New Job: Full Circle
Severance has ended, so that bi-weekly paycheck is gone. I need some money.
I worked in retail for years, from sales associate to multi-store manager. I loved it, but it took this displacement to appreciate it. In March, I walked into Dollar Tree for the first time.
Seven months after losing the corporate job on my marketing and communications career path, I am proud to share that I am a cashier at Dollar Tree.
Take a break from sending out resumes: get out of the house, off the computer, talk to people in real life, and do what you can to get at least a little bit to bank on. The brain break will keep you fresh when you go back to sending out resumes.
Retail isn’t for everybody. It requires a really good sense of humor. Also: butt muscles.
My First Day
I was surprisingly very anxious. I didn’t sleep well the night before my first shift. I had dreams all night about things going wrong, people getting mad at me or not liking me. In one dream, I showed up to the shift disfigured and covered in hair like I was Bigfoot. Getting dressed that morning, I was paranoid that I would have to poop.
The cashier training me had worked there nearly 10 years after retiring. I wasn’t the only one who was there to make a little extra cash or because they were in-between jobs. The store manager has always been her manager. He started as a cashier when he was 16 years old and rose through the ranks. Dollar Tree is the only company he’s ever worked for. He’s been there more than 25 years. She only had good things to say about the environment.
Honestly, I didn’t expect it to be so busy! It was a morning shift and we almost always had someone who was ready to check out. In between customers, the cashier re-stocks the shelves in the front of the store so we were constantly moving. By 9:00 a.m., I couldn’t believe it had only been one hour! I was using parts of my brain and body that I don’t think I’ve used in years.
The shift ended at 1:00 p.m. My legs hurt so bad! I looked at my FitBit and I got almost 4,000 steps in those 5 hours. Usually, I only get 2,500 steps in one day.
It was the best kind of exhausted. I’ve spent all day on a computer for about 15 years. Even though I have a standing desk and I stand most of the day, I’m not used to moving around. I’ve worked from home for 10 years. It’s been almost a decade talking to people in real life and not on a computer or telephone.
I loved it! It was so much better than being on the computer.
My First Week
After I learned the register, I learned how to process stock and refill the shelves. The first day, I was in snacks and candy. They gave me a cart to unload with about 20 boxes of different sizes and weights. I was lifting boxes, moving around. I had to squat and stretch. When I woke up the next morning, every muscle in my body hurt. But it was more fun than joining a gym! And I got paid for all that exercise.
I worked with a different manager that first stocking shift. She was surprised that I cleared off the cart and processed all those boxes, and that I rearranged the stock and the displays to make sure everything fit and was organized by product type. At the end of my shift, she said, “Have you done this before?” I said, “Yeah. I was a store manager at a couple different clothing retailers for about 10 years before I went into marketing. But I don’t want that to make things weird with people, so please don’t share that.” She understood. She said, “I started out as a nurse but moved to accounting.” I don’t remember what she said about how she started at Dollar Tree, but we talked for a bit about how so many people are affected by corporate layoffs and the job market is so tough. Retail jobs can’t be replaced by AI.
That week, I had seizures. It was around the same time that I would expect the seizures to happen, so that wasn’t unusual – but I had more than normal. I attribute that to the new work environment and having so much physical activity. I’m using muscles that I haven’t used in decades, and closing shifts keep me up past my bedtime. It’s nice to be awake past 8:00 p.m. though; I don’t feel so old. I wonder how long it will take me to get used to those changes.
However: I never had a seizure while on the clock at Dollar Tree. That’s not the same as when I worked on the computer. Most of my seizures would happen during the workday. These seizures happened overnight while I was sleeping or within 30 minutes of waking up. That indicates the seizures when I was in a cubicle were because of the computer and definitely the stress. Working at Dollar Tree isn’t stressful; it’s fun.
I told the managers and my co-workers about the epilepsy and that I was in a seizure cluster. That drove a lot of anxiety for me. Not only because I would physically be in front of customers when I would be ringing them up, but because I was afraid it would cost me my job. At Wells Fargo, it made people feel uncomfortable. Like I couldn’t do my job. At Dollar Tree, there wasn’t any fear. No judging. No questioning. Just care and support. The manager on duty even asked if I was able to take my medicine when it was time for my 2:00 p.m. dose. One day, they let me go home early when I said that I wasn’t 100%. In retail, you work healthy or not. But here: they were more concerned about me and my health.
