After almost six years and what feels like a lifetime working in retail, the time has finally come to say goodbye to that life and make a change - and that change starts with my final day ever in Clarks.
I started with Clarks when I was just seventeen and thought it was the perfect opportunity to have some extra money from working weekends whilst still at school. It was my first real job that I had to do more than just sit on a till. I was definitely terrified working there as I was still a very young and insecure person six years ago.
When I moved to Edinburgh to go to University I got to transfer stores, and transfer again to visit family for the summer and finally transfer one more time to the store I've worked in for the last four years.
It's crazy to think that I have worked in one store with so many people for as long as I have. When I look back to when I started I can honestly say there aren't many still left from that time as a lot of people have already moved on. Just a few Clarkies die hards to speak of and that makes me sad but happy at the same time.
It's amazing how working with people in the way that I do, you make so many friends and become one little family. We once compared each other to a family saying who was the mother of us all, the fun aunt and that creepy uncle that you always have to think twice about going near in case you get groped. I've made the best of friends at this job and I will carry on being the best of friends with so many people, but it's time for me to move on and use the degree that I worked so hard to achieve.
There's a couple of things that I would like to say before I move on though, to all those customers that I got to deal with over the years.
If you're standing in a line complaining about the fact that we aren't going fast enough on the till, you complaining about it doesn't make it move any faster. We can't magically make the card readers work faster or get the spare staff out we seemingly keep in the back and refuse to use. If it's that busy, you can bet everyone's already out on the floor working their arse off to have gotten you those shoes you now want to put through the till.
On the flip side of that, don't stand at the till with a bemused face asking to try your card on every till that we have because your cards been declined. It's not the till - it's your card and you're holding up the queue.
Please don't stand on the shop floor and tell me how to do my job. I understand that you want a specific shoe in a specific size - don't then turn around and treat me like I'm an idiot for bringing out something different because I don't have the one you wanted. (It practically always looks identical anyway.)
Or don't tell me I look like I'm just standing playing the piano and someone could steal something without me even noticing, when what I'm actually doing is changing around the displays for the new styles to be put out.
Don't act like you're the King on the shop floor shouting for some assistance because if you click your fingers (or on a couple of occasions hit me) I will ignore you. I am not a dog.
Don't ask me to measure your child whilst they are asleep in a buggy and then come back complaining the shoes you bought don't fit them. Measuring in a buggy doesn't work.
If I'm standing on the shop floor looking like I'm doing nothing, chances are I am actually doing something. You can't complain about the waiting time for a measurement when there's already six people working hard and I'm by myself on another department so your wait time is minimalised. I can't just leave a whole department unattended so stop asking me to.
Don't come back with your shoes a year and a half later asking for a refund because the zip on your boot has broken. How is that my fault? They are shoes, not magical items that will last for your entire life time.
I've grown so much as a person in the last six years and a lot of that is down to this job. When I first started I didn't want to stand at the front of the shop and greet customers because I was too shy and didn't like talking to strangers. I've had the chance to develop myself in so many ways to a point where I got to even be in charge of my own team and department for a little while. I'll forever be thankful for the chance to work under the pressures I have done, because it's taught me that I'm stronger than I think.
Every day at Clarks has taught me something new about myself but now it's time to move on with my life and explore new, exciting opportunities and learn even more about what I am capable of.
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