I freakin did it! These are the reasons that led to me quitting my job of 9 years and leaving during a pandemic. I hope that my journey helps you if you are thinking you want to quit your job.

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Omgeeee I just quit my job of 9 freakin’ years!

This is probably one of the scariest things I’ve ever done in my entire life (you know, apart from taking that gondola ride up to the top of a mountain in Queenstown..and a few other physical activities that involve high heights).

I’m still feeling out of sorts and maybe a bit in shock at my bold decision to leave a company I’ve worked for for so many years.

But do I feel like it was the right decision? 1000%! That doesn’t mean it wasn’t an extremely difficult thing to do.

 

Let’s back it up a little bit, I’m going to give you the back story.

I started working at Costco on September 27, 2011. Whoa I know, it’s been a hawt minute.

When I first started all those years ago, I loved my job. I’ve always worked retail but Costco was retail on steroids. It was ALWAYS busy -literally there would be a line up before the store even opened and there were at least 300+ people coming in every half hour. But I loved the busyness because my shifts literally flew by.

I was given proper breaks, which if you’ve worked retail before, they tend to be stingy with those (15 min break for 5+ hours of work ugh). I also got to wear whatever I wanted, it was awesome.

This was me coming from working at La Senza for 5 years where all you could wear was black, so I was super happy to get to switch my wardrobe up on the regular.

I worked in a few different departments over the years. I started as a packer, then became a cashier and also worked in the cigarette cage from time to time. After injuring my shoulder at work in 2014, I moved over to the membership counter, then the refunds desk, and finished up my time at Costco in the Tire Centre.

All good things must come to an end

After a few years, my excitement for the company wore off. My eyes were opened up to how people were being treated by both the members and the management, seeing the politics that go on in the building. And obviously, I changed as a person including my wants, needs, and goals in life.

I began disliking my job a long time ago but because the money was good and the benefits were good, and I was comfortable, I stayed.

Why I did quit my job -and during a Pandemic at that!?

I’d been talking about leaving my job for years. You see, I began hating my job a looong time ago. Yes, I know hate is a strong word, but that’s pretty much how I felt.

Costco was never supposed to be a forever job. It was supposed to be a just for now transition job.

Before I started working there, I never even knew it existed. But just like the majority of the people that work there, I got comfortable and I got stuck.

The money was really good and I liked the way my paychecks were looking every other week, I didn’t have to exert myself or work too hard because the job was no longer challenging.

Well, it was but not in the same sense. Some of the people I worked with, the management, and definitely the members who shopped there challenged my patience almost on a daily basis.

I began to reach my breaking point and I just couldn’t put up with the crap anymore. I’m going to break it down for you.

The members

In order to shop at Costco, you have to pay for a membership. That’s why we call the people who purchase memberships, members. Now a lot of these members feel entitled because they fork over their money once a year for their membership.

They feel that because they’ve paid for a card that you (as the person working there) should be giving them what they want, how they want it when they want it, and that they can speak to you any way they choose.

Now this isn’t all members, there are actually some that are very nice, sometimes they sort of make up for the rest who are total butt holes.

But for the sake of this post, we’re going to go with the majority.

I could go inning and write a whole post on the “Members of Costco” alone but I’ll save that for another time and try to keep this short.

The Returns Desk

Before working in the Tire Center, I worked over at the returns/membership counter. I was there for about 5 years. Pretty much all day every day, the line up for returns would be out the door.

I mean, for the gazillions of people that shop at Costco, the line up was sort of understandable, that’s not what I had a problem with (it was sometimes annoying but a manageable type of annoyance, you know). My problem was the items that these members were returning.

Half-eaten food, expired food, food they forgot in the car that should’ve gone in the fridge, but didn’t, and so it went bad and they want their money back. Electronics from 4 years ago, a safe from 10 and a half years ago, clothes they’ve worn however many times but don’t fit anymore. Christmas decorations, once the season is done (Christmas tree included), old stained mattresses, a watch they lost in Montreal (but it was defective which is why it fell off, so can I get my money back please!?).

