Why I couldn't work in retail

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Sometimes I find my cleaning job too repetitive, and would like to have a more interesting job where I'm multitasking more and talking to different people all day, like in a busy store. But at the same time that won't be suited for me, for the following reasons:-

1. I get easily emotional if somebody talks to me the 'wrong' way, like in a certain tone of voice. I know it's easy to say ''don't worry about them, it's not personal, they're the problem, etc etc'' but that isn't the case for me. I feel intimidated easily and I can't switch my emotions off. It's part of anxiety and cannot be consciously controlled, no matter how hard I try to smile or laugh it off, tears still well up in my eyes and I have to get away to cry it out.

2. I can't stand the noise of small children and babies crying in stores. Other sounds I can ignore or filter out, but toddlers having tantrums is impossible for me to ignore and I get extremely stressed and distracted when there's a toddler screaming at nothing near me. This will most definitely interfere with my ability to focus on my work.

3. I don't like crowds, like strangers standing in my personal space and making me feel like I'm in their way. Usually stores want you to do overtime around Christmas, and that's when the crowds are absolutely manic. When I'm caught up in a crowded store at Christmas time I feel sorry for the workers (whether they're dealing with the customers or just shelf-filling) for having to work among such a large amount of people for hours. So if it's stressful for them then it'll be stressful for me and I would probably end up having panic attacks or even walking out on the job.

So sticking to a cleaning job at a coach depot where there are no crowds or screaming brats or obnoxious customers is a breath of fresh air, but at the same time it can get too boring and repetitive.
Does anyone else have this dilemma? Aspie/ADHD-friendly jobs are too repetitive and can get boring, but busier jobs in a more interesting environment where you don't know what you're going to do next usually involves crowds of people.

I can't really "think on my feet" too well, so my repetitive clerical job is pretty ideal for me.

In retail, I preferred working behind the scenes doing bicycle repairs. However, others I was working with or for thought I should be out with the customers and pushed me out of my comfort zone, and they thought I was good at it because I could mask. (They did not know I was nervous inside and I preferred to do the behind the scenes work).
The more I tried to dissapear and do the behind the scenes work, the more others tried to get me out to deal with the public.
I did work my way up to be head if a bicycle department at a store.
My dream job that I wanted to do was to become a train driver though any railway job was ok.
I left the head of department job after two and a half years and got a job as a conductor (Really a guard as we dis a guards job... Guard and conductor in the UK are a different position then the USA as the titles mean different things)
It took me ten years of waiting to get the railway job. The probblwm was that I had to deal with more people then I did before. Way out of my comfort zone.
Somehow I did it for 9 years. A record length of time for any job for me because normally 2 to 3 years was my limit, but the railway shifts were such that I was working with different drivers each day and different trains each day. (Actually we usually worked a few different train services a day in a shift, or one or two longer services to make up the hours). Every day we ad a different start time so I usually had a different driver, and sometimes I could be with three or even four different drivers in one shift!
Now I hate change like that. I want constant to settle down, BUT at the same time, if I work with thw same person or group of people all the time, after a year or two the masking breaks down and then the bullying begins or I just get a hard time, so on the one hand I want sameness, but on the other hand apart from ending up bored, sameness with other people is an issue for me due to the need to constantly mask.
I eventually had my first burnout/breakdown where I HAD to leave the railway. I did not know what it was. All I knew was I had become suicidal and did not care about myself and I could not cope, and the more I was deteriating, the more overtime I had to do as I was easily talked into things and unable to say no due to my mental state, so everything esculated and got out of control where I caught myself about to jump out the back of a train at speed as a way to end the situation. I came to my senses when a passenger was banging at the door and I had to see to drunk teenagers who were acting up in the front carriage. When walking back through the train to the back carriage, I saw drunk pensioners dancing on the train tables! The teenagers were nothing compared to the behaviour of the pensioners!
It was not long before I put in my notice and it followed a miraculous sign that came from God, that I knew it was time to move on.

Anyway. I went back to bicycle mechanic work on and off but had several burnouts/breakdowns so had to quit again and again and it would take me a year or two to recover each time.
Last time it hit severly and I have not worked since as yet. I amstill not right, but that maybe also due to the covid situation which has brought more stress.

I don't exactly mask much at my job. I just be myself and everybody's used to me. The only times I do mask is in crowds and around toddlers having tantrums, because I have to consciously restrain myself from screaming in rage at them. I just can't relax when there are small children near me being loud or obnoxious. I especially couldn't work in a toy store because of this. I mean a parent brings a 3-year-old into a toy store then says that they cannot buy anything, so the 3-year-old inevitably throws the biggest temper tantrum in the world. Why bring a child to a toy store and not actually let the child buy a toy? I mean, a child is too immature to understand the concept of browsing. And then everyone has to put up with a screaming fit for the next 20 minutes.

