Your Opinion on the Target, WalMart, (Other Bigbox Retailer Here) Thanksgiving Protests

[Inimicus]

I'm really torn.

I don't think the retailers should open but I also think that if you took a job with them you should have known that you'd be working holidays so STFU and go to work.

[Zcustom]

You gotta know your industry, and ALL forms of business are being asked to do more, including things nobody would have considered 10 years ago.

If you're in retail you should know you're going to get screwed around holidays. My buddy has been at Guitar Center since day one in Matthews and even though he doesn't like working every holiday he always says "that's retail".

I do feel a little sorry for them, but if you're working retail you need that job much more than they need you. Tis life...

[Kettle]

when I was 17 and didn't really need to work, I quit Kmart during the holidays. It didn't take long to get sick of that ish.

[Guest]

My son has to be at work at 3AM Friday morning, work till 11 AM, then back at 4PM and work til close (Rack Room Shoes). He's 17 and I hope he realizes that making good grades will free him from retail hell.

[Happy Panther]

While I agree that we simply work to much in the US (I also lived overseas where places closed at 5:00 or even earlier at random) I also think that if you are a sales associate at Wal-Mart you don't have much leg to stand on.

Love or hate Wal-MArt they have provided a segment of jobs that didn't exist before.

[Proudiddy]

thanksgiving day and black friday sales, as well as "big box retailers" in general, encapsulate much of what is wrong with america so i'm ok with the protests

congratulations, you have bought into corporate propaganda. yes, be mad at those willing to actually take a stand while you were "working slave jobs from 18-25 or so and were asked to work holidays away from your family" rather than the people who made you do it in the first place.

"where was the government when i was a child laborer from 8 or so? what makes these kids anymore deserving of a childhood devoid of 60 hour work weeks in textile mills than those who didn't have a national child labor committee just 5 years ago?" said great grandpa proudiddy

No, maybe I didn't make myself clear... I don't buy into anything "corporate" in regards to what they're selling. When I worked jobs like that, I viewed it as though I was going to work for "my business." I was CEO of Proudiddy International, I wasn't working for Target or Walmart, I was working for me. If they got in the way of getting my money with minimal problems, I made it hard on them or quit.

I got caught up in ranting, basically about how it's an issue now to other people because of those stupid online petitions... But, my true issue is how such petitions are asking others to validate their position, when truly, they have bought into the corporate propaganda if they don't realize they hold power over their own employment. Why can't people be responsible for themselves?

All these retailers have been doing the same crap for years, and I agree they are a part of "the problem," but an even bigger problem is people not asserting themselves when it comes to their own situation from the jump. That's why retailers have felt they can work employees like slaves, no questions asked. Now that I've bought into their agenda, go ahead, ask me how many holidays I've worked in my life... LOL.

That's my problem. Another example that comes to mind of people not asserting themselves individually, and then even collectively in those type of workplaces - After I decided I wasn't working anymore of those jobs unless I was hired in as a manager and I was in college, I was walking down the aisle at a Target in Durham. There was two young guys "zoning" or fronting the shelves... They were talking as they were doing it, laughing, etc. But they were working. All of a sudden this manager walks by and is completely in the zone - head straight forward, focused, not looking at anything around him. Then the manager passes the aisle the two young guys were on... He hears them talking and laughing as they're working. It's like it clicked a minute later... He stops, turns around, walks back to their aisle and says, "So it takes two of you to work this one aisle? Split up!" I wanted to choke that manager for them. But, they both put their head down, acted like two children whose mother just scolded them, and split up with not a word said back...

And it's funny you mocked my position with the "great grandpa schtick" as well referring to child labor because my first job was at a Hardee's, at 15, in which my manager worked us mercilessly and held me and several other kids well over the child labor hours on school nights... That was a good time though, lol.

[Proudiddy]

uh i'm pretty sure workers were fighting for things like weekends and holidays off long before internet petitions

Yes, but I'm saying why does it matter NOW because of internet petitions?

Before that, you had to make your decision and live with it - on your own. Or if you were lucky, you could rally up other employees to join you, but good luck getting those already brainwashed in those places to walk out with you.

[Proudiddy]

but isn't that a good thing? why is networking and organizing a bad thing? i don't really see the problem with petitions

also i don't know if i'd call, say, employees who don't walk out or strike or whatever "brainwashed." if you work at walmart you're probably a wage slave already and it's not easy to leverage your labor against the waltons when you depend on your paycheck to survive

Well, as I said, I have mixed emotions about it. The bitter part seems much more obvious though because of angst against the system and as I've said, in my own experience, I would've just walked out if I had a problem with it.

It's for a good cause. They shouldn't be working on holidays and they shouldn't be forced out of those jobs if they need it.

Because you're right, a lot of them aren't "brainwashed" per se, it's quite likely that they do actually need the job. But, I also get angry in that instance for people allowing companies like that to gain that leverage over them. My bigger problem is with our system as a whole, and retailers are right at the center of it. But, I'm also irritated that the employees have allowed themselves into such positions of need that their individual rights aren't respected.

[Ja Rhule]

I worked in retail for almost 8 years. I worked almost every weekend and every holiday. I missed pretty much every football game. I knew I can be easily replaced so I worked my ass off and never complained. On every interview before manager offers you a position, he always asks if you ok working on holiday and weekends. 99% say yes... And now they complaining... So I'm an accountant, should I bitch and moan about working 80 hours a week during budgets while I'm on salary? No... Absolutely not. That was communicated to me on a day of my hiring and I accepted the position. You rip what you saw. You accepted the job, now suck it up and work.

[Guest Super_Freak]

This is why i'm self employed : )

Well, that and the background checks.. BUT STILL!

[thefuzz]

Thanksgiving is just another day. You don't have to spend time with your family on that particular day....it can be done anytime.

When you sat down in that little cafeteria at Target and filled out that application to get a red shirt, you knew you were going to work on Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter, etc.

[Squirrel]

I work in the airlines industry I knew when I took this job I would work major holidays.

[Kramerica]

I had to work Thanksgiving Day until 2pm and all day Christmas Eve as a Produce clerk at Lowes Foods for several years. I also worked every Sunday 1pm-7pm so I missed all the football games except Sunday/Monday night (never Panthers, of course).

Now that I have a desk job for a big company I get those days off, but I have more responsibility than just shining apples.

I know it sucks, but you should know what you're getting into with retail jobs.

[Scrumtrilescent]

Thank you biotech and research....for delivering me from this crap.