Like I’m not even kidding or exaggerating and this list doesn’t even scratch the surface. Some of the stuff was ridiculous and just ethically WRONG to return, but each and every person got their money back.

Yes, it’s not my money, so it shouldn’t matter but everything about these returns just felt WRONG.

I became disgusted and tired and saddened seeing the amounts of food that would go to waste on a daily basis simply due to negligence.

What was worse was that us employees would follow the quote on quote “policy” and tell members that expired food couldn’t be returned, to which the member would simply ask for a supervisor or manager who would then take it back so as not to cause a ruckus, making us employees look bad.

I decided to leave the refunds desk and moved over to the Tire Centre.

The Tire Centre

During the offseason, it was quiet at the desk and I was sooo looking forward to the change of pace.

During the winter season and spring season, however, that bishhh is cray. As soon as the store would open in the morning, you would literally see members running in trying to get in front of the others to get quotes for their tires, purchase tires and/or make appointments to get them swapped over.

Arguments would occur and everything.

Here’s the kicker, there would be a line up of 10 members deep (usually more) and only ONE person working the desk. Mind you, talking with each member takes anywhere from 5-20 minutes, sometimes longer if they don’t have a clue what they’re driving, which believe it or not happened regularly.

Getting support and having another person at the desk was something that rarely happened and so a lot of times I’d end up dealing with cranky upset members because they have to wait so long to be spoken to.

I get it, waiting in a long line is super annoying but it’s not something I have control over. I’d love the support at the desk, but I am not the one in control over the schedule. So it would’ve been nice to have a little understanding from the members instead of being rudely spoken to.

There were some members who did understand that it sucked for us to be alone at the desk and have to deal with so many demanding people and they were overly nice because of it, but those members came few and far in between.

After working 2 winter seasons in the department and breaking down one night last winter because of the stress of it all (you know, booking members in for their appointments, while quoting other member tire prices, while letting other members know that their appointments were running late simultaneously and ALL BY MYSELF).

I promised myself I would not spend another winter in that department. The stress of the season was simply not worth it and with the winter season coming up, I really had to make the decision to stay or leave.

The management

Everything starts with the management team.

If you have a good manager, your work environment can be great, despite having to deal with certain crappy members. On the contrary, if your management team is unsupportive, demeaning, and rude, then you’ll have a terrible work environment.

You know, something happens to some people as they move up in a company.

While they were lowly little employees like the rest of us, as soon as people got promoted to being a supervisor or a manager, it’s like they forgot where they started.

They begin to carry themselves around like they’re the shiznit and their word is golden and what they say goes and proceed to talk to you and treat you like you are a child, meanwhile we are all well and grown adults.

Now this doesn’t go for all of the managers and supervisors, but this does go for the majority.

I didn’t get it and I couldn’t take it anymore.

The controlling, sometimes manipulative audacity of some of these managers was something I was no longer willing to deal with. On more than a couple of occasions, I had to bite my tongue and walk away before releasing the demon on some of these people.

It shouldn’t matter what your position is in a company, treat people how you want to be treated. Respect your fellow co-workers and don’t ask them to do ridiculous things that you would never do yourself and force them to work in less than tolerable conditions.

Maybe it’s just me, but I was raised to treat other people how I wanted to be treated and it’s something I’ve carried with me my whole life – mama would be proud.

I’d been a supervisor for Parks and Recreation for several years and I never once talked down to any of my staff or made them feel like crap and neither did the people that worked above me.

It’s really quite simple, a happy and supported team will want to work together and a team that receives zero support and does not feel valued won’t.

I wanted more

I’m a super creative person and have been this way ever since I was a kid. I honestly felt like my talents were wasting away and I wasn’t getting to live out my purpose.

Not saying I 100% know what my purpose is in life (yet), but I know working at Costco doing the same thing day in and day out, saying the same thing every single day to various members wasn’t it.

Yes I want to help people. I’ve always been the type of person who shares the things that I’ve learned with other people in hopes that maybe they can take something away from it too. And just because I like to share things in general.

That’s one of the reasons I even started this blog!

