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This is a magical thread that I wish I had found earlier when I worked retail full time at a large department store. It was the best and worst job of my life. I made friends for life and still laugh about all the stupid poo poo. In many ways I was super lucky though. It was my 2nd year with the company and I'd managed to score a promotion to assistant night fill manager after like 3 months of working. Went from 8 hours a week to 36. I worked under three separate night fill managers in those 18 months. Number one I knew from the start was leaving, he had a job lined up with Telstra and was just keeping it quiet until his university course completed. Number 2 worked his rear end off but just couldn't catch a break. Him and I would be clocking off at 12am(finish) and staying back most nights until 3-4am just to keep poo poo under control. He received a performance improvement plan because the SM felt he needed further training on front end policies and registers apparently. I told him to start applying for other jobs because same day he received his pip they put up applications for his job. He stuck around until the end convinced he could work harder and win back trust. How the company treated him made me sick to my stomach and I refused to apply for the position despite some of the other managers discussing how I might be a better fit. Number 3 came in from another store after receiving 2 weeks training working fill to run it. She had a uni course she was studying full time 3 times a week and I never knew how she had the energy to run night fill. Was a wobbly as hell start and the dock went tits up for months even though we were budgeted about double the staff hours we originally got cut to. Found myself running fill almost every week at least two-three days. Eventually she moved to morning shifts because she couldn't handle the late nights so I ran fill. This confused the gently caress out of me because there's no fill to run in the morning so I couldn't understand why I wasn't getting paid for it. My favourite though is her last day when they put her back on nights. She worked the monday, came in tuesday, handed in her keys and then clocked off. Took all her annual, personal, sick leave and bailed. I spent three months from then running fill in segments. Three weeks as the shift leader, two weeks as fill 2ic so I didn't run it consecutively for four weeks which is when you're entitled to a temporary salary here. Those three months loving sucked and I'd already talked about resigning earlier in the year. I'd been applying for other companies and just pissed at how my team and I had been getting dicked for so long. A lot of my mates still rib me how I told my SM I wanted to resign and somehow I ended up running the show. I don't know how that happened. In the end my SM tells me he's finally putting the job up for applications and he doesn't think I have the experience but maybe next year, then he turns his phone off and goes on a three week holiday. I hand in my resignation the day after so my 2 weeks is done before he comes back. I work full time for a betting company now that sucks but it makes mad stacks so no one rides my rear end on cancelling shifts anymore and it gives me heaps of free time to reapply to my retail job as a casual. I work some fill once every couple months now to remember how lucky I am and how much customers suck. I once made a lady cry because I told her I couldn't just slash the price of a kettle in half because she wanted it for a bday.
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May 10, 2020 08:41
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Eric the Mauve posted:Working in a warehouse without steel toed boots is suicidal, much less with no shoes at all
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May 13, 2020 16:58
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I've been working from home with a separate company for the last couple months so I haven't done any retail shifts in ages due to the slow down and I'm honestly going crazy. The managers, pay and hours all suck but clearing pallets is satisfying work and I'm hoping to have an excuse to finally get out of the house for a few shifts end of the month.
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May 15, 2020 08:45
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This was always my favourite thing about retail. Even when poo poo's not going sideways any store I worked at will still bang out the roster Saturday/Sunday night and will expect you to view it Monday morning and be ready to go.
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May 19, 2020 05:35
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I once accepted a call from another company I'd applied for while I was splitting the load with one of the managers. I pulled it out of my pocket to see who it was and it immediately answers loud as hell naturally. "Hiii it's Steph from Coles Recruitment how are you?" I was so done with the company I ended up just rolling with it and continuing the phone call in front of my manager who was super uncomfortable. I don't think I've ever used a reference from a job I'm currently working though for exactly that sort of reason. Would make me panic. Usually they let you know before they actually send them anything though so it's definitely a poo poo move to do that beforehand. Connections legit help heaps too. I got my current job because I went to high school with one of the employees there even though I bombed the interview they still chucked me on. Honestly I got my retail job from another high school mate as well, again carpet bombing my interview and still getting in. I've at least gotten better at interviews from how many I've done now. ErKeL fucked around with this message at 06:34 on May 21, 2020 |
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May 21, 2020 06:32
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My favourite was closing the night before, finishing up 12am and then rocking on at 10am to cop flak from morning staff joking, "It's not normally this clean hey. Night staff usually just leave their poo poo everywhere." Always gets me absolutely fuming.
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Jun 7, 2020 12:46
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Alkydere posted:I literally had someone (who I care about and respect) call me out about how I suck as a packer despite being a pack Ambassador (trainer). My response was literally "Yup, that's how you get promoted." I signed back up as a casual just for a bit of side hustle money and because I can slot in just about anywhere with the experience I already have. I definitely agree with this. I was never the fastest at moving stock either but I did work hard, got along with my coworkers and even managed to get along with my store manager that I despised. So much so the man messaged me out of the blue back when covid started getting bad and suggested I apply for the retail chain he was currently with. Now I just slot in whenever I've got some free time, throw out a couple ideas to help and work my pallets. The best part is I can happily just work through my section now and not stress when it's going to poo poo and I get on well with my new line manager.
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Jul 8, 2020 12:25
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I did a brief stint picking online orders for this department store end of last year and it wasn't a good time. Inventory stock on hand is always 100% cooked no matter what. It could be a day after stocktake and it's out the window. I ended up just chilling out the back dropping pallets for other pickers that didn't have a fork for poo poo that wasn't on the shop floor.
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Jul 10, 2020 05:01
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If there's empty shelf space I'm opening up another 12 facings so I don't have any overstock. This is the way.
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Jul 10, 2020 16:18
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Being measured on stupid stats and overfilling stock into holes they shouldn't combos together beautifully and really defined my career in retail. I only really ever got measured on how many empty pallets I brought back to the dock when I ran the fill team so I definitely did some serious dodgies that I have no doubt would've pissed off the department's inventory manager all the time. I always got burnt if I listed any excess and I never had the staff to work through a section properly so cutting a million corners was the story of my life.
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Jul 11, 2020 09:48
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Eric the Mauve posted:e: I forget who it was, but about a year ago there was a goon in this thread who posted several times over the course of a few months that his employer (Dollar General or something of that ilk, I think?) wrote him up repeatedly for stupid poo poo, and several of us told him "they are about to fire you" and I think he was kind of in denial about it until one day--who could have guessed?--they fired him. I remember the worst one made me sick to my stomach. Had this lady come in with about $300 worth of baby clothes and nursery products we sold wanting a return. At the time our return policy was 4 weeks from purchase on unwanted items, but it'd been 5 weeks. This lady was bawling her eyes out while she was in store and revealed to my manager she'd had a miscarriage late and lost the baby. He authorised the return and comforted her best he could. Next day he was put on a performance improvement plan with one of the conditions being to, "fully understand store policy". I'd never witnessed a response so heartless. Worse than that was they'd put his job up for applications the same day they even gave him his PiP so it was guaranteed he was going to fail it for them. I got the notification and warned him because I had an alert for management roles at the time but he just kept working his rear end off and believing they would see his work ethic and keep him on.
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Jul 15, 2020 04:00
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Yeah he didn't get along with the store manager before that. Was just the one thing that sealed the deal for him. Everything the store manager got angry at him for was stupid as gently caress anyway though. When I took over fill the store manager's opinion of me dropped just as fast.
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Jul 15, 2020 04:27
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The Lord Bude posted:This. 100x this. You always operate on an assumption of guilt where customers are concerned. Everything was still packaged and able to be resold and she had proof of purchase. It didn't seem that big of a deal, and like a previous poster said if some random customer filmed him denying that refund while she was in tears he would've gotten destroyed anyway.
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Jul 16, 2020 05:47
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The Lord Bude posted:Older employees (excluding management, usually) generally tend to be the worst. The petty dramas; the entitlement (I don’t do task x; I only do task Y; I take an extra 10 minutes on my break or leave 10 mins early when I feel like it). The incessant whining. Until another department stole him off me because he was such a great worker. "Don't worry though you're getting heaps of extra staff starting soon. They're all unpaid interns from this company so they can do heaps of hours" Work just depressed me after that. Was some program from disadvantaged families or something and they brought these kids in to take the paper out of the end of shoes, and cut up cardboard boxes and poo poo. About 20 of them all up and only about 2 of them ended up getting a job at the end of it. Internship for the lowest jobs in retail just insulted me, and that the cut my team extra to accommodate this was infuriating.
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Jul 17, 2020 08:11
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Had a coworker come back positive last night so they opened the store 2 hours later than normal doing a "deep clean". I only do this job for a little extra pocket money now and I'm less enthusiastic about coming in even though they've guaranteed it was just an isolated event and somehow the team member didn't work with anyone else.
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Jul 18, 2020 04:15
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An unnamed coworker of mine tested positive yesterday as well but according to the email they didn't work with anyone so we're all good to keep going. I actually like my current SM but I'm not hugely confident this person has somehow not come into contact with anyone else while working.
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Jul 18, 2020 18:40
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Wankers trying to talk through the shutters, "I just need to pick up a couple things! I'll be quick" always gave me joy. It's like the only time you can tell them to gently caress off.
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Jul 19, 2020 06:25
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dovetaile posted:I still think it's weird as hell our company does the majority of the stocking while customers are there.
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Aug 1, 2020 04:21
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By next week you'll just be stacking empties by hand and lifting pallets into the rack with your overhead press.
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Aug 6, 2020 10:23
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Usually people asking me to check out the back is for stuff I can read on the symbol as having 0 stock on hand and even if we did have stock there's no way I'd be able to find it out the back unless it's listed to one of the 100+ pallets we have. But people still insist I check out there. Right now store's closed to all customers due to covid lockdown's in Vic so online shopping online and I couldn't be happier. There's no way I'll get a shift over the next 6 weeks but I've been long saying customers shouldn't be allowed in the store. They just gently caress it all up. They can order it online if they need it.
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Aug 10, 2020 07:33
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mllaneza posted:My previous employer offered one "Personal" day a year. Offered as in it was in the employee handbook, but they weren't supposed to actually tell you about it. Current employer also has one "Personal" day, but that's on the tall of accumulated time off right next to regular PTO and 24 hours of protected sick leave. I should clarify it's not a retail job though. My retail work allowed me a total 1 day off in 2 years when I begged. Ended up getting paid out for all my annual leave because, "it's too busy to replace you". It's always loving busy. ErKeL fucked around with this message at 00:09 on Aug 18, 2020 |
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Aug 18, 2020 00:05
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Just go for one pro rata 3 days or something then sign up to the other job too.
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Aug 18, 2020 07:32
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One of the customer survey metrics our store gets crucified on is team availability, so no matter which store you work at they harp on all the time about smiling and saying hello to customers. This is going to blow some minds but I think it's because there's no staff rostered. Someone had the genius idea of having night fill work during the day instead so there were more team members on the floor without having to increase budget and it just raises a whole heap of different issues.
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Aug 22, 2020 08:46
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My favourite child story is having this 5 year old have this nuclear meltdown in the self-checkout line with Mum. I'm chilling at the front just greeting customers because I've been transferred to a new store and no one told them I used to be a night fill manager so I'm basically just loving around. I keep looking over and thinking surely this kid will run out of steam eventually but he's full rolling around on the ground and flailing about like he's having a seizure. I swear I didn't hear him pause for breath even once in the 20 minutes he was screaming. Mum's just sitting in a corner crying while one of the cashier's consuls her. Never seen a more broken woman. Actually speaking of poorly understanding people. One of my first shifts at this store last year I had this man and lady come up to me and start miming what they were looking for. I'm not too bright at the best of times so I was just stunned for 2 minutes as these two people do this weird dance where it looks like they're performing a silent rendition of, "heads, shoulders, knees & toes" until I finally realise what the gently caress they were doing. Pointed them to the dressing rooms and felt proud as for my superstar customer service. ErKeL fucked around with this message at 11:05 on Aug 31, 2020 |
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Aug 31, 2020 11:01
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NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:
Normally we'd get like 10 pallets a day and then this 52 pallet fuckin' megaload of absolute trash that doesn't fit shows up.
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Sep 9, 2020 01:40
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I quit my retail gig a couple years ago after going through hell and wondering why the gently caress I was putting this much effort in, skipping breaks, clocking off and working on. Actually signed back up for a different store last year as a casual and it's so cruisy now not giving a poo poo since it's not my main job. The whole thing feels completely different and way more chill. Honestly though I think 99% of these stories depend entirely on how much of a piece of poo poo your managers are. Any decent managers seem to realise what a poo poo show it is and bail off for greener pastures while the dicks are trapped into retail hell and become bitter about where they're at in life.
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Sep 10, 2020 00:13
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That's me always and I'm sorry. I always agree to save the boxes when a coworker's moving but automation takes over and they're gone before I remember.
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Sep 13, 2020 07:56
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My favourite is Australia with major retailers selling milk stupidly cheap in a price war, but asking for donations to "help out the dairy farmers affected". Like mate, just buy it for a fair price and charge a fair price.
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Sep 18, 2020 23:09
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Used to work night shift for my company and long wondered what the gently caress days did. Got moved to days to train up and discovered that every morning is an hour and a half walk of the store to discuss what nightfill hosed up with. Then a 30 minute morning meeting with the team. They're walking me round showing me how cooked everything is and how poo poo nightfill are and I'm like, "hang on a sec lads let's read the book you guys insist nightfill report into every night. Okay yeah load rocked up 30mins before they were leaving, not much they could do except split it right?" From the looks on their faces to the dawning realisation that literally no one had been reading my reports I'd been writing for the last 12 months when I was fill and they'd just been jerking themselves off every morning was just one of the many reasons I chucked in my resignation.
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Oct 1, 2020 13:17
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NerdyMcNerdNerd posted:There are a few companies in which being a manager is actually worth it. Very few. "NEVER ACCEPT A SALARY POSITION! THEY TELL YOU HOW IT GOOD IT IS BUT YOU'RE SUDDENLY LOOKING AT 70 HOURS A WEEK OF HELL" I was never a manager in retail but I was relief for my manager on sick/annual/long service leave for like 5 months because she burnt out and it was the shittiest time of my life. Was a real taste of the true experience and made me realise I shouldn't stay. I still remember my last week; I didn't want to let my team down so I worked my rear end off up until I clocked off. Last day one of my team members comes up to me and tells me, "It's really sad to see you go but I'm so glad to see you smiling again" I'll remember what she said to me forever.
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Oct 17, 2020 11:11
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I haven't got a pic atm but our dock is pretty cooked atm. Work a large department store with racking space for 150+ pallets. Unfortunately due to covid our store has been closed for 10 weeks and unable to trade except for online sales. Head office figures this is fine to still send us load 5 days a week though so now all our excess pallets are stored on the shop floor because there's no more room left in the dock. Managers are making GBS threads themselves atm because even when we get the chance to open the whole place is a labyrinth of pallets with no physical room to make space to allow customers to get in and out easily.
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Oct 23, 2020 17:43
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I live for these stories. I thank you for them. My state has been in lockdown for 10 weeks and finally opened up today. Our store was going through a major refit in the meantime so store opened with literally half our stock still palletised and missing about 30% of the gondolas. If you wanted a large open space to just chill out it would be worth the visit, but not worth the scrum to get in to do your shop. 10 weeks of no customers has been an utter blessing but I'm glad I wasn't rostered today. I had three different managers from different departments beg me into working today because they got slammed but had to let them down because I'm working from home for my other job
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Oct 28, 2020 16:22
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Congrats for making it bro. I got to enjoy that gimmick of filling in all the duties of a manager but not being experienced enough to get the promotion. "But I mean keep filling in the role for no extra pay cheers dude." I think I'm the only fill 2ic for the company that had his own 2ic but no department manager.
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Nov 7, 2020 22:26
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Yeah think that's pretty standard. I always had to hang back 5-15 minutes and before it started getting more ridiculous. Never saw any money for it either. The one thing that really pissed me off was your manager asking you to hang back a cheeky 4 hours as you're about to go clock off when they knew drat well at the start of the day she was going to be cooked. I gotta mentally psyche myself back up for that kind of shift and 2mins just isn't enough time. Wait I think I completely missed that on the first pass. You said you couldn't stay late so they full cancelled your shift after you'd started? ErKeL fucked around with this message at 03:14 on Nov 13, 2020 |
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Nov 13, 2020 03:05
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We've had pallets and pallets of TP chilling out the back taking up space for like 4 months. I loving hope it goes.
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Nov 16, 2020 10:23
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Had my union call me to ask how I've been and if there were any issues at my workplace I wanted help with addressing. Honestly caught me completely off-guard. Been a member of a union before and after I signed on I never saw them again so was a real breath of fresh air to hear from these new guys. RAFFWU in Australia if anyone is interested. SDA are trash.
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Nov 29, 2020 08:40
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Hot Stunt posted:Just handed in my resignation after three years working customer service at a supermarket. Feels loving great, especially screwing them just before Christmas. I put my 2 weeks letter of resignation on my Store Manager's desk first day into his 3 week holiday because I knew he turned his phone off on AL and I was salty enough to want it to be a poo poo show when he got back.
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Dec 7, 2020 07:31
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How the gently caress does that happen?
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Dec 19, 2020 05:46
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Stupid theft was what killed my old line manager's career this year. Caught out stealing iphones, like the only product that people actually bother to track and don't write off immediately. Good thing too because she was an utter flog. Won't miss her.
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Dec 19, 2020 08:02
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| # ¿ May 7, 2024 04:58 |
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Mad respect to the hardest workers in one of the most miserable jobs I ever worked. Merry Christmas!
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Dec 25, 2020 12:00
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