Christmas Greetings

It's that time of year again, where frenzied buying and sales become the normal course of affairs in the run up to Christmas. Many people have started early, but in case you are yet to do your Christmas shopping, please bear this in mind: retail workers are people, too.

Everyone, from the person stocking and arranging displays to the till worker selling you your items and the barista serving you your drink after a long day; they are all worthy of your respect. They, like you, are working a job they don't necessarily like in order to pay the bills.

If you've had a long day of frantically buying gifts for everyone in your life, and you feel a bit weary and snappish, please remember that a single day for any of these positions typically lasts eight hours. Eight hours of not being allowed to sit down or rest. Eight hours dealing with the tired and stressed shoppers. Eight hours of the same repetitive phrases and motions. And then they have to do it all over again the following day. For about two months. Then they have to gear up for a month of post-Christmas cleanup and sales.

They are probably only just getting minimum wage, or a little over, to deal with all of this, too. You're likely ringing up more money with one transaction than they will get per day of dealing with this nightmare. They often can't guarantee which days (if any) they'll have free in the run up to Christmas. They might only have a couple of days off over the entire Christmas period. They may not be able to visit family however much they want to.

Trust me, no one hates Christmas more than people working in the retail sector. So before you complain about queues or some tiny imperfection that you wish to rant and rave about in the hopes of some small extra management may be able to give you for the inconvenience, consider just not doing it. It saves you time and effort, it saves people from literally lying to your face in order to placate you, and it just makes things generally more pleasant for workers, other shoppers and ultimately, yourself.

Next time you're out, try saying please and thank you, even when you feel really tired/stressed/hungry/whatever. The gratitude you will get for basic human decency might just be the pick me up you need.