What I’ve learned
My next role needs to be active, talking to people in person, knowing that I’m helping them. Not at a desk, behind a computer all day.
Relationships at work are even more important to me than I realized. There are so many regular customers. They know each other and they know everyone on staff. Some recognize that I’m new. And as I ring them up, they ask questions to get to know me and tell me about themselves. I always find commonalities with strangers, and so far it’s been about church and volunteering. My co-workers are already starting to tease me about the topics of conversation that I have with customers as I ring them up.
What this job will teach me:
I’ve recognized that some of the same challenges that I have professionally, in a cubicle, are also coming up in my role at Dollar Tree. Stuff that I already knew about myself. But this time, I have a new way to un-learn those behaviors. Not just a “professional development course” online and requesting ongoing co-worker feedback through an online form that they fill out on Workday.
How this development opportunity is presenting itself at Dollar Tree: I’m not a manager.
I can’t do manager functions like voiding a transaction. I have to get a manager to do it. Often, there’s only one associate and a manager – and sometimes, we both have lines at our registers. It seems like whenever I need a manager to do something like a void or a return, we both have lines.
I shouldn’t be telling the other cashiers or the managers on duty that they shouldn’t talk about the business, customers, or other employees in front of customers. That’s not my place.
I shouldn’t be telling the manager on duty what I should be doing in between customers because I see a bigger need to be doing something else. That’s not my place.
I need to operate the way the store operates. I shouldn’t be suggesting new ways to do things since I haven’t worked there very long. And it’s not my place. I’m a cashier.
I don’t have performance objectives. But as a former store manager, I know that there are store metrics like conversion rate, average time to completion, unit count per transaction, accuracy, stock processed. My accuracy sucks because I’m moving too fast when I check out a customer, so I have too many item voids from accidentally scanning an item twice. I’m supposed to call a manager to do an item void but I’m used to being able to do that myself. And my drawer is always a few cents off. But one of those “professional development opportunities” is to stop putting so much pressure on myself and to be sure that I’m not taking on a workload that’s too large. And to raise my hand when there’s something that I can’t do, or something that I don’t feel like I can handle.
How this will help me in my next role
Well, you know what? My next role may not be in marketing and communications. My son is an adult; I don’t need predictable hours anymore. I’ve already been a store manager and an area manager. Next step would be district manager. So I put that resume together and it only took a couple hours. A marketing resume took months. And when I share that retail resume, I still get the same reaction: “You’re kidding.” No, I’m not. “You’re even over-qualified for a retail job.”
Ok, so how do I demonstrate that I’m not over-qualified for any role in either of those industries?
Well, being a cashier again helps. I haven’t been a sales associate since I was 17 years old. To be able to tell someone in an interview that I’m having a fantastic time as a cashier and I plan to keep that job because I’m having so much fun is definitely a differentiator. I’m enjoying entry-level. It demonstrates that I just want to have fun, with good people, doing work that makes a difference. It isn’t about job title.
And working at a store like Dollar Tree is definitely “making a difference” and providing support to the community. Most of the customers are there because they can’t afford anything else. Or they need help shopping because they have physical limitations and can’t get the same level of service in a big-box store.
You may be asking, “How does this apply to the jobs in my industry? How does this help me?”
You tell an interviewer that you’re having a great time as a cashier at Dollar Tree and they say, “What do you love?”
You laugh, smile, and say, “Well, a customer tried to pay with Canadian coins that were caked in dirt. When I was trying to determine if it was American currency, she reached over the counter and grabbed them out of my hand and threw some U.S. quarters at my face, said I can’t count and to keep the change. Every other customer in line thought that was hysterical, and one guy even pointed out that she just assaulted me. You don’t get that in a cubicle.”
What does that demonstrate? Let’s call it “maintaining calm in difficult interpersonal situations” and “demonstrating attention to detail.”
And you’ll be memorable. You’re proud to work at Dollar Tree.