I'd like to work in a pet store because I love animals (particularly rats, which most pet stores sell). Although pet stores can get busy, it's not the same as a supermarket, and I like the atmosphere. Whenever I go into pet stores there are usually tomboyish girls like me who also love animals. I wouldn't mind helping out customers in a pet store, and I don't think it's as repetitive as cleaning (I think cleaning is one of the jobs you have to do at a pet store but among other jobs so it's not just the same thing all day).

I do like my job cleaning the coaches though. It's very stress-free. But sometimes I wish I could work in the coach workshop doing duties like some cleaning and helping the engineers and stuff, like checking lights, writing orders down, tidying equipment, unscrewing parts, and deep cleaning the coaches. But I know such a job doesn't exist, because to work in the coach workshop you have to be a fully qualified engineer, and being a fully qualified engineer isn't really the job for me as it is very complicated hard work and you have to know exactly what you're doing.

Joe90,

Your reasons are exactly why I can't either! I had a retail job and it destroyed me, I kept cutting my hrs back until I was down to a few hrs a week and finally quit one day. I just could not take it anymore! It was so stressful I was in physical pain all the time and couldn't sleep at night because of it. And this was a job in a store that I was really into.

I couldn't work in retail either. I did apply for a few jobs in shops when I was a teenager and didn't get any. I wasn't what they were looking for. It really frustrated me. I didn't know what they wanted.

I got an early morning cleaning job instead and that suited me well.

Somehow I managed to get a receptionist job in a gym. I've no idea how. I had done some admin stuff at college, so that was partly why. I was good at the paperwork part, but it was really stressful dealing with customers.

People would have all sorts of queries. If they stuck to the same old same old I could learn the answers to their queries like what times classes were on and how much memberships cost, but you'd get some chancers who threw me curve balls. I let someone take their kid into the changing area and my supervisor came over to me later asking why a child was in the sauna. Argh. I hadn't told them they could go in the sauna! Bloomin people!

I would often forget things as well. I would get a query and then the phone would ring and I would get distracted and forget the first thing. I forgot to tell anyone someone had called in sick one day and only remembered at the start of their shift which caused major problems.

An attendant wasn't well whilst working the gym floor, you needed a person in the room at all times, so she phoned me at reception to request I send someone else from the staff room to relieve her. The phone rang and then some customers came in and I completely forgot all about it. She was really annoyed with me, understandably so because she was in pain and couldn't just walk away from her post.

I think my supervisor thought I was deliberately being awkward and she kept "forgetting" to give me a break for my lunch to get back at me. I'm absent minded, not malicious. That wasn't fun.
That's the only customer facing job I've ever had. Never again!

When I was young and unemployed, I volunteered at a local charity shop, and I was often put on the till, which I didn't like but they wouldn't listen. I was always left alone too, so had to deal with customers on my own. I was only 19 so didn't really have much people skills, and I had severe social anxiety so it was like a nightmare for me. I got on with some regular customers and even made a couple of friends, but a lot of the customers were scary. Sometimes if there were too many customers at once in the shop I had panic attacks and hoped they were just browsing and wouldn't buy anything. I did express some unfriendliness when they did come to the till with a load of items, which I regret now, but I couldn't help myself. I just wanted to be working out the way like in the back store room sorting out the donations. I wasn't really fit for the till.
Also it was when the paying for a plastic bag law was first brought in, and some customers objected to it and caused a fuss. To avoid the intimidation I just let people have a plastic bag for free, but then the manager somehow found out and I got into trouble for it. I thought maybe they wouldn't put me on the till after that but they still did. So I quit volunteering there in the end.

Argh, that sounds like a nightmare. I would have felt the same way at 19. Would have stressed me out!

I failed in retail and fast food as well.

Quite enjoyed working in plant nurseries. Plants grow slowly, so there are few emergencies. A few customers, but not high flow as in a cafe. Some variety, so can be engaging. It has a lot to recommend it.

I tried a couple of sales jobs when I was younger and I was horrible. As others have said, aspies tend to have trouble thinking on their feet so any public-facing job like retail can be difficult ... I know it was for me.

I think being sensitive to people's emotions and the noise of small children are mainly the two factors why I best avoid retail work.

Retail pays crap. That deters me from working retail.

And managers could sometimes be jerks.

It's also the pressure to do overtime around the Christmas period. I'm not the sort of person to do overtime, as I like to just do a set number of days each week and have a set number of days off each week. But if you refuse then people think you're being selfish because you're not helping out. Maybe I am a little selfish but I'm generally a very selfless person so why can't I be selfish once in a while?