When you work at a job you don’t really like, for a company that treats you badly, it can be hard to see the silver lining.

The retail worker in this story wanted to take a moment to say thank you to all the great customers he helps each day, and who make his job tolerable.

It is a heartwarming post that we could all do with more of.

Thank you, customers. Thank you.

My company is part of a duopoly that holds over 75% of the total national supermarkets. Hundreds of individual stores, hundreds of thousands of employees.

You can guess the turnover rate and how insignificant each employee is.

This is a horrible way to treat employees.

We’re told to be available 24/7, to just accept that you will be called at 6am and asked to come in. If you don’t, you’ll find your roster hours have mysteriously decreased.

We’re told that no family plans can ever be made for Easter, and Christmas. March/April, and December/January – nobody can take any leave that isn’t for something extremely serious like a death or major illness/injury.

Wow, this is just wrong.

Even if your mother dies, you only get three days off for bereavement. Most funerals take more than 3 days to plan for a sudden death.

If you have planned a vacation months ahead in time, and it is in December or March/April, you will be forced to cancel it, or face being forced to resign.

Why would anyone keep this type of job?

I cancelled my trip to USA, another employee resigned. I was told to pull myself together when I broke down in tears after being told a day before buying tickets, that it was USA or my job.

If you mention you can do 30 hours, even if you have done for over a year, you’ll only get 10.

Who can live a life like this?

If you ask for more hours, nothing will change. If you beg for more hours, nothing will change. That trip you planned for Christmas? You cancelled it, just to work 15 hours a week.

You get hit by a mystery illness that causes high thirst/urination, they immediately get angry and demand a medical explanation.

Now, two months after you started seeing doctors, you’re still getting tests to try and figure out what’s wrong – you won’t find out what’s wrong for another month.

Come on, this is getting outrageous.

Work is still mad that you need the bathroom twice in a shift.

You’re on your feet for 8 hours a day, hearing the same music, the self-checkout machines demanding the loyalty card, the beeping of the scanners, the PA calls across the store.

On top of the terrible policies, the job is awful too!

It’s monotonous, brutal, unfair, and dehumanizing work at best. If any employee makes it past 3 months, they develop a thousand yard stare.

But then a customer comes up to you, smiles at you, asks how you are. You say your most repeated and least truthful line, “Not too bad, thank you.” and go back to staring at the far wall.

At least they get a nice customer from time to time.

Then they say, “Hey. I understand. You’re doing a good job.”

Or they ask, “Hey, how did your doctor appointment go?” because they remember you mentioning you’re sick.

Good customers can be so rewarding.

Or their child comes around, squeezes between you and the scanner, asking to scan an item. A little girl looking at you and their candy on the conveyor, you sense what they want. You grab the candy, scan it, and give it to them.

They light up with joy and thank you. The mother smiles at the fact that you understood what she wanted.

This type of thing can be heartwarming.

A customer bumps into an old friend, and they excitedly talk about their lives, how old their child is now, the new job your customer has taken up, or the new home the other has just moved into.

An elderly lady that breaks the monotony by asking you to not make the bags too heavy for her. She asks if you can help her to the car, you oblige, and she gives you a candy and says thank you.

Building relationships is important.

A disabled lady with severe back pain also needs help to the car. Anything to get away from the scanner, you help her out, load her car, and safely see her off. She now recognizes you and says hi each time.

The customer who hugs you in thanks when you call a code blue after she faints to the floor. The golden retriever/Labrador you kept company and gave water to after work.

This worker is saying thank you to all his favorite customers.

All of you have helped more than I can ever tell you. You’re all the little rays of sunshine in an otherwise ceaseless thunderstorm. I seriously can’t thank you enough for the tiny amount of love you’ve given to me.

A stranger’s love, even as fleeting as a brief smile, is one of the most powerful things I’ve encountered.

These customers really turn things around for him.

It has the power to turn a bad week of bad company policies into a good one. You’re the reason why I hang on in this bad job.

From the bottom of my heart, thank you. So much.

It is really sweet of this person to make this post as a way to thank all the people who have been kind to him over the years.

Read on to see what people in the comments think.

I agree with this commenter.

Here is someone who questions if the company is acting legally.

Yup, they need to find a new job.

This commenter seems to work at the same place.

Here is someone who says the customers can be the best.

This is nice, but he needs a better job.

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.