To share my hard-earned knowledge with you.

So while I do want to help people, and technically that is what I was doing at Costco, that’s just not the environment I wanted to do it in and it was certainly not the information I actually wanted to be sharing.

Pricing tires all day long, giving people basic knowledge they really and truly should have already possessed, especially if they’ve been driving for how many years!!

As a creative, I need to be doing something different daily. I NEED to be able to flex my creative muscles. While I was doing that on the side, my time at Costco was really just draining the life out of me.

I know that I was made for more than what I was settling for and I HAD to switch it up or I was going to lose my mind.

There are sooo many different things I want to be doing creatively and really put my all into it and see if I can truly make a career out of this. I know it’s 100% possible, now it was just about jumping into things with both feet and giving it my all instead of having one foot out the door.

What led up to me leaving the security of a steady paycheck?

Well, a few things lead me to finally decide to quit my job. I had been talking about leaving Costco for years really, and it was only recently that I started making some serious moves to actually do it.

The Pandemic

I went into work, like a good employee all throughout this nightmare of a time.

Remember earlier how I said that Costco was ALWAYS busy? Well, it was even more so when things started getting crazy. While other stores were reducing their working hours, Costco went the other route and extended theirs.

There were definitely always way too many people in the store at any given time, certainly more than I’m sure was “allowed” by the city.

Literally, when I got to work every day, it was as if there was no pandemic actually happening (except for the fact that you couldn’t get toilet paper, paper towel, Lysol wipes, eggs? Yes, even eggs.)

I get that businesses still needed to make money, but at the cost of endangering their employees? That’s not right.

There are a few employees who tested positive for the virus, but was the store ever shut down for proper cleaning? No. Was there ever really even any proper cleaning done? Not really. Was anyone who worked in close proximity sent home? Naw.

Nobody is going to take better care of me, than me and my health wasn’t being held in higher regard than money (and the members) coming in, so I decided that I needed to take myself out of the equation.

Books and Podcasts

I had been binging on business podcasts like Goal Digger Podcast and The Rachel Hollis Podcast since last year. Listening to other people’s stories of how they were miserable in their jobs and/or felt like they were made to do more than what they were currently doing became my bread and butter. They spoke about how they went against the grain, took the big leap, and how they are living more fulfilled lives than ever before.

They found success in their work and were even making way more money than they were in their corporate jobs. And they were all doing something they loved!!!

I mean how inspiring is that?!

As I’d listen to each new episode, I couldn’t help but think of what life could be like for me if I just took the leap and quit my job and went after my dreams.

Books like Girl, wash your face, and Girl stop apologizing, along with Big Magic, and You are a badass, became my road maps for how to create the life I truly wanted to live.

The more I read these books, the more I knew that if I just took a chance on myself and put my head down and did the work, left the excuses at the door, and went for it, I could really do this and make something of myself following my own path.

If you’re at a crossroads yourself, I highly recommend these books and a few more, just click over for my recommendations. They are game-changers.

Daily Devotionals

For a long time now, I’ve been trying to reconnect with God and strengthen my relationship with Him. I read my devotionals using Youversion and they’ve been a really easy and great way to learn more about God and this path that I’m on.

I choose to read plans that are geared towards creative people and entrepreneurs. Each and every plan (they range from 3 days to weeks to months) helped me to see how God has big plans for me and that I just need to trust Him and trust in the gifts that He’s given me.

God doesn’t want me to fail. He gave me these desires, these dreams, these crazy ideas for a reason, and it’s up to me to fulfill my purpose.

See there’s that word again.

Purpose.

We were all put here for a reason and I believe that if we pray about it and listen and put our trust in God, that those reasons will be revealed and we can live out our best lives.

I don’t know all there is to know, I’m still learning each and every day. But I have faith that as long as I bring my doubts and fears to God, that at the end of the day, I won’t fail.

The manager of all managers…

So there’s this one manager who basically lives to control the lives of his employees. It’s crazy really how much this person goes out of their way to make things unnecessarily difficult.

