have a job in the first place.

Recently tho there were a lot of bank holidays, and he scheduled me for 38-42 hrs every week without asking. All of the days I worked have been late shifts for 8 weeks straight (I get home around 11-11:30 PM).
I went to my boss and asked him about why I had so many extra hours recently, and why he has only been giving me late shifts. He told me that this shop only has 17 employees. Him and 5 shift leads are 6 of those already, then we have 5 mothers who prefer to work early shifts and recently another employee (lets call her Tiffany) talked to the boss and told him that she can only work from 8 AM - 2 PM from now on because of a medical condition which then leaves 5 employees for late shifts only.
Now Tiffany is a nice person, never had any issues with her, but I know that her "medical condition" is basically just "I get headaches sometimes" and she self-diagnosed it as chronic migraines. She is the type of person who calls in sick for a week because her throat is slightly sore. She calls in sick every single month for at least 5-8 days, especially on fridays and saturdays (we are closed on sundays).
I told my boss that I am not okay with only working late shifts and that I find it unfair this was decided without letting me (or any of the other co-workers) know that we are basically doomed to late shifts only from now on, when in our contracts it specifically says that only 12 late shifts per month are allowed. I told him I too have appointments and that I worked late shifts for 8 weeks straight now while also working 17-23 hours overtime without ever being asked.
On top of that, taking time off work during school holidays is a big no-no because that time is reserved for all the mothers/parents. I wanted to go to a big event and also meet my long-distance boyfriend at the end of july and asked to take off the friday, saturday and monday and it was rejected because that is within the summer holidays which is "reserved for parents".
It is NOT stated in our contracts that ONLY parents can take their PTO during school holidays, and I don't think it is even legal to limit employees without children like that. But my boss just said he does it so it is easier for the parents.
I told him that I do not only want to work late shifts and that in the future I will only work 26.25 hrs/week as scheduled in my contract to which he replied "well, I am the one who writes the schedule, so we will see about that".
I wouldn't mind working only late shifts if he actually only schedules me for 26.25 hrs because that translates to only 4 days at work. With the sunday off I'd have 2 additional days off within the week which is more than enough to schedule appointments and have enough free time to schedule activities with friends and family, but he keeps scheduling me for 38-42 hours which means I get home around 11-11:30 PM on 5 days of the week and I leave for work around 10:30 AM.
This is not what I signed up for.

I was on PTO this and last week, and he even asked me to reschedule that which would've only been possible in october, so I said no.
A co-worker sent me my schedule for next week today, and it is AGAIN 41 hours and ONLY late shift. So I called work and demanded that he cuts down my schedule to exactly 26.25 hrs for the first time ever. He said he would, but around 45 minutes later HIS boss called me and asked if that was really necessary because 3 people called in sick and they have no replacements. I then told him about my situation with the late shifts and all the overtime work to which he just replied "life is like that sometimes".

That combined with rude customers, all the shift leads acting as if they were God, the constant yelling from shift leads and customers, co-workers constantly asking me to switch shifts with them when I get a saturday off (which happens like once every 3-4 months...) and my boss constantly asking and texting me in my free time if I could cover a shift in a different store, if I could reschedule my PTO, and just all the stress the job brings natually, I am seriously thinking about quitting.

I don't even remember the last time I called in sick. I don't get ill very often thankfully, but of course there are days where I get super annoying headaches all day for example. I still go to work on these days. Same with light fevers, slight colds etc. If I am not contagious and don't put any co-workers or customers at risk, I will go to work. I was never late in the 10 years I have been working at this company, and when I work early shifts I usually always stay 10-30 minutes longer to finish the last thing I was working on. I rarely ever complain and just try to do my job as good and reliable as I can.
It is very obvious that our store needs an extra person, but when I asked my boss and his boss about that they just said "no".

I don't even know what other job I'd be looking for. I am seriously thinking about going back to school for a year and then going to university, but I don't think that would be financially doable at the moment and I'd need to save up a bit longer for that.
Even after 2 weeks off work I still feel completely exhausted and I am already dreading going back on monday because even tho he cut down my hours I 100% know he will keep asking me to work more until I say yes. I just can't do this anymore.

Haven’t had a weekend off since April 9th and can see my schedule up until June 20th and see I’m working every weekend. That’s 10 weeks in a row. Oh and it’s all nights. I’m part time and usually get around 20 something hours and those hours are always the weekend.

I’m young and wanna go out sometimes you know. I literally always miss out on everything my friends and family do. It annoys me even more because there’s a few people at my job who won’t work weekends. We even hired a new person but I’m still working every single weekend. It just feels unfair. I see others get at least a weekend off a month except me. I’ve been working here for 3 years and I wasn’t scheduled like this until this year. I’m so upset.

I’ve been planning on keeping this job until August because I start college again but honestly this schedule is making me wanna quit. I mean I wouldn’t be shocked if up until August I never get a weekend off. I have another friend who works retail and they often have weekends off. I go into work everyday so angry and just thinking about how this situation seems unfair to me.

And then there’s the fact that the last weekend I had off in April, they acted like it was the end of the world. Some person had 2 weekends off in a row and then it was my turn for once and they said that I might not be able to have it off. Mind you it was for a trip I planned and informed them about a YEAR before that April. I don’t know if I’m overreacting but I really feel so disrespected.

Should I say something about it even though the schedule is done almost a month in advance? I literally dread the weekend every week. I’ve started getting stoned every night because of my schedule lol.

The people here with a desk job or 8-5 ever have extremely rude customers that come in at horrible times and get upset with YOU because it’s not going as quickly as they imagined? I had 2 this way today. One that could not understand the basics of adulting at her big age and the other showing up less than 30 minutes before closing saying she just “had to come in today” to do something that takes usually an hour MINIMUM!!! People are so inconsiderate these days. Let’s not even get started on the greediness of the corporate world. No pat on the back or bump in pay for going above and beyond but more like making it harder and harder every month to hit your goals. It’s like they WANT you to fail!

I wish it felt like I actually helped people instead of hurting them in the long run. The worst part is 95% of the time the customers do think I’m helping them and I know I’m not but I have to do my job. I hate it