Working retail is not for the faint of heart. In fact, some days it’s not even for the strong of heart.

Working with customers is only half of it, too – because you also have to work with managers.

OP worked a busy retail store.

This happened a couple of years ago with my last job. I used to work for a pretty popular retail store. I got hired on as a cashier in a town with very little clothing stores.

So this particular store was always packed!

As soon I started working, I realized the management sucked! The supervisors always told you one thing and the managers another.

They never talked to each other, and expected you to do what you were told. I tried listening or explaining whenever what they said contradicted each other, but things always got worse because I was “talking back.”

So I stopped and started always saying “yes ma’am!”

One day, her manager and supervisor told her different things.

One day it was extremely busy. The person who cashiered before me failed to put away their hangers. (The store reused hangers and made it a big deal to put them away.)

The manager who trained me told me between customers I could put away a handful of hangers just so I didn’t get overloaded.

So that was what I was doing when over the walkie I hear; “Register number 2, get back to your register! Don’t put away hangers when there are customers!”

She did what she was told last and let other work pile up.

Fine. I won’t then. We worked for over 3 hours straight without a break in the line. So the hangers piled up.

Under the register was flooded and crammed with hangers. On the counter was a huge pile of hangers. Customers were having trouble putting merchandise on the counter.

When asked, the explanation was simple.

Finally the manager who trained me walks over to me and looks so annoyed with it all. She asks why I wasn’t putting hangers away between customers? “I was told not to. Costumers come first.”

She rolled her eyes as she starts to untangle them. “Yea but this is unacceptable! There’s so much!”

“Today has been busy. And the person before didn’t put away their hangers before they went home. So this is two shifts worth of hangers. I tried putting them away when so and so yelled at me to get back to my register.”

It took them over an hour to finally get the hangers put away with 2 of them working at it. They had me skip my break because of how busy it was.

I’m sure it wasn’t long until it happened again, though.

The next day it was busy again, no surprise. The supervisor came up front while I was putting hangers away. We looked at each other while I hung up a hanger and she went back to her job while I did mine.

She didn’t bother me again about hangers.

The top comment hopes OP stands up for herself in the future.

Because you always take your break.

It’s best to stay out of management squabbles.

This work really isn’t rocket science.

Communication really isn’t as tough as some people make it, either.

This girl has the right idea.

Yes ma’am. But also, take your break.

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.