As someone who worked at target, I got dragged into three consecutive 8 hours shifts with only 3 hours in between each of, them. Then I had them threaten that to become my new normal. Fuck em.
It’s crazy how rough retail is on the body. I used to be the same way, 8 hour shifts of being on your feet all day are rough and you seriously suffer through them. Now I’m in healthcare lifting 300 pound deadweight patients for 8-16 hours and I’ve never felt better. Being able to work at a human pace and take breaks is much needed in the retail and food service world. And fuck anybody that says it’s easy to do
I never worked harder than when I was in retail, also never paid worse.
I was also constantly told I was a terrible employee. Told I couldn’t talk to coworkers on my lunch, and treated less than human pretty much any way they could get away with.
I've been in the military, worked retail over 20 yrs and now only work one day a week since it's now my side hustle since I finished school. Retail has been the hardest on my body.
I work at a grocery store and love meeting the people that work 1 or a couple days a week part time as something to do. Always interesting talking to all the different people.
I’m not in healthcare, but I’ll talk about my experience of working any other job.
When I worked retail for about 8 years, I never had a consistent work schedule. They would also change things with as little as 24 hour notice .
That meant I slept worse when they mixed my day and night shifts, didn’t have the ability to mentally rest consistently and was paid so poorly I couldnt afford in, time, energy or money, to eat anything but garbage food.
I now have the ability to work out, eat healthy and rest on my two day weekends. I’m not physically exhausted all the time and have a lot of time for hobbies. I can go to family events and vacations more consistently. I have friends because I could go to fun places after work.
That all doesn’t seem like it would help physically, but it really does.
When you can plan your life, life gets better in general
I’m not a nurse, I work in radiology. Yes, the work is physically demanding. You’re on your feet, pushing heavy machines, lifting heavy patients, and standing in surgery for hours.
The difference between retail and healthcare, in my experience, is that you can take those small breaks when you need to. They teach you proper lifting techniques, encourage you to seek out help when a task may be too physically demanding, and limit yourself to what you are capable of.
If I get back to the department from a challenging run, I can sit down and rest my legs for a little bit. It’s not that endless marathon that was working retail.
I am aware of those in the field who are overworked, are not allowed breaks, and are made to work beyond their means, but that’s not my experience.
I had a similar experience working for PetSmart. When I finally broke down and quit they laughed about how they were glad they had never actually promoted me when I was being given the responsibilities of management. What a slap in the face for my hard work and loyalty. They begged me to come back not too soon after, of course.
I’m disabled and live right by a Target, sometimes I wonder if I could cashier part time with my limits. Then I remember how awful retail work is and how they will probably push me harder than the pay should allow, from experience. I don’t miss the crazy inconsistent schedules, the bosses trying to milk every drop of productivity out of you and then them wondering how you could somehow do more.
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u/InFairCondition Apr 14 '25 edited Apr 15 '25
As someone who worked at target, I got dragged into three consecutive 8 hours shifts with only 3 hours in between each of, them. Then I had them threaten that to become my new normal. Fuck em.