Hell for the Holidays: How Working Retail Impacts Mental Health

Retail is a rough occupation. The hours are irregular; the shifts are long. It’s an entry-level job, but you aren’t likely to move up any corporate ladders. The work is physically taxing—you can spend eight hours or more on your feet, and if you’re working stock it requires some heavy lifting. Customers can be difficult and sometimes verbally abusive, often berating, cursing at, or even threatening violence toward retail employees. The wages are low, so retail workers are usually stressed about finances, can’t afford to take sick days, and don’t have access to mental health services.

73% of retail workers say their stress levels rise during the holiday season, and it’s easy to understand why. The holiday season makes all the usual retail stressors significantly worse. The holiday rush starts before Black Friday and lasts till after Christmas. Your store is both swamped and short-staffed, so you have fewer people to do more work. The merchandise is a mess. You’re all out of popular products. The same ten terrible covers of Christmas songs are playing overhead on loop, and the checkout line runs from the register to the bathrooms at the back of the store. Customers are very likely to tell you that you, personally, working as a minimum-wage cashier, ruined their child’s Christmas. 

“I hate the holidays,” my coworkers tell me during the brief lull between customers, and I can’t disagree.

Between holiday crowds and regular retail stress, it isn’t surprising to learn that working retail negatively impacts mental health. According to a recent survey by Retail Trust, 67% of retail staff have experienced increased anxiety over the last year. 44% are stressed out by the ever-cost of living; 33% report deteriorating mental health due to customer abuse. 

Retail workers are also at increased risk of fatigue, physical or verbal violence, and stress. And work-related stress only makes your health worse—it’s linked to heightened anxiety, suicidal thoughts, depression, substance abuse, and even physical health issues like heart problems. 

Speaking as someone who has worked retail for years, I understand these statistics all too well. Working a customer service or retail job can feel almost dehumanizing. You deal with customers who ignore your existence entirely, which is better than customers who scream threats and curse words at you and demand to speak with corporate. You and your manager are the only 2 employees in the building; the customers outnumber you 50 to 1, with worse odds during the holidays. Any tasks you complete today, you’ll probably have to complete again tomorrow. And the stability of your job is shaky at best—corporate, it seems, is constantly cutting hours, and your store is always failing to meet market goals. Your manager fixes a smile on her face and tells you that you need to sign more people up for the loyalty program. 

The work can be overwhelming, and retail as an industry doesn’t seem to be changing any time soon. So what can we do, as either customers or retail workers ourselves, to improve the mental state of employees during a hard holiday season?

If you work in retail or customer service, here are a few small tips for improving your mental health and surviving the holidays:

Take breaks. 

Your employer is legally required to give you breaks during the workday. Use them! If you’re regularly skipping lunch breaks to do more work, your bosses are probably taking advantage of you—I’ve been there, and you shouldn’t let them. Besides, grabbing some food and getting off your feet for a little while can go a long way in helping you feel better.

Use your days off to recoup. 

Don’t be available 24/7. Try not to check your workplace’s group chat when you’re not on-call. Let’s be honest: they don’t pay you enough to take work home with you. On your days off work, take the time to relax instead. Spend time with family and friends. Play a cozy video game you enjoy. Watch your favorite comfort show or movie. I know it can be hard—the holidays tend to be busy even outside of work—but taking time for yourself is important.

Remember to take care of your body. 

Speaking from experience, retail is a thousand times harder when you feel like you’re about to keel over. Eat something! If you don’t have the energy to make a full meal, that’s okay—even something simple like a cheese sandwich or a spoonful of peanut butter can give your body the energy it needs to function. Take a nap if you need to! Try to drink water throughout the day—staying hydrated is important, especially if you’ve been on your feet or lifting stock for hours. 

Don’t take harsh words to heart.

I’ve been cursed out by my fair share of retail customers. I know it can be scary, upsetting or infuriating, but it’s also important to remember that you didn’t do anything wrong. You didn’t ruin that child’s Christmas, I promise. You’re just doing your job the best that you can, and it isn’t okay for customers to take their frustrations with the holiday season out on you.

Vent when you need to. 

Sometimes, when customers are terrible, you just need to vent! Ranting to a friend or coworker about a particularly obnoxious customer always cheers me up a little. If the person lending you an ear has worked fast food or retail, they definitely understand your frustration, and having someone on your side who is equally incredulous about a customer’s bad behavior can be so validating. In my experience, terrible customers can also help you bond with coworkers—nothing cements a workplace friendship faster than making fun of a Karen together.

Look for the little things. 

What was one thing that made you happy today? It can be something small, like a regular customer complimenting your haircut or a chatty little kid who made you laugh. 

One of my coworkers doodled a dog on a sticky note and left it behind the register. The drawing was absolutely ridiculous. The dog was labeled “Tim.” Tim made me smile every time I saw him and might have been the highlight of my entire week.

But also remember that you don’t have to be happy all the time. 

“We’ve gotta keep it positive,” one of my managers likes to tell us. She’s usually smiling. She also usually looks like she wants to cry. 

The posters in the breakroom tell us GOOD VIBES ONLY, but toxic positivity doesn’t help anyone. Keeping up a peppy customer service mask can be exhausting. You’re allowed to feel upset or tired or frustrated, even during the holidays—especially during the holidays. Try to remember that your feelings are completely valid, even the “negative” ones. You don’t have to push them down or hide them.

And whenever we’re customers—and we’re all customers at some point during the holiday season—we should remember to be understanding toward retail workers. Be patient. Be kind. Yes, the cashier knows the line is long—if they could call for help, they probably would have already. No, retail workers probably aren’t hiding stock from you in the back. No, your cashier can’t actually do anything to change store policies, and neither can the shift manager—they probably don’t like the corporate rules any more than you do.

Retail as an industry can have a terrible impact on employees’ mental health, and the holidays tend to be especially hard on retail workers. So if you can, offer your cashier a smile and tell the associate who helped you, “Thanks!” It’s a small kindness, but one that could brighten a retail worker’s rough day.