Every so often, I'll get a comment on my blog that deserves a public response.
This is just such a case.
bridget said...
This has been on here so long that it needs to be renamed "Re-tale".
Well, here is my very public response to that:
ZING!
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Retail
It's long, so I don't expect everyone to read the whole thing, but I just took a look at this article over at Gizmodo.com about Circuit City employees, and found it actually a bit hard to get through.
The financiapocalypse is taking down many victims, from faceless corporations to the grunts with faces who work for them. Now, Target seems to be doing okay, better than Circuit City, but nothing is certain right now. And while I am glad I don't work in retail anymore, I found parts of this article resonating with me, with the part of me that does miss working there. Because with any job, your co-workers become your friends. And I spent four years working there, making friends. Sure, a lot of them were, like me, just passing through on their way to graduation, to other pursuits. But just as many of them have given a significant portion of their lives to working at Target, and will stay loyal because for all of the bitching and complaining we all did, it's a good company to work for (case in point, when my father-in-law had a heart attack, I called in and hadn't gotten much beyond "heart attack" before my HR person said, "Take as much time as you need, we can cover you. Go be with family." Or my uncle, who worked for corporate, and how wonderful they were with adoption assistance). And regardless, lifetime employee or summer job employee, they're friends. I spent a great deal of time with them. I miss them at times.
So keep that in mind as you troll the going-out-of-business sales for sweet deals. You might be getting a sweet deal, but the people who are helping you are getting a raw deal. They had very little to do with the company going under. And if they seem upset, surly, or whatever, just remember; they can see the writing on the wall. They don't imagine a pink slip is looming, they know it's coming down towards them. Once they sell the last digital camera, they're out of work. They sign up for unemployment benefits and wonder how to pay bills next month. Please, be nice to them. We could all stand to be nice to each other now, in the coming months, in the coming years, and from now on until forever.
The financiapocalypse is taking down many victims, from faceless corporations to the grunts with faces who work for them. Now, Target seems to be doing okay, better than Circuit City, but nothing is certain right now. And while I am glad I don't work in retail anymore, I found parts of this article resonating with me, with the part of me that does miss working there. Because with any job, your co-workers become your friends. And I spent four years working there, making friends. Sure, a lot of them were, like me, just passing through on their way to graduation, to other pursuits. But just as many of them have given a significant portion of their lives to working at Target, and will stay loyal because for all of the bitching and complaining we all did, it's a good company to work for (case in point, when my father-in-law had a heart attack, I called in and hadn't gotten much beyond "heart attack" before my HR person said, "Take as much time as you need, we can cover you. Go be with family." Or my uncle, who worked for corporate, and how wonderful they were with adoption assistance). And regardless, lifetime employee or summer job employee, they're friends. I spent a great deal of time with them. I miss them at times.
So keep that in mind as you troll the going-out-of-business sales for sweet deals. You might be getting a sweet deal, but the people who are helping you are getting a raw deal. They had very little to do with the company going under. And if they seem upset, surly, or whatever, just remember; they can see the writing on the wall. They don't imagine a pink slip is looming, they know it's coming down towards them. Once they sell the last digital camera, they're out of work. They sign up for unemployment benefits and wonder how to pay bills next month. Please, be nice to them. We could all stand to be nice to each other now, in the coming months, in the coming years, and from now on until forever.
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