I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Christmas when I worked in shops.
Christmas Eve was great...up until about 5pm when we locked the doors and folk would be chapping them to get let in.
Still it was worse at the supermarket, folk were actually fighting outside the store because it was closed.
"I haven't bought ma fucking turkey"
"Tough, we want to go home"
I used to loathe shop work. I remember when I was in my late 20s and I got this part time job in a Newsagent/sweet shop. It had a big supporting pillar right in the middle of the shop floor and one Christmas the boss spent ages deliberating about whether to wind green or red tinsel up it, or dangle real holly around it. The other assistant stood there umming and ahhing clutching her chin, nodding and offering advice. It was all very intense and obsequious. I just stood there, bored shitless, thinking "You can stick it all up your arse for all I give a fuck" and trying not to yawn.
I enjoyed the hustle and bustle of Christmas when I worked in shops.
Christmas Eve was great...up until about 5pm when we locked the doors and folk would be chapping them to get let in.
Still it was worse at the supermarket, folk were actually fighting outside the store because it was closed.
"I haven't bought ma fucking turkey"
"Tough, we want to go home"
I used to loathe shop work. I remember when I was in my late 20s and I got this part time job in a Newsagent/sweet shop. It had a big supporting pillar right in the middle of the shop floor and one Christmas the boss spent ages deliberating about whether to wind green or red tinsel up it, or dangle real holly around it. The other assistant stood there umming and ahhing clutching her chin, nodding and offering advice. It was all very intense and obsequious. I just stood there, bored shitless, thinking "You can stick it all up your arse for all I give a fuck" and trying not to yawn.
The only time I worked in a shop was when I first left school at 15.
I was waiting for my GPO training to start, so had 3 months to kill till it did.
i got a job at Woolworths in Piccadilly. I really wanted to be on the makeup counter, but they put me on stationary, which was hectic, and I had to remember the price of hundreds of different items, I hated it.
I was paired up with an older bossy woman, who thought she could order me about, and she refused to do her half of the cleaning up, expecting me, cos I was younger, to do all the worse jobs.
I stuck it a week, told her to get lost, collected my pay packet, and walked out.
I had a different experience at my second shop job. Still 15, still waiting for my GPO training to start, but in those days you could walk out of one job and straight into another.
So...I got a job at a local Co-op, the staff were mainly older, and they were lovely to me.
When it was time for me to leave, they told me to pick anything off the shelves as a leaving present.
I didn't want to be cheeky, so I picked a Pears soap. They all laughed, and the manager took a big box of chocolates off the shelf and gave that to me as well.
I had a different experience at my second shop job. Still 15, still waiting for my GPO training to start, but in those days you could walk out of one job and straight into another.
So...I got a job at a local Co-op, the staff were mainly older, and they were lovely to me.
When it was time for me to leave, they told me to pick anything off the shelves as a leaving present. I didn't want to be cheeky, so I picked a Pears soap. They all laughed, and the manager took a big box of chocolates off the shelf and gave that to me as well.
