About 2 years ago I accepted an offer for a job that turned out to be not what I had expected. I spent about 9 months outside of an industry I wanted to get experience in, I lost motivation for working, and probably didn’t present the best professional version of myself. Some of the more heart crushing and upsetting moments from this time resurface when I’m alone and it can still be a bit difficult to relive them. It was these memories that made me decide it was time to write my thoughts down and put them out into the world. I hope that future me will benefit from these posts and not make the same mistake twice, and maybe these experiences will resonate with you too! I ended up writing a lot about this particular workplace so I will be breaking up the main topics into separate posts. When I left my previous job, I thought I had caught a lucky break, but I may not have been prepared for the path it set me on.

I could already see myself walking down a particular road, which may have stopped me from noticing any other pathways.

This might have been the starting point of my less than satisfactory experience. Prior to this job I worked around 25 hours at a supermarket. I was the night shift supervisor and I saw that everything closed on time and that nothing was left over for the morning team. It was chaos, but now that I look back on it, I loved it. What wore me out was the nastiness from customers; it’s a problem all retail workers face. Your mind often forgets the amazing people you meet and focuses in on the one rude person that day. Add to this, the particular supermarket I worked at was in a low-socioeconomic area; we saw a lot of theft and less than savoury customers. I had to get used to that, no matter how vigilant you were in preventing store theft, people were always going to come up with another scheme or way of trying to beat you.

It was a collection of bad experiences and difficult hours that pushed me to hand in my resignation; I was fed up. Despite being away from the pains of my job, I still needed to get paid. On one hand I didn’t have anything lined up in terms of work, but on the other I couldn’t bear to work in that environment another day; what was I to do? Looking back I feel like there were some other options that meant I may not have needed to make that decision straight away. 

• I could have changed locations. I had met some managers from other stores and they had all reached out to me if I ever needed anything. A few people advised me to look into relocating; to which my response was, if I was already fed up with working at a supermarket why would I want to do the same thing at another store? In reality the move might have helped take me away from some of the bad customer experiences I had.
• I could have taken leave. I had stacked up about a month’s worth of leave and I was convinced that I wanted it paid out in a lump sum when I finished. I could already see myself walking down a particular road, which may have stopped me from noticing any other pathways. A month away from cashiers and trollies might have been all I needed. It would have also given me time to look for a job without the financial pressure of being unemployed.
• I could have spoken to my boss. My boss was always very hesitant to commit to anything. Plus, I worked night and weekends, so it was rare that I saw him for more than five minutes. A small chat, telling him I was feeling uncomfortable, might have been beneficial. I may have been relieved of my supervisor duties, moved to an earlier shift, or I could have just requested less shifts for a period of time. Communication could have opened doors that I never thought existed.

Despite all this, I decided what was best for me was to leave the job as soon as possible. I don’t regret the decision I made, it was the best decision I made at the time however I feel it forced me down a difficult pathway. I had to open my mind to more job possibilities than I had before and the need to be employed became a lot greater. Ultimately it may have clouded my decision making. It resulted in me taking a job that I would soon realise was not what I expected nor would it help with my career aspirations.