Originally Posted by Sparky

yeah working retail is awful

I'm currently doing it (again, god bless my poor soul.) It never works well for me because I am always forced to live a double life. The last few times it's been the same cycle, and naturally I have difficulty learning from my mistakes. I lie my way into getting hired, work really hard and don't break any rules and immediately get a ton of hours(already getting overtime my second pay period). This causes the corp to become curious about my success which leads them to further inquire on to my previous work history, to which they unfortunately find out it's awful and not at all like what is stated on my resume. After this they do an actual background check(not the outsourced instant one just to screen potential candidates, fortunately my stuff is out of the state im current living in so it never appears on this) to which they also find some...lets call them "red flags".

This puts the corp in an awkward position, on one hand they have a very hardworking (because i need the money very badly) punctual, reliable employee successfully imitating a wholesome, respectable person. On the other, they are left with an employee who has committed minor fraud, is not at all the personality he is at work.

This means the company cannot (so far, god bless my soul) terminate me(altough they certainly can any time) because it would not make sense to the co workers who appreciate my effort. This forces the company to send very, very many secret shoppers my way who try to make my life difficult and lead to to induce mistakes that would be obvious and and clear reasons to everyone to terminate me. The constant secret shoppers lead me to be stressed out and not at all personable because I know any mistake can be the end of it. This causes my sales and overall customer satisfaction to deteriorate, which eventually leads to less hours and me getting a new job and repeating the cycle again.

What confuses me is how the corp is able to convince my entry-level co workers to turn against me and monitor me. People think im crazy when i try to explain this modern company climate, but anyone observant, and who has worked retail I believe has a pretty easy time figuring out who the secret shoppers are. And it's also clear to me when my co-workers are aware of my true nature because all of a sudden they are asking me questions about rules and regulations they already know, and are likely being given incentive to see me slip-up.