Employees at stores in the same area help one another.

The company keeps the number of store employees very low, so every day someone has to go support another branch in the same area. It is almost as if every store employee has to be familiar with all the stores and counters in the area. Also, many things that could be resolved quickly are made unnecessarily complicated. In addition, during employees’ meal breaks, they have to keep an eye on the monitors while eating and help retrieve clothes requested by customers, so they cannot actually take a proper break.

Later, when I took bereavement leave because a family member passed away, the store manager asked me to take a photo of the obituary. I happened to have an electronic file, so I sent it directly. However, the manager insisted that I provide a photo taken of the physical obituary. After taking the photo, I was also required to bring the physical obituary to the company—I initially thought it was only needed for the leave request. After I brought it in, the area manager immediately told me that because I had not yet completed my performance assessment, I was not eligible for the bereavement allowance, so I should take it home. It was not about the money, but traveling between cities during the funeral period was already exhausting, and I still had to deal with this. However, because of other family-related factors at the time, I resigned after working there for nearly two months. The area manager continued to emotionally pressure me, saying that two other stores in the same area had also had employees resign that month and that my resignation would leave two stores understaffed. When the emotional manipulation did not work, the manager eventually started making sarcastic remarks.