“You Can’t Call Out. Very Unprofessional”: 42 Relatable Retail Stories From Exhausted Workers (New Pics)

Unfortunately, dealing with rude, toxic, and entitled people is practically unavoidable in many customer-facing jobs, especially when working retail.

PMAC notes that the resulting stress and anxiety can negatively impact employee mental health. For example, violence or threats can lead to fear, shock, and confusion. In the long-term, workers can even develop anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder. Emotional fatigue and burnout are also common consequences.

“Retail employees have to deal with a wide range of customer emotions each day, but those who work on the frontline are particularly vulnerable to confronting confrontational customers. The most common triggers include feeling disrespected or ignored, inadequate service or a product not being available. These incidents can cause distress for both customer and staff member alike and leave an employee feeling powerless if no company policy is in place.”

It is up to employers to train their staff well and give them the education and tools they need to handle difficult customers without compromising their well-being.

What also helps is having clear policies, guidelines, and boundaries for handling confrontational customers. For instance, workers should know when to reach out to their manager or direct supervisor for help.

“Training such as mental health awareness training, resilience training, and stress management training can be useful to help teach employees skills and strategies to manage stressors at work,” PMAC suggests.

Less-than-stellar customer interactions aside, retail employees also have to deal with stressful work environments. It’s not just about the physical labor, demanding work, and long hours. These workers are also often exposed to noise pollution, poor air quality, inadequate ventilation, poor lighting, and inadequate facilities, which makes their day-to-day jobs more difficult.

It’s tough to get anything done when you have trouble breathing, have a splitting headache, feel overstimulated, strain your eyes, and feel both uncomfortable and underappreciated.

There are no easy fixes for this. The company you work for has to improve things on its side, and it can be a long, uphill battle to improve the conditions.

Meanwhile, on your end, you can do some things to improve your well-being. Take care of the basics first: good sleep, well-balanced meals, quality socializing with family and friends, plenty of movement, and fun activities that you genuinely love can help you reset after a grueling day in ‘Retail Hell.’

During a previous interview with the friendly moderator team running ‘Retail Hell,’ Bored Panda found out all about the community.

“This subreddit is very easy to mod. The community is really supportive and very little policing needs to be done, that's probably because the majority of members work retail, and anything insulting or rude to employees will be downvoted to oblivion, so it's largely self-governing,” one of the moderators shared with us earlier.

The mods admitted that they are ruthless when it comes to anyone disregarding the rules.

“That said, we pretty much just ban people for breaking the rules. None of that negotiating a timeframe and then having to ban them again in a month. If you're [a jerk], we just ban you,” another moderator told Bored Panda.

“The community itself is really positive, funny, and insightful about working in retail. Lots of people letting their internal monologues out where in work they have to keep a smile on even behind a mask,” the first moderator said.

“The most popular themes are humorous — we have a good sense of humor here. In retail, you have to or you just wouldn't survive.”

That being said, ‘Retail Hell’ is also a space for exhausted employees to take a break from the daily grind.

“Retail and other front line workers have not benefited yet from the change in cultural behavior that we have seen over the last 20 years, and part of that cultural problem comes from retail itself. It allows customers a lot of room to abuse employees because, at the end of the day, the customer spends money. These are my views only ... but I'm 21 years in retail,” the first moderator shared about their thoughts.

Far from every customer is maliciously toxic, at least according to the second mod. Rather, the issue is a lack of awareness and empathy.

“It's not that they want to be [jerks] to the workers, it's that they literally can't see outside their bubble and recognize that it's another human being stocking those shelves. I really think they often don't take the time to mention that. You'll see that in stories from here,” they said.

“A customer is being a complete [jerk], but the worker shows emotion like crying, and suddenly they realize what they've done. I've seen workers talk about de-escalation methods that speak to this very issue. When you get them to realize that you're a human, rather than simply a conduit to donuts, their attitude often changes.”

And yet, in some cases, some customers are simply, well, awful people. The moderator said that, in their opinion, it’s likely that “most of those people” are horrible “outside of a retail setting, too.”

“Sometimes retail is simply society's first line of defense against [jerks],” they added.

‘Retail Hell’ first came into being in late 2010. Though that’s nearly a whopping 16 years ago, when you look at how much the economy and job industry have changed and changed again, 2010 feels like it might as well be a century ago.

The subreddit is a spot for workers from all retail spaces to “come together and support each other.”

Internet users posting on ‘Retail Hell’ are encouraged to vent about their bad experiences and moan about their awful bosses. However, it’s not just about the negativity. Retail workers also share some of their most heartwarming stories about the wholesome customers who turned their day around, and post funny memes from time to time, too.

The moderator team that keeps ‘Retail Hell’ running like a well-oiled machine is serious about protecting employees and making the community a safe space for them to air out their grievances.

They want to make it “crystal clear” that anyone who insults, degrades, or devalues retail workers will get banned. For example, anyone telling employees to “just do your job” or “stop whining” won’t be tolerated for long.

The obvious has to be said as well: ‘Retail Hell’ is meant for, well, retail-related content. The mods point out that the focus should be on anyone working at a business that “sells a product to its final customer,” like employees in grocery stores, at gas stations, in the food service industry, etc.

Meanwhile, “customer posting” is not allowed, even if you’re being positive!

Something else to avoid is talking about self-checkout and shoplifting, as these topics “bring out the worst in the internet.”

What has your time in the job industry looked like, so far, Pandas? Have you ever worked in retail before? If so, what was your experience like? What are the biggest challenges that you had to overcome? What advice would you give anyone fresh out of school or college who is about to take on their first job?

Join the discussion at the bottom of this list. And if you currently work in retail, well, we’re sending you lots of support.