Hello inter-web type world and welcome to my first personal blog. I have/had arty blogs, myspace, facebook, twitter, youtube, flicker, ebay, amazon, dawanda and even my very own website...but i guess theres never enough ways to express yourself!
As for all my other social networking or selling space addictions, they all have other purpose's. In this blog i intend to bleed out all the un-edited and vicious opinions of me, myself, my day, my job my life. Depending on my mood.
SO lets kick this off with some festive hatred. I work (as my day job) in retail. In a chocolate shop as an assistant manager, i would never say that it is the worst job in the world, it really isn't. But my god it can be soul destroying in so very many ways.
Firstly, I have a degree in Graphic Arts:Illustration as well as various BTEC's, A-Level and other qualifications in fine art, life drawing, graphic drawing, animation and ceramics. I never claim to be top of the class or amazing at what i do, but i passed every course and completed them with at least a 'merit' or better. Baring this in mind, imagine my despair as i spend my day wrapping boxes and icing chavv-y baby names onto chocolate models and then having to ask the delinquent 15 year old mother if SHE is happy with MY artistry (Not all customers are like this...just to ease you in i will point out to start with when i am aversely stereotyping in a very sarcastic way to give more impact to my waffling)
SO now you have a little bit of an idea about me and my line of work, lets get to what i originally came to moan about specifically today...
Today is Friday 16th December 2011, slap bang in the middle of the 2 worst weeks to find yourself working in retail. Everyone is feeling the christmas pressure, everyone is looking for the bargain, feeling rushed, feeling the money-type-pinch, impatient, rude and moaning about the weather. Unfortunately it is also the 2 week period which are BY FAR the busiest for shops, i gather our store takes something like 1/3 of its ENTIRE YEAR's takings in the month of december alone. Meaning that as a retailer queues are inevitable as is the fact that you may run out of what people want, or more often than not don't even have what they want in the first place.
If you have not had the (a-hem)pleasure of working in retail throughout this busy period, then please please please I beg of you, don't be mean or horrible to the staff. We really are doing the best we can with what we have been provided.
We are DRAMATICALLY underpaid. I would support strikes - and do support strikes of all these important workers such as nurses/doctors etc. They do good work and should be paid well and fairly. Unfortunately in our shop there is no union, and no one to go to to complain about the work load, underpaid, lack of breaks etc.
At xmas we open at 8am and close at 6pm, anyone who can add up can see that this is a 10 hour day. Within which i am supposed to get two paid 10 min breaks (one in the morning and one in the afternoon) and 1 hour unpaid lunch. Within this bare in mind that if we open at 8am I need to be there a minimum of 30mins before we open in order to turn all the tills on, count the cash, count the safe, check the banking figures from the previous day add up and nothing has been half-inched. And imilarly on a night, we close at 6pm then i have to spend 1/2 an hour counting the cash/takings/safe/floats etc and often leave at around 6:30.
In addition we do 'shop alone' working, so on a morning you never get your 10min break as there simply are no other staff on the shop floor with you to cover the till while you have your entitled break. Then over lunch time (11 - 3 ish) is our busiest period, and as we are so massively understaffed it is physically impossible to take a full hour lunch, if i get 20mins i consider it a good rest. By 3pm the shop is so empty and decimated by the inconsiderate customers who seem incapable of putting things back where they picked them up from that it takes you the full last 3 hours to restock and tidy the shelves.
SO in summary, i work 11 hours, miss both of my 10 min breaks, rarely get lunch, am on my feet, up and down stairs the entire time, with no regular toilet breaks and for this day i get paid for 8 hours. That is it. 8 hours of pay, pay which is not much above the rock bottom minimum wage. (perspecive for all you workers in other areas of work that is about £56 a day for an 11 hour day BEFORE tax and national insurance deductions) Also not that the majority of retailers do NOT provide parking facilities for staff, have you ever parked in a town centre for 11 hours? (its not cheap!)
Here is my plee, be nice to your sales assistants, consider that the may have been there since before you got out of bed and may not have even had chance for a cup of tea for sustenance. We will be there until long after you're home and warm. We work weekends and bank holidays as well as weekdays. for most of us Christmas day itself will be our only day off within the 2 week period around xmas and a lot of us will be straight back into work on boxing day with no proper time to rest or recoup. We sacrifice our lunch's and breaks and personal time to try and serve you quicker, and more efficiently over this extra busy period.
Please do not take out your rage on us, we do not want you to have to queue, we do not want to run out of the things you want. Imagine you gave up your personal time to try and serve as quickly as possible and all you get is a customer shouting and complaining at you for something which is completely out of your control. It is so very and extremely disheartening, soul destroying, frustrating and infuriating.
My plee, for this last week i have to work, is please please please be nice to your sales assistants.
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