A day in the life of a Macy's employee

It's simple, really, how a day in the life of a Macy's employee goes. The first thing we do is clock in for our scheduled time. That signifies the beginning of a day/shift for us and, for me, a couple of hours of unfulfilling feeling - a complete waste of time (worth $8 an hour, though).

If, for example, I have an opening shift, that means I have to open the point-of-sale (POS) so we can get the business running. In other words, I open the cash register.

And then, the customers arrive. Since I work in the Men's Department, people come to me for dress (long sleeve) shirts, ties, belts, wallets, pants, cufflinks, sunglasses, etc. I basically help them out, try helping them in mix-matching shirts and ties or I try helping them find the right size of shirt. It can get tedious, but it's better than folding clothes or fixing stock, which we do during our idle time (when there are no customers).

Other times, we try to get our customers to open an express credit account. Opening an account enables one to save 10-15% on initial purchases for the first 2 days and it also allows them (cardholders) to avail of special sale days reserved for cardholders. You see, opening an account isn't really that bad, considering all the benefits you can get (i.e. getting advance sale notices, catalogs in the mail, etc.).

The worst part of the day is having irate customers come to you complaining about certain things. It could be a sale item they found on the wrong rack (so we couldn't give them the appropriate discount) or a customer very impatient about the transaction. The list goes on and on regarding those kinds of customers.

Among the worst I've ever handled was this one old Chinese lady who, to begin with, had this attitude coming to the counter. She brought this shirt and intended it as a gift. I asked her how she would like to pay for it and from there on, she started bitching about how I did things. Now, I understand (based on my inference) that I might have used to wrong words to ring up the sale (I admit that and it was a learning experience for me) but I think this lady went overboard. She started getting rude and since she was pissing me off too, I just handed her the stuff and left the counter. Not even a "thank you" (she didn't, either) was uttered.

Sadly, when it comes to customers, in my experience, the rudest people are Asians (specifically the Chinese and the Koreans). Like that first lady over there, that's a good example. Another one was this really cold woman who had 2 kids with her. She was buying a shirt and tie for her husband and asked for my help. Naturally, I went out and helped her find whatever she needed. When it came time to ring up the sale, she was just absolutely cold. I asked her to sign, she rudely replied that she already had. When the transaction was over, she left without thanking me at all. Goodness.

The other side of having rude customers are stupid customers. Specifically, stupid and rude. I had this one who couldn't understand that what was debited from her account was credited back when she made the returns. Now, it doesn't take major accounting to figure this one out. You bought an item, you get debited. When you return that item, you get credited back the same price. It's simple, isn't it?

For this white woman, though, it wasn't. She started bitching about why she had to pay extra and why her receipts didn't balance out and all that. I tried explaining to her but unfortunately, her intellectual capacity just couldn't absorb it. It was simple. I did the math/accounting at home and it came out that whatever was debited will be credited back to her. Geez. I bet when she gets her credit card statement, she'll just shake her head and realize that she was bitching about nothing.

I've had bizarre experiences, too, and it's funny how some of these events turn out. I was at the register one time and there was this Indian (Bumbay) guy who had wanted to buy some ties for himself. We had a sale going on for Macy's cardholders so this Indian guy was looking around for a willing person to purchase the ties on their Macy's card! His plan was to pay that person in cash so that he could avail of the sale despite not having a card. Later on, he chanced upon this Filipina who paid an account through me. He asked her if he could use he Macy's card to buy the ties and he'll just pay her in cash. I signaled to the lady not to do it because it might be a con act. It might be a rip off and he might run off with the ties or something without paying her.

In the end, the Filipina lady said no (upon my suggestion) and the Indian guy, frustrated and pissed off, left. Later on, I realized that the Indian guy (and his wife) were just tourists so they could not avail of the Macy's card.

When it comes to international customers, the hardest thing in dealing with them is their accent. American and British accent are both fine, but Vietnamese, Dutch, Russian, Norwegian, sometimes Chinese, etc. are hard to understand. It baffles me how to deal with listening to them and trying to understand what they're saying. Fortunately, later on, I got things done as they wanted it.

