The Christmas season is usually my favorite time of year. I always loved being around my family and being able to share the holiday with them. But now, all I want is for the season to end, and to end quickly.

Working in retail has forced me to adjust to things quickly, like pushing down my social anxiety and holding back a lot of things I really want to say to people. This job has also taught me that people are disgusting and greedy. But what gets me, is that there’s no reason to actually be like this; you don’t have to make a huge mess in order to get the clothes you need. During a huge sale on Thanksgiving, I watched a woman push an entire display of clothes over just to get to another display.

But why? What do you need that badly that you have to make countless people’s lives ten times harder, just so you can save on clothes? Does it really matter that much? I get it, you want to save money. But do you really need to destroy the department just because you want to save?

I’ve also noticed in my time working at JC Penney that mothers with children under the age of five are the biggest mess makers. Is it because they spend so much time cleaning up after their child that all they want to do is make a mess? Is that really what you’re after?

And why is everyone so rude? The holiday season is supposed to be about being happy and spreading cheer.  When you’re rude to someone who is helping you, it makes them want to help you less; so doesn’t it make sense to treat those people like human beings?

Another thing that baffles me during the holiday season and working retail is how stupid people act. It’s actually funny to me when I’m standing in the boy’s section and someone asks me where it is. Do you not see all the blue signs and lack of girl’s clothes everywhere? I understand wanting to get in and out of the store as quickly, but walking through the whole department to the only person on the floor and asking me where the boy’s section is when that’s where I’m standing? Sometimes that just doesn’t make sense to me.

The holidays shouldn’t be about buying your family tons of things. It should be about making them happy and spending time with them. The holiday doesn’t need to be about throwing a fit because something is ten cents more than what the sign says because trust me its okay. I can fix it without a manager. You don’t need to throw a fit.
I wish that people were a little easier on retail workers during the holidays. Do people really think we want to be at the store until midnight cleaning up messes while we could be sleeping? I wish that people, including the people that I work with that, understood that working this job and going to school isn’t the easiest task.

I was scheduled until eleven-thirty on a Tuesday recently and I had three projects due during that week that were not finished. I was sitting on the couch in my pajamas; legs pulled up to my chest and scared of calling out. I felt sick and burned out and running around for the past week. When I called the store and asked for my manager, I was received with attitude and anger for calling out.

Am I the only one that’s in school that refuses to work that late when I have that much work? Am I the only high school student at my store that refuses to not let my grades take a hit just because people absolutely need to be shopping until eleven on a Tuesday night?

Is it truly really necessary to be shopping that late? Is it really necessary to work people this hard and be this disrespectful to them during the holidays? If everyone just stepped back and acted like real human beings, maybe shopping for the holidays wouldn’t be the horror story it is today.