Employees at stores in the same area help one another.

The company keeps staffing levels at its stores extremely low, so every day someone has to go support another branch in the same area. This practically means that 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 eat while watching the security monitors and helping retrieve clothes requested by customers, so it is basically impossible to take a proper break.

Later, when I took bereavement leave because a family member had passed away, the store manager asked me to photograph the obituary. I happened to have an electronic copy, so I sent it directly. However, the manager insisted that I take a photo of the physical obituary and send it to them. 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 application. After I brought it in, the district manager immediately said that because I had not yet completed my assessment, I was not eligible for bereavement assistance, so I did not need to submit it and should take it home. It was not about the money, but traveling between counties during the funeral period was already exhausting, and I still had to deal with this. At the time, there were also other family-related factors, so I resigned after working there for nearly two months. The district manager kept trying to emotionally manipulate 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 began making sarcastic remarks.