I’ve worked in a jewelry shop for half a year, and I’ve never imagined it could be unsafe! I like my workplace. It’s close to home, and it pays my rent. Most of our customers are women or couples, and my only focus all this time was to meet our sales goals for the month. I work with three other girls in shifts, all of them very young, 20 to 25. I’m 23, but I can easily be given 18, as I’m short and skinny. We were trained before about what to say, how to act and smile…
Yesterday it was my shift with one of the girls when this man came in. My colleague had another customer, so I went up to give my usual casual offer of help. It was obvious that the man was drunk, but he was well dressed and his first several questions were about our products. He was looking for a necklace, and he was pointing at the most expensive ones. I’m always a bit nervous when I show expensive pieces, we were taught how to show them so that it’s hard for customers to steal… So I do as I’ve been taught, and all the while the drunk man mumbles about needing to find a good enough gift for his wife, who has apparently found out about his lover. I was told never to react in any way to personal client’s information, and that’s what I did. Maybe I was too preoccupied with the products, maybe it showed on my face, I don’t know, but the man suddenly says, “What, you think that bitch did it on purpose? Yeah, yeah, she’s about your age…” I assume he was talking about his lover, and though it’s very unpleasant to be called names, I don’t react and keep looking at my colleague who is free by now to come and help me. But she just stands in the corner with a blank face. The man suddenly demands that I wear the necklace he has chosen because “he can’t choose between the two” and he “dreams to see it on my neck”. I was pretty freaked out at that moment, but I still tried to do my job and answered that it would be better if he invited his lady to our shop to see it on her. The man turned to my colleague and shouted if she thought it would be appropriate for me to try those on, and, to my horror, she nodded and came up to help me with the necklaces!!! All the while, I had to listen about how young and delicious we both were and that he’d ask us out if we gave him our phone numbers… The freaking man did buy one necklace in the end, it took another 10 minutes before he left, and I had to endure his jokes about my little glowing face while I had to pack his gift, and my colleague just left for other customers… I was so red in the face that I had to leave my workplace for 15 minutes to get my thoughts together. I wanted to scream at the girl I’m working with, but I can’t do it in front of customers and cameras!!! I told her all I thought about her behavior when I had a chance, but she only said it was my job to sell products and that the man came up to me in the first place because I was flirting with him – but that’s untrue! When I told this to my parents they both said leave the shop! I have my shift tomorrow again with another girl, and I don’t know what to do???
