Working in Retail: Miss Me With That Job
Photo Credit: d3sign
For many, including myself, the COVID-19 pandemic has made us re-evaluate the way we work.
I graduated high school in 2018 and was eager to get a job. When school started in the fall I was in college full-time at San Francisco State University and I just wanted a gig for some spending money. Throughout my time in college, I would go on to work at three different retail jobs and one customer service position at a spa. But over time my priorities changed and I went from wanting to work to needing to work to pay my bills.
When the global pandemic hit in early 2020, everything about the way we worked changed. Companies and schools were switching to work from home and many of us got a taste of what it was like to work in an everchanging and unfamiliar environment.
As we entered the second year of the pandemic, a shift began in the workforce that is now known as the “Great Resignation.” In November 2021, a record 4.5 million people quit their jobs. Unsurprisingly, the retail and food industries lead the way in these quits. Workers are tired of low-paying and stressful work environments.
So many took to social media and proclaimed riddance of their jobs and looked forward to embracing a new lifestyle that nurtured good wellbeing.
I spoke with Marc Covos, a 24-year-old working in retail in San Francisco, about his thoughts of the “Great Resignation” and working in retail selling watches.
This interview has been edited for clarity and length.
Photo Credit: Alexander Spatari
NR: How long have you been working in your current retail job?
MC: About to be two years.
NR: Do you see yourself staying in the retail industry long-term?
MC: No. It’s a very stressful job. I feel like what makes this stressful is just always having to please everybody. I have to put on this facade that I'm always going to be in [a] happy mood. Even if I have tough times going on back at home, I need to come to work with a smile on my face. It takes a lot of your energy to be greeting people every single day, help them, making sure that they get the best service they can get. Because it could be the smallest thing that would make somebody mad and [leave] a review on you. And then there goes your image at work.
It's hard-working retail with COVID You never know when you're just going to get dropped from your job or they're going to lay you off. So to be going week in and week out, hearing about all the cases that are going on, it kind of scares you because I got rent to pay. I need to put food on the table. It's a scary thing to always know [that] at any moment I can get cut off.
NR: Do you notice a difference in working in retail prior to the pandemic versus now?
MC: In San Francisco, we've been having a lot of break-ins, a lot of robberies and just a lot of crime [in] the area that I work. It's a scary thing to look over your shoulder every single night when you're closing. We're really understaffed [so] I have to close by myself sometimes, and I have to realize there can be just somebody that comes in or a group of people that comes in and just rob the store. You don't want to think of stuff like that, but at the same time, you got to know it's a possibility.
NR: What is your take on the Great Resignation and millions of people quitting their jobs, including retail?
MC: I don't blame anybody that wants to quit their retail or their restaurant jobs because you never know when you're going to get dropped from your job and it's a scary [way] to live. It's the pay too. You're getting worked a lot for the pay that you're getting – I just don't feel like a lot of people want to stay in that spot where you have to live paycheck to paycheck.
NR: Why do you think this movement is happening now in these times of COVID?
MC: The pandemic is this is kind of do or die kind of moment. You can't keep on risking it every single day not [knowing] [whether] we're going to go back to lockdown.
If I'm being honest, my job [in] COVID [has] been really dead. I always find myself asking my boss “are we still good? Are we still going to be open?” Because we don't have that [many] customers. We're like the last store [left] on the block. It's a nervous thing to be around when you see all these changes happening.