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What I remember about my retail job from the 90’s:
-Pictures of people at each other’s houses for parties were posted in the break room.
-Supervisors and managers did not flaunt their positions –they worked directly with you and there was a strong vibe of everyone being equals. I don’t remember seeing ANY butt kissing behavior from anyone at any time during my time there.
-The biggest thing I remember about what made that job so special was that laughter and joking around were a part of every day. Examples: A co-worker and I went out for the nightly cart run. On the way around the mall, he grabbed a basket out on display at another company and briefly walked with it as if he was going to steal it, before putting it back. Another time, this same co-worker and I were working outside and throwing away a bunch of junk from the stockroom. A manager came by to tell us to even out where we were throwing this stuff into the dumpster, so that the weight was evenly distributed. My co-worker turns to me and goes: “Duh. What does he think we’re going to do, throw all of it into the left side of the dumpster so it topples over”? On another occasion, a co-worker drove up through the parking lot with Bryan Adams’ “Please Forgive Me” playing at full volume and gets out of the car smirking. Also, one time I had to help a supervisor in another department move something because he told me he had a bad back. My supervisor asked me why I was helping the guy and I gave him the reason and he replied in a slightly exasperated way that was kind of comical: “He doesn’t have a bad back”.
The last point is what I remember so fondly about that job and that era. It was what made working there so enjoyable but throughout all of it, we always made sure that the customers were helped quickly and took that seriously. I don’t remember ever minding going into work aside from getting stuck with the dreaded 1pm-9:30pm Saturday night shift.
Yes! The humor and the way we all were "in it together." Great post.
It's become an employer's market, anyone can get fired for any reason, people are doing two, three or more jobs for one wage, people are competing to get and keep jobs, nobody wants to be there but knows they have to, it's not as easy to just walk out and get another job as it was.
depends on where you work, my retail job is awful. assistant managers are rude and hypocritical douchebags that don't know how to make a schedule and blame a computer program for the scheduling shortfalls, claiming they don't have enough hours to give(that's apparently why we're always understaffed)
my office job, however, people are not that bad and i am treated with respect.
And businesses that push this too far cannot see the forest for the trees. If people are not working and making money, nobody is going to have the money to buy the products or use the services their cute little robots are providing.
I see this already happening. Take away the unemployement, welfare, and food stamps that are helping to subsidize the economy right now, and I think places like Walmart would see their profits collapse. In my town the Goodwill store is the bussiest store in town, while the mall here that once thrived only 10 or 15 years ago is a depressing and empty ghost town, with more stores closing in there every year.
I work full-time and make several dollars over minimum wage, and I am shopping for our clothing at the Goodwill and other thrift stores for our clothes, and at a salvage grocer for most of our food. Not because it's "fun", but because I have to. Got rid of my new car and driving a beater - can't afford both a mortgage and a car payment. We don't have money to go on vacations, or out to dinner or the movies except very rarely. I have precious little "disposable" income. Yes, I have credit cards I could use for these things, but I don't because that would be financial suicide - the piper would have to be paid eventually. I don't think I am alone. As I've said before, I guess the next step down is dumpster diving.
Something has to give, at some point RogueMom.
I'm not sure what and I'm not sure when...but this country cannot and will not remain on this downward spiral, and people remain peaceful.
And businesses that push this too far cannot see the forest for the trees. If people are not working and making money, nobody is going to have the money to buy the products or use the services their cute little robots are providing.
They won't be able to escape this forever. The chicken always comes home to roost. Just like when you don't provide proper maintenance to a car, you will have problems eventually. For every reaction there is an equal or opposite reaction.
I see this already happening. Take away the unemployement, welfare, and food stamps that are helping to subsidize the economy right now, and I think places like Walmart would see their profits collapse. In my town the Goodwill store is the bussiest store in town, while the mall here that once thrived only 10 or 15 years ago is a depressing and empty ghost town, with more stores closing in there every year.
I work full-time and make several dollars over minimum wage, and I am shopping for our clothing at the Goodwill and other thrift stores for our clothes, and at a salvage grocer for most of our food. Not because it's "fun", but because I have to. Got rid of my new car and driving a beater - can't afford both a mortgage and a car payment. We don't have money to go on vacations, or out to dinner or the movies except very rarely. I have precious little "disposable" income. Yes, I have credit cards I could use for these things, but I don't because that would be financial suicide - the piper would have to be paid eventually. I don't think I am alone. As I've said before, I guess the next step down is dumpster diving.
I think many middle class families find themselves in the same position and ours is one of them. Little money was spent at the malls or stores at Christmas because I had to pay for my son's training trip for college.
I will not be spending any money in the coming months either as I work to pay down what debt I do have on my credit cards. Not a lot, but enough to know when to stop.
The next casualty of my nonexistent raises these past 7-8 years will be the lady that cleans my house; I was working full time and raising a child and she was worth her weight in gold - but that gold is simply gone.
Middle class spending is what has kept this consumer economy afloat for so long. What will happen now? Now that the middle class has no money to spend in your stores, restaurants, movie theatres, planes, trains, or new/used automobiles?
We will ALL either thrive together or we will fail ~ together.
Something has to give, at some point RogueMom.
I'm not sure what and I'm not sure when...but this country cannot and will not remain on this downward spiral, and people remain peaceful.
The word that comes to mind again and again for me is that the current economic situation is "unsustainable".
I don't have to come to this board or go on specific websites to see that. I see it on a daily basis all around me. I have seen up close and personal what has happened in the workplace, the shifting of the "dynamics", over the past three decades.
Good luck with finding that! I recently retired after over 50 years in the workforce and over the years I found precious little of what you are looking for. That's why it's called work. They have to pay you to do it. You don't have to love your job. Find something you don't hate to do, that you can do well, that has a future, then take whatever satisfaction you can from it. You don't live to work, you work to live. Truth be told, I don't know anyone who I believe really loves their work. I know one person who claimed to, but he jumped on early retirement like a dog on a bone, so how much could he have really liked it?
Good luck.
Oh it's around. But I was always on the outside forced to do the work when twenty people decided to call in first thing in the morning. This went on until I changed positions and went to nights where I work. Needless to say, almost none of those people are still there. But yes, I've always seen other people make friends at work while I never do.
There was a time when employers valued their workers, spent money and time training them, and provided all sorts of benefits to keep them happy so they wouldn't leave.
Nowadays, employers don't train, they constantly remind their workers that they are easily replaceable, pay bottom dollar, and fire them for any little thing.
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