Realities of Retail

“I worked at a retail boutique during college and eventually moved up to a management position. The company had illegal pay policies, and the district director they hired was ineffective at staffing properly. There were times when I had to work from open to close all by myself due to the understaffing issue. On one occasion, I locked up the store in the middle of the day to take a break. I was warned that if I did it again, I’d be fired. I responded by telling them that they needed to stop understaffing the store if they wanted to prevent such situations.”

“However, they continued to understaff, and I found myself in a similar situation again. I locked up once more, and this time a customer called corporate. As a result, I was fired. But the last laugh was on them because I threatened to sue them for violating employment laws, and I followed through with a class-action lawsuit. This lawsuit resulted in a multi-million dollar settlement, which helped over 1,000 employees across multiple states recover lost wages. I also received unemployment benefits.”