Hi everyone, yesterday was my second day interning for CVS. On friday I did 6 hours and saturday I did 7 hours. Overall it was pretty straight forward. I've done retail at a department store before so I was use to the constant swarm of customers coming in; the store is open 24 hours. I don't really mind the work, just standard retail stuff, dealing with customers, learning how to use the system, it's all very simple. My one and only HUGE problem though is how breaks work around here.
At my other job which was retail at a department store we would have scheduled breaks. If you work at least 5 hours but not 6 you get a 15 minute paid break. If you work 6 hours or more you get a 30 minute unpaid break and the standard 15 minute break. Most of the time I wouldn't clock out when I went on the 30 minute break though so I would still get paid for it. However, I don't understand how breaks work at this CVS. The first day the pharmacist was super busy all the time so we barely got a chance to speak with each other. About 2 and a half hours after I got there and we had no customers I go up to her and ask if there's a break schedule. She tells me that there is none and usually no one takes breaks around here. I told her, what about eating? She says that usually everyone just brings food and takes it to the back of the pharmacy and eat it in between customers. In my mind I'm thinking, "wow are you serious". That all sounds really stupid. It was my first day though so I just asked if I could take a small break to eat the food I brought with me and she just said "ok" while still looking at her computer screen. So I take my coat off and go to the locker room which is a tiny ass room with some lockers, a table, and chair. I open my locker and start eating the peanut butter and jelly sandwich I packed. At my other job I would always bring in a sandwich and my water bottle for lunch and during my 15 minute break I'd walk to a pizza shop nearby and get a pepperoni slice for 2.50 including tax. Then I would eat that, my sandwich and drink my water and that would be my lunch. I was completely satisfied with that, but apparently now that I started working at CVS I downgraded.
After I ate I use the rest of my 15 minutes to just mess around on my phone. I go back to the pharmacy and continue to finish the day. By the time I got out at 10pm I was so hungry because my sandwich didn't fill me up so I walked to a tacobell a block away (which I wanted to go to on my break, but I didn't want to tell the pharmacist I planned on leaving the store) and then I realized they were closed except for the drive thru. Me being a poor college student, I walk up to the drive thru window and explain that I didn't have a car but would still like to order. They nicely agreed and got me my meal as I paid.
The next day something similar happened. Everything was going swell up until my break. It's about 3 hours after I got there and at this time I would normally go on break if I was at my other job. So again, I go up to the pharmacist and ask if I could go on a 15 minute break. She asks if I really had to go because it was just me, her and another girl working at the time. I said I just wanted to eat my food. She said you can eat it in the back. I walk out all pissed and get my bag from the locker, come back, and throw it on the counter in the back of the pharmacy. I'm just about to start eating and then I'm told to get the drive thru. After being juggled around between a bunch of customers I'm finally able to go back and eat my food for a solid 3 minutes before someone else comes and I have to pause eating my meal. I start to think, "wow is this really how it's gonna be for the remainder of my time here, this is awful". About an hour later the pharmacist and the other girl decide that they want to order food. Once their food comes 45 minutes later they just set it on the back and continue to deal with customers. I'm not even sure the pharmacist ate the pizza that she ordered.
I don't understand why they can't just give us breaks. The next day I work is tuesday but correct me if I'm wrong, isn't it illegal to not get a 15 minute break if you work for at least 5 hours? If you can't take lunch breaks in retail then I don't want to do retail. This is unbelievable. All I ask for is 15 minutes of not being bothered with to just sit and enjoy my food. I can already tell how annoying it'll be for me to come up to the pharmacist again on tuesday in the middle of my shift and ask for a break. Why can't they just give us scheduled breaks? Honestly I don't even think I'll ask. I might as well just go to the locker and get my bag in the middle of my shift and just start eating in the pharmacy like I did last time. This is horrible and I feel like I'm suffering. I don't want to get use to this **** method of a lunch break. It's not even a lunch break, it's being a slave to customers and not even being allowed to enjoy a meal for 15 minutes. You have to bring it back to work and shove it down your throat before the next customer comes. Retail, you already look like complete **** in my eyes.
