Working is a necessity in many people’s lives simply because some of us desperately need income to live. If lucky enough, you may land a job based on your skills, education, and passion and the job may contribute to the greater good of society. For example, working at a hospital as a nurse or doctor, you come into work expecting the unexpected and you help save lives. You can also feel connected to a patient through the process. Being a police officer is another example of a workplace that you come into where your day at work may be very different from your previous shift and challenges you each day. With that being said, for many people who are students like myself, work in retail due to the flexible hours and education level we have. When working retail, each and every shift is a constant routine which creates a disconnection with the worker and the workplace due to how repetitive the job can be. In addition to feeling alienated and stripped of identity, it can be very difficult to balance playing the role of a student and a worker.
Sporting Life is a place where customers can find the best, quality, brand name fashion and sports equipment that supports the active and energetic lifestyle of its customers (2018). A typical shift at sporting life is different depending on the position you work. Cleaners are expected to sweep and mop every section of the store for it to be presentable to customers. Sales associate, give recommendations and help locate items based on the customer's needs and wishes. Sales associate are also compensated by the number of sales they achieve during their shift. Cashiers like myself, are to open and close cash registers, perform duties such as counting money, separating charge slips, coupons, and vouchers, balancing cash drawers, and making deposits. We are also to maintain knowledge of current sales, promotions, exchange and return policies. Lastly, we are to compute sales prices, total purchases and receive and process cash or credit payment. Each and every day coming to work, you are expected to perform those same tasks over and over again until your shift is over, similar to a machine programmed to work and please the need of the store.
Being a worker at sporting life can often feel dehumanizing. Retail jobs are nothing but repetitive cycles and each shift you feel like you are following a script. If you go off the script there's a chance of termination. As a cashier, I feel programmed to say the same thing to each customer throughout the day. “Hey, how are you doing today”, followed by “did you find everything okay today? Would you like to join our customer's reward program? Your total is… thank you, have a nice day.” You may be given an opportunity to feel like a human being by having a regular conversation during perhaps a longer transaction, but that is rarely the case. Customers typically are one of the main reasons as to why we feel alienated due to the fact that they only acknowledge us as workers and not regular human being.
Conversations and interactions done between my co-workers and I are mostly complaints about how we so desperately want the shift to be over. You’ll often notice that everyone has their eyes fixated on the clock and counting down every minute till work is over. This really shows the alienation that we have in our workplace. Together each position that we work for, from cashier to cleaner and sales associate, help the success of the store, but we still lose connectivity with the merchandise that we are constantly surrounded by. We are surrounded by expansive clothing, fabrics, and materials, but none of us really show an interest and can relate to what we are selling. We don’t care about the job itself, we only care about keeping the job so that we can pay for rent and groceries etc.
People work for a wide range of reasons. It’s difficult to keep working in an environment where you feel “isolated and divorced from work, or the sense of self and common humanity” (Little 2014, P. 124). The reason why we still continue to work despite feeling this way is that being a student comes with many expenses such as rent, groceries, and books for school. At sporting life, there's a lot of employees that are working students, which can create role conflict. Most retail jobs have flexible hours with the opportunity to work part-time or full-time hours. University students typically work part-time so that they can have time to play their role of a student which requires them to meet deadlines, and study for midterms and quizzes and attend class. Although working part-time is the most convenient option for working students, it can still create a role conflict. Role conflict is when someone carries one or more role that interferes with one another (2014). Playing the role of a student and a retail worker can be difficult to manage at times. By working part-time every week you are taking 15-20 hours of the week that can be spent on your school work. It can be a challenge balancing the two roles and can have a negative effect on your student life.
Working a retail job can oftentimes be frustrating and repetitive. The interactions made with the customers are product/merchandise related and these interactions are typically made in the process of a transaction. I constantly find myself feeling like a robot alienated from the product of labor during a shift. As a cashier, my routine is, scanning merchandise such as clothes and accessories, bag the products and process payments afterward. Through this process, it is difficult to have the opportunity to relate to the product I am laboring on (2014). It causes me to fail to realize the contribution to business and the merchandise in the store. Rather than carrying for the job itself, I only care that the job exists. In addition, I relate to the product as an alien object that has power over me (2014) because customers and managers put more value on the products than the workers.
Another form of alienation that you can experience working retail is alienation from the process of labor. This form of alienation simply means that “Workers do not control the conditions of their jobs because they do not own the means of production” (Little 2014, P.125). Working retail can feel this way as we are selling products that we have no power over its process. The owners and managers are in full control of which products the store carries and the prices or promotions of the store. This leaves the worker with no control or influence in the workplace.
Although most of my co-workers and I can relate to the fact that we are working students, we frequently feel alienated from one another. As a retail worker, I understand that my job may be at risk every day and this is very dependent on the store's daily income. If the store sales are low, some workers will most likely be terminated. With that being said, we are forced to compete with our co-workers for job security. At Sporting Life other forms of competitions are thrown by managers. Competitions such as which employee can get the most sales or most emails/phone numbers to join the customer reward programs. It builds a rivalry between co-workers and causes us to “compete rather than cooperate” (Little 2014. P. 125).
The biggest outcome that I’ve experience working retail is losing connectivity between what makes me a worker and a human being (2014). The lack of meaningful and real interactions at work can affect your identity. I often feel like I am losing part of myself as I have no control over anything at work. There's a saying in retail jobs and it is that “the customer is always right”. With that being said, many times you have to go against what you feel and have to go pass your beliefs and morals to adhere to the store policies. In addition, you are always being watched so you have to conduct yourself in a specific way to keep your job. Coming you have to set aside your emotions, and put on a smile to satisfy the needs of the company. You can’t be your true self and are to collect your thoughts and feelings when customers treat you unfairly. Instead of being able to take pride in an identity such as being a retail worker you feel like a cog in the machine at the workplace.
Today, many retailers such as Walmart and Canadian superstore carry multiple self-checkout machines that perform the same role as a cashier. This goes to show that working as a cashier in a retail environment can make you feel like a robot and machines can perform the same job as us. The constant repetitive tasks and words that you are to say can create all forms of alienation between the work and the employee. Retail jobs can very well form a problem to one’s identity due to the fact that we can feel isolated from the sense of self at the workplace. Although experiencing alienation in retail jobs can be difficult for working students, role conflict can also add on to the complications of this social world.
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