My schedule has been the same for like 4 years or so. My availability was wide open except for Fridays. Working at the Refunds desk, there was plenty of staff to cover the counter and so I was given Fridays and Saturdays off.

When I came to the Tire Centre, I kept those same days and it actually worked out perfectly because the other full-time employee worked those days, so I really wasn’t needed.

However, due to my “part-time” employee status, according to this manager, I NEEDED to be present in the building during those days. Why? Because as a part-timer, you are required to work weekends.

They call it the needs of the business.

Now the Tire Centre is a small department. There is usually only one person at the desk at any given time, and so it made no sense to force me to come in when there was already someone else there simply because I was a part-timer.

This manager’s logic? If I’m not needed in my department, then they could schedule me in other departments.

But hold the phone!

I don’t work in other departments, I don’t mind helping out here and there if really needed (even though I kind of do but would help anyway), but I work in the TIRE CENTRE.

And so if I am not needed in MY department, then why force me to come in? Just because I’m part-time? Come on now! I guess my 9 years means absolutely nothing….

Even though my department worked perfectly fine (and I use the term perfectly very loosely), this manager who barely even came to the centre except to flex his negative manly powers felt he NEEDED to constantly bombard my manager (the manager of the tire centre- it’s a little complicated to explain but each department has it own manager and then there are managers over them, it’s like a big hierarchy of managers of sorts) to schedule me to come in.

I can be an awesome team player, but I think after all the years of working at this place and barely receiving the support needed for a good work environment, I was just done and over it.

After going above and beyond for several years and getting nothing and nowhere for it, I wasn’t having that anymore.

No more, I say!

I would watch as other people essentially got pooped on by this manager regularly.

Employees got cussed at and were made to feel stupid and small and like their best simply wasn’t good enough. I’ve seen people cry because of him, I’m pretty sure he loved invoking fear in the employees just because he “could”.

Pretty sure he knew better than to try any of that with me though. He’d never say anything directly to me but would send a message with another supervisor or my manager. Wimp.

This is not someone that I wanted to be working under and it was not a good working environment that I wanted to continue to be in.

Honestly, I could go on and on about the management team for hours, what I’ve said here doesn’t even scratch the surface. But because this post is getting a little long, I’m going to move on.

I think you got the gist of it all anyway.

So what happens now?

Now, I’m FREEEEEEEEEEEEE!

I can’t even begin to explain the burden that I feel that has been lifted off of me since quitting Costco.

Just the knowledge that I never have to go into that building for work ever again excites me on so many levels.

Towards the end, before the start of every shift, I had to literally give myself a pep talk and say that the day would be a good day. I had to psych myself up before walking into the building and had to give myself refreshers in between members and everything.

YOUR GIRL WAS DONE.

 

More than ever now, my goal in life is about protecting my peace and practicing self-care and so I had to remove myself from what felt like a very toxic situation.

And I’m legit not exaggerating y’all, f’real.

Now I’m working for me.

I’m putting my focus on building my blog and setting up my shop (I have a few exciting things I’ve been working on for a while now). I’m determined to make this work and to see this website grow and to make my living from it.

Like I said, it’s 1000% possible. There are a gazillion people doing it and so that just goes to show that it can be done.

There’s room for all of us in this online space and I am carving out this corner for myself.

If worst comes to worst, I’ll have to get another job and so be it. But I’m confident that it won’t come to that.

In conclusion

I hope that in reading this, if you’ve been at a crossroads yourself, that this will help you in realizing your worth and your value and not to accept less than that just for money. Just for a job. It’s really not worth it.

Also, I hope that you found parts of this entertaining, I know I spilled a lot of tea here but like I said this barely even scratches the surface.

So let me know if you want any more posts on what it really looks like to be a Costco employee and I may just have to whip up some more posts for ya!

 

It might be time to pop another bottle in celebration of #1 writing and finishing this post and #2 growing the big balls, finding the courage, and finally quitting my job!

Until next time, Stay blessed ♡

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For true transformation and growth to take place, we must be brave enough to walk away from the life we think we should be living to make room for the one we were meant to live.

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