Understanding Stress in Retail Work

Working in a retail job is the foundation for building valuable working habits for young people to experience. I have been working in the customer service industry for the past three years. Some of my experience includes: maintaining a constant presence on the sales floor to greet the customers, sell products, take care of the customer's needs, sign customers up for a marketing list, store credit card and inform them of present and upcoming promotions or customers' event. My experience in retail has taught me how to effectively communicate and interact with a broader audience. You get to socialize with your co-workers and also meet new people, which can be fun and exciting at times. However, it's not easy as it seems to be. There are store policies that you must abide by and a vast amount of expectations that are required of you.

Also, you are required to be polite, friendly and very professional in the manner in which you interact with various customers as it reflects upon your own personal demeanor and what the store represents. There are tremendous expectations placed on meeting several business and personal goals. However, when you're not reaching your goal, it can be extremely stressful and intimidating. Management pressure you enormously and are on your back every minute around the clock. They put great emphasis on meeting credit card goals. As a result, the sale associates are under pressure to meet their goals. Due to this, it is very competitive for associates to focus on customers and move on with our daily activities. We all know that customers come first in everything and because of this, it allows the customer to do whatever they like. There are times that I work with difficult customers that can be extremely rude and I have to accept it. After a couple of months, I began to experience some difficult times with customers. One of my experience was that a customer was upset because of a reward that she wanted to use on her purchase, but did not add because of a misunderstanding.

Moreover, the customer proceeded to yell, after redoing the transaction, my device started to act up. Meanwhile, other customers were in line and were stunned by the behavior of this particular customer. The customer started vent as I tried to calm the situation down and listen to the customer's concern due to my professionalism. My manager came right on the spot to help out with the situation so I could tag along with the other customers in line. The customer said, I told her that I wanted to add my reward. I replied by saying to my manager that I did not recall her saying that. These are the small issues that can ruin your day. I never knew that my job could take away my happiness. Holidays are the perfect time to relax with friends and family. But instead, I must work on every holiday. It isn't easy at all. I can't complain, although, working in this industry can be uncomfortable, there are positive traits to be attained. Retail has helped develop my self-confidence and belief in myself that nothing is impossible when you put your heart in it with hard work and dedication.

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