#i'm aware there are way worse jobs but i STILL have recurring stress nightmares about retail

[fedoraspooky]

applying for retail out of desperation to pay rent while actively having to wrestle back the memories of the time when a violently angry customer hit me with a broken rake that i wasn't allowed to let him return and the management did fuck all about it, and all the times i got told i'd go to hell because i was working sundays instead of being at church, and all the times someone yelled at me and called me an idiot because I couldn't count incorrect change they gave me under pressure or go against store policy for them, and all the times management cracked down on me because too many people didn't want store cards when i asked them, and all the times i had to clean up spilled products and barf and literal shit while still expected to go running back to my register as the only cashier left in the store, and all the times when my manager made inappropriate comments on the size of my ass, and all the times I had to come in while feverishly sick, and the time when a lady stayed past closing for a full hour while shouting racist slurs at the guy working in the furniture section only for her to not even buy anything bc we couldn't magically pull a discount out of our asses for her, and all the times people stole shit and i was blamed for not passive-aggressively stopping them by offering to scan the item presently being stolen hard enough as they went running out the door with it, and the time i threw my back out lifting heavy shit and they had to take me to the back and give me a drug test for some reason and report the injury and then just put me right back out on the register without doing anything else to actually help with my back, and all the times i had to deal with severe burnout from masking all the time and forcing myself to make eye contact all day and appear normal to the point where i dissociated hardcore for like two years and didn't feel like myself even when off the clock anymore, and all the times i went home with my hips and my knees and my feet hurting so bad from standing for pretty much 8 hours straight that i wouldn't be able to stand up or walk without pain for the rest of the night, and the time when...