Employees at stores in the same district 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 district. This practically means that every store employee has to be familiar with all the stores and counters in the district. 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 essentially impossible to get a proper break.

Later, when I took bereavement leave because a family member passed away, the store manager asked me to photograph the obituary. I happened to have an electronic image, so I sent it directly. However, the manager insisted that I obtain a physical copy of the obituary and photograph it for 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 told me that because I had not yet been evaluated, I was not eligible for a bereavement allowance, so I did not need to submit it and should take it home. It was never 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 employees in stores in the same district had also resigned that month and that my resignation would leave two stores understaffed. When that manipulation did not work, the manager started making sarcastic remarks.