As far as I'm concerned, the best customers are always Filipinos. That's because I don't have to speak to them in English all the time (not that I have any problem with it but Filipinos better understand each other when they speak in the native language). I honestly think I'm more convincing when I speak in Tagalog than in English, and that's how I got one Filipino to open an express credit account under my name.

When it comes to express credit, I haven't had that much luck in getting to open them. In the past month I've been at Macy's, I've only been able to open 3 or 4 with an average of one per week. That's horrible considering that the others open as much as 3 or 4 a day. I guess I can attribute that to me being part-time, thus, I have shorter hours. Another reason why I've been bad at opening credit is that a lot of people are cynical and they don't want to use a Macy's account. Oftentimes, I just hear from them that they already have one but they wouldn't want to use it. Bah.

At the end of the day, if I'm tasked to close, I have to close the terminal (POS). That's when we start counting the cash and checks that were paid to us. The thing is, we don't count the coins. Just the paper bills and the checks. We stuff them into this sealed plastic envelope and dump them in this money bin at the 3rd floor. Then, we do a little cleaning up and straightening out and lastly, we clock out to leave. That's the end of a day.

Sometimes, the day can be hectic and sometimes, it can be boring, depending upon the flow of customers. Honestly, for me, the best time is when there are a lot of customers because it keeps me from being bored. If there are hardly any customers, I just count the time away, wish it was lunch break (which is an hour) or wish it was time to go home. Sadly, I've been having a lot of these.

In a nutshell, that's a day in the life of a Macy's employee.

* * *

Since I'm in the topic of Macy's, let me share to you my recent thoughts, which is I'm thinking about resigning from my job. Why is that?

For one, I'm not having any fun doing it. Most of the time, I'm bored. Terrible customers make the day a living hell. Through the 1 month I've spent, I realized working in sales/retail is not for me. I'm not really good with customers (although customers have rated me "outstanding" in reviews all the time) and I don't have the patience to deal with a lot of people who don't really appreciate the help you've given them. It's all mostly for show.

Second, I don't like having an irregular schedule. I want to work where there is a fixed schedule so I know what I'm gonna do at a certain time in a certain day. I don't like having weekends at Macy's working because I want to spend my weekend resting or doing things I want other than work.

Third, I don't get paid well enough and there are no benefits. No medical or dental. The rate of $8 an hour isn't good enough to help me at all. I need to be working somewhere where I'm paid at least $10 an hour so I can get by. So far, all my salary (despite the 20% discount) have gone back to Macy's because I've been buying clothes for myself that I need for work.

Finally, I don't feel any form of fulfillment in this kind of job. Before, I used to think that my 20% discount as an employee would be good enough to make me withstand the hours I'd be spending but later on, as I realized, the 20% is not good enough anymore. I don't know if it's because I've gotten almost everything I need/want at Macy's (a lot of dress shirts and ties on sale - some even as low as $10!) but I just don't think I want to stay in this job any longer. Like I had said, I don't feel any bit fulfilled in helping people shop because it doesn't affect them directly (unless they get some form of happiness in shopping and I can see it). Most of the time, customers are ungrateful, anyway. A lot think that the money they're handing over to you is "thank you" enough. WELL, IT'S NOT ENOUGH. Quoting Gil Renard (played by Robert De Niro) in "The Fan", "A simple thank you would have been nice."

If there was a job where I think I'd find more fulfillment, it would be at that school for psychologically and emotionally disturbed children (Fred Finch Youth Center). I was set to get a job there as a teaching assistant but HR intervened and said that I had no employer references here in the US so they wouldn't hire me. But I honestly think I'd have more fun there because it's directly related to what I took up in college (Psychology) and I get to help people directly by affecting their lives in a direct and personal way, much more direct than handing over a shopping bag full of clothes to someone who wouldn't even say "thank you".

With that in mind, I'm considering resigning from my job at Macy's and I'll give this school a shot. I'm going to ask if there's still an opening and if I do resign from Macy's, would they consider (well, they should!) my Macy's employment as employer reference?

Let's see what will happen...