Recently, I’ve been applying to jobs that are outside of my comfort zone. And by that, I mean that they are very different than jobs I have held in the past. From local government to healthcare to the education world—far different from business and retail. There's branching out of your comfort zone to grow, and then there's just being uncomfortable in an environment in which you do not belong. I find myself in the later right now.
The frustrating part of applying to different jobs is the comments from some people telling you it’s a good idea or that they are good jobs. There are reasons why I stick to business: that is where my interests lay. Retail isn’t the greatest, but it’s generally about numbers, profits and losses, budgeted costs, and so on. You might think that it’s more interesting to be an assistant at a doctor’s office, but I’d rather be looking over sales figures and deciding if we need to cut payroll costs.
Yes, it’s frustrating to work retail on a skeleton crew, as was almost always the case at Joann, but that’s the world in which I am used to living. It’s where I’m more comfortable. Not so much the long days without proper breaks; more-so the co-workers and/or employees who are right there with you, grumbling seconds after the irate coupon lady has angrily left the store. You aren’t sitting at a desk bored out of your mind in an enclosed office—you are always busy with something.
Yes, I miss being a retail manager. There are certainly parts of it I don’t miss, like having to redo schedules several times because Sally’s kid has a game and Frank’s availability changed for the new semester. I certainly don’t miss the pointless district meetings or the bullying from the district manager because customers ransacked the store and we were too exhausted to keep up. I don’t miss having to play dispatch for my truck crew on my day off because the freight delivery is late, though I do miss helping to unload that weekly truck.
I miss looking over reports to see how the store is doing this year compared to last and analyzing the sales trend, trying to guess why the numbers are going the way they are headed. I miss my employees coming to me with questions as if I were this super important being who had the answers to everything. I miss being able to set my own schedule, to a certain degree that also fit with the company’s policies around manager schedules. I miss delegating to those who were best suited for the task in question, showing them that I pay attention and know their strengths. And of course I miss the paycheck that was enough to support a household—the Joann manager pay, not the Mount Hope Estate and Winery salary. With Mount Hope, I miss the freedom and my pirate crew.
In my year-long job search, I have applied to many different types of jobs, including retail management. I seem to be overqualified for lower-level retail jobs, except the ones no one wants, like grocery store cashier, where you stand in one spot and sink into a deep depression about what has happened to your life. Unless it’s your first job or you are one of those people who enjoys interacting with customers—there are a few of these rare individuals out there in the world. As a manager, I always appreciated those people…when I had the payroll for a dedicated cashier.
We are headed toward fewer cashiers and more self-checkouts, but it isn’t fast enough. Most people do not want to be a cashier: it’s boring, it’s repetitive, and it’s not natural to have the same conversation twenty times in a row. “Would you like to sign up for rewards? Would you like to open a credit card? May I have your email address?” A person can only take so much rejection before it starts to affect them mentally, and yet people wonder why no one wants to be a cashier. Because we’re tired of pushing crap and being blamed for the lack of sales, credit card apps, or email signups. We’re tired of people arguing over the price of an item or blaming us for not having something in stock. We’re tired of having to wrap all your fragile items while a line forms behind you, because we know there isn’t anyone who is going to come help on register. And we are certainly tired of people complaining that they have to wait because there aren’t enough registers open. Don’t want to have lines at the checkout? Become a cashier. Or buy online and pickup in store.
I find it amazing that no one wants a well-rounded employee anymore. You are either a cashier, an order-picker, a stocker, or any one of a number of other positions. There is no such thing as a sales floor person who does everything from stocking to customer service and who helps on the register when it’s needed. Or at least, this has not been an option at the jobs I’ve seen posted within the last year, and certainly not at any of the ones for which I interviewed. That position is now usually some form of management, and apparently I am not qualified enough for that level of responsibility. I’ve managed two stores, but that isn’t good enough for Target, Giant, TJ Maxx, PetSmart, or Staples. Staples wanted to hire me as the store manager a few years ago, and now I can’t even get in as a tech sales associate, probably because I knew the manager from when I worked at Joann and we did not like each other. And I’m sure she knew that I was asked to interview for (and was basically offered) her job, but she had just been promoted from within, beating me by a few hours.
Unfortunately, you cannot just go out and get a management job anymore. Most want years of experience and a Bachelor’s degree. My three years of managing a Joann store are not enough for even an assistant manager position with Bath & Body Works or TJ Maxx, so I find myself stuck in the middle: I’m overqualified for the low-level jobs but am underqualified for the higher-level ones. That’s my theory, and I don’t think I’m too far off. There is no place for someone like me at most retail stores, and that is why I am struggling so much to find a job. When you can’t even get hired to be a Subway “Sandwich Artist,” you question whether you will ever be employed again.
So now I find myself looking at colleges again, preparing to go deeper into debt for something I don’t really want to do: school work. But you need a Bachelor’s to do almost anything decent now, and my Associate’s degree is getting me nowhere. What’s another $20,000 to $40,000 of student loan debt when you know you will likely always be in debt anyway? Might as well just get an MBA, right? Then I can be overqualified for even more jobs and be in the same situation. Or maybe I can do something I actually enjoy.
I guess we will have to wait and see.
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