Holler at my minimum wage folks.

For some of my coworkers who'd been in retail for a long time, there were a few factors. Several of them had kids, and needed flexible scheduling so there was at least one parent in the house at any given time.

A lot of my coworkers either had a second job or school as well, so again they needed the flexible schedule.

One coworker was in remission after chemo; I think she probably was eligible for her social security benefits but I also doubt they fully covered the cost.

Another one had a variety of health problems as the result of a stroke and very much got stuck in the job because it was the only place that was accommodating him.

A couple of my coworkers were immigrants who had more advanced skills, but their degrees or certifications aren't recognized in the US. Because they had kids, updating their own certifications was less of a priority than getting their kids through college.

IME it's also very easy to get pigeonholed into customer service roles. If you have retail experience, people are going to shoehorn you into a face position no matter how much you hate it.

And even though I really dislike customer service, and don't want to do it again, I know that a lot of my coworkers actually enjoyed their jobs (which made it much easier to do my job because at least my coworkers weren't miserable).

/r/povertyfinance Thread Parent