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.’
#11 Hey, Sorry, Can You Cancel This? I Didn't Realize It Was A Card Only Machine
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.
#17 GF And I Work In The Same Store, Are People Just Dumb And Illiterate? I Get The Same Stuff At My Kiosk
#18 There’s A Special Place In Retail Hell For People Who Sit On The Clothing Tables
“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.
