All Things Transcription

I had a long career in retail clothing. I could make this a really short post and say that the whole thing was my worst job, but that would be cheating. However, I will say that my worst job was one in retail. I spent a long time working for the now defunct Goody’s Family Clothing. I actually worked for them 3 different times.

Follow up:

The first and best time was where I met my very favorite manager and a very good friend. This lady really taught me how to work. I had a pretty strong work ethic already, but I have never seen anyone that could work as fast and well as she did (and still does). I really enjoyed it and ended up working for her as a department supervisor until I left on maternity leave. I meant to go back, but I just could not bring myself to leave my sweet baby.

After my daughter turned 8, I went back to work for her at first part time and then again as a department supervisor. I just cannot refuse this woman for some reason. I had no intention of working more than part time but she asked and, well...

If I keep going this way the story will turn into one about how I ended up there 3 different times. Suffice to say that the last time I went back it was not to work for her but another manager. This is where the worst job started.

Things started out fine. This manager seemed to be a pretty nice person. We got along fine. The job wasn’t really any different than the times before in terms of work. (By the way, I think I will write something about working retail in general sometime. It, well, there just is not any other way to put it. It sucks. Out loud. Seriously.) However, it went downhill very quickly. She could be a really cool person, but she turned into kind of a harpy. To be fair, she did have a really bad run of luck with her own health and her family’s, but she could be really horrible to people.

However, this was not the reason this was my worst job. It was just an extra added attraction. The reason it was my worst job began when we were informed that the company would be closing. This is how it went:

Even though anyone with any sense could tell we were on a slippery slope, the upper echelon tried very hard to disguise this fact and continued to reassure us that everything was fine. When you walk onto the floor of a clothing store and half of it is empty, things are not fine. They could not pay for merchandise. Vendors that had dealt with the company refused to extend us credit. They infused the company with a little money and things went on. It happened again. They could not find anyone to extend them financing. They filed for Chapter 11. They restructured and closed some stores.

Now things would be okay, right? Um, no. The financing arranged fell through. They scrambled around for more. No good. Keep in mind that all the while they were telling us that everything was fine. When things finally hit the fan, we found out about it through the media. The upper echelon kept up the ruse for a few more days and then finally informed us that the entire company was closing. Nice, huh?

Now comes the part that made it the worst job. The liquidators took over. The liquidators themselves were not the problem. The problem was customers. The lower the priced dropped, the worse people behaved. Most could not understand that there was no such thing as Goody’s anymore. The liquidators were our new bosses. The biggest problem was the new return policy. There were no returns. Although not much surprises me anymore, I stood by in awe as people’s behavior became worse.

We had to shut off the restrooms because people would get pissed off and go in there and do things like flush whole rolls of tissue and flood it. They wiped poop on the walls. They left sanitary products in the floor. When we had 2 stalls left, we shut them down so we would have someplace to go. It was still pretty unpleasant since the liquidators would not repair the other toilets so you did not want to spend too much time in there since a few of them had been clogged up for quite a while and smelled really bad.

We closed the fitting rooms because people were urinating and defecating in them. They were leaving their own bloody pants and stealing merchandise to wear out of the store. They were leaving sanitary products in the floor. They would throw the clothes they had tried on in the floor on the way out of the fitting room. This would start everyone else doing it, and the last day the fitting rooms were open there was a 5 foot wide stack of clothes that was literally about 4 feet high. In this stack there were bloody pants, pants that had been urinated and defecated in, and merchandise that was covered in deodorant and makeup. There is nothing like putting your hands in a pile of clothes and coming up with these kinds of surprises.

Of course, then you got the people that were upset about the fact there were no restrooms, fitting rooms, or returns. The reactions varied from mildly upset to throwing things at us. I was screamed at, cussed at, and threatened. I was told by a couple of irate customers that they hoped I never got another job. We were all treated this way. It got to the point that I cried on the way to work every time. I lost weight from the combination of the hard physical labor of taking apart fixtures and emotional stress. I threw up a lot. I hated it. We all hated it.

There were a few good things. Many people were very sympathetic and supportive. They told us they were sorry and hoped we would find new jobs soon. They offered their prayers and good thoughts. The best thing is that the liquidators did not care if we were polite or not. They told us that if someone was in the least bit threatening to call the police and have them removed. They allowed us to close the fitting room and restrooms.

I stayed until the bitter end. Literally. I have never been so relieved to have something over with.