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I have been an RN for almost 25 years and I need to get out of healthcare ASAP. I am struggling with anxiety and depression over this because I just need to be done and I can't take it anymore. I just want a simple job where someone's life is not in my hands every time I go to work.
I have started applying at the large anchor stores at our local mall such as JCPenney, Dillard's. and Macy's. I realize that I will have to take a large pay cut, but I am not trained to do anything except nursing and I have to get out. I have job hopped for the past five years (three jobs in five years) trying desperately to find a job that I can stand so that I can make it to retirement age, but it ain't happening. Does anyone know if a middle-aged, burned out RN would be considered for retail positions at the mall?
Please don't laugh, this is really what I want to do. I cannot express how burned out I am.
Have you considered a career move to instructional design or simulations, where your clinical experience as a nurse is in high demand? You won't be directly responsible for patient care, which seems like the cause of your burn out.
Retailers do not give full time hours because of the healthcare laws, If you are holiday help, you will be cut in Jan. I worked a holiday season for Macy's and was given poor training, and no schedule. I had to fight to grab shifts with the online scheduling system.
Take the Dialysis job.
This has been my experience, too.
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Originally Posted by canudigit
Thanks! This is what I need, some information about the dark side of retail work. Call me crazy, but when I'm at the mall I think it looks like fun. Maybe not so much? I need to know.
I think it depends on your personality and how seriously you take everything. I have worked a ton of retail jobs and they aren't bad. I actually worked at JC Penny for a couple years. It was okay, definitely not my favorite retail experience. They were annoying about scheduling and I never knew my schedule more than 2 weeks in advance. Smaller stores and higher end stores both did a better job in that regard. My favorite "retail" job was working for a family owned chocolate store; half retail, half food service, but it was great. They planned the schedule over a month in advance and since it was a small staff it was stable and easy to predict, for the most part.
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Originally Posted by Sage 80
Take the dialysis job.
After making 60K, a minimum wage salary is going to depress you. Catering to the public and being on your feet all day is going to seem much less appealing when you're bringing home peanuts in exchange for all the stress, fatigue, long hours, and working holiday, evenings, weekends, and irregular hours.
This is very true. Like you, I feel burned out in my career (not so much stress, but definitely boredom) and I started applying elsewhere. I was offered a position as a bench jeweler, which is a dream job for me, but OMG, the pay was terrible! Less than 25% what I make now. I just couldn't do it, even though I really wanted to.
Please don't laugh, this is really what I want to do. I cannot express how burned out I am.
Money isn't everything. Quality of life is much more important. If you are debt free, it is amazing what you can live on. You can live pretty well on $25K a year in my region. Sure you aren't eating out or doing lavish things, but for me, riding a bike is more important than eating some overpriced fancy meal at some restaurant that will be filled with employees texting and glued to Facebook or whatever they look at on their little screens. Who needs that?
Anyway, get out of your current job. You can always go back if you feel okay with it. Check out Costco, Trader Joe's and Whole Foods. They pay better than most and are fun for the most part.
... Does anyone know if a middle-aged, burned out RN would be considered for retail positions at the mall?
Christmas season is upon us, your timing is great. You do still have a pulse, correct? And most of your teeth (or replacements that look real)? With a pulse and the ability to smile you should be good to go in retail. You may find that the employers lie in that field as well, and the public will be a royal PITA most days, but it won't be nursing.
There is also the American Red Cross, where they need nurses for their blood drives and donor rooms. Not really health care and a very relaxed work environment other than the schedule being screwy.
Between the internet and robotics I think retail is going to be phased out in the next five to ten years. Malls are dying and some chains are gradually dying (sears and radio shack).
Are you in a union?
I'd hate to say it but much of the time someones life is in everyones hands all the time. When I worked in retail we were shown a number of safety videos because people DID die in our competitors. Accidents happen. At one point someone put pool chemicals right above fertilizer. It leaked creating an explosion and fire in a store down south.
Perhaps you could learn medical coding and work for one of the companies of it (Epic or Meditech)
Gosh, I sure hope not - deliveries are still relatively unreliable and the premium for overnight shipping is absurd. You don't have those issues with retail. Online shopping also requires you to trust that your internet won't be intercepted to get credit/debit card info. Finally, it's not good to become excessively dependent on online functions for everything. If I get a nