My Response: "My Life as a Retail Worker: Nasty, Brutish, and Poor"

So apparently an assault conviction and some questionable comments can get you throw out of political journalism. Apparently, that's what happened to Joseph Williams, who was pretty much blacklisted for some comments aimed towards Mitt Romney. As it turned out, his comments were pretty prophetic when Mitt Romney's 47% secret speech came to surface. Jimmy Carter's grandson was the leaker (but not the person who caught the gaffe on film, which was bartender Scott Prouty.

Enough about ancient history! Williams, the veteran POLITICO reporter, found himself working at a sports retailer to make ends meet. Although his story was published back in March, the story for some reason recently resurfaced on my Facebook feed, so I thought I would right a commentary on it.

Having worked in retail, I'll just keep it brief, and for all parties involved, I won't mention on here where I worked (but an investigative journalist could figure it out in TEN SECONDS). It was a less than pleasant experience. The warehouse I worked at was a safety hazard waiting to happen, overworked employees, a corporate hierarchy and procedure that could make a dysfunctional bureaucracy gloat with glee.

Williams made a really valid point with this statement:

Obtaining work in retail had changed a lot since the 1980s. What used to require a paper application and a schmooze with the manager has turned into an antiseptic online process where human interaction—and the potential for an employment-discrimination complaint—is kept to a minimum.

The online process is far from perfect too, and also can cause discrimination problems as well, not to mention that someone in HR can easily overlook candidates. But the point Williams makes is this: it's a dog-eat-dog world, and corporate America at times forgets that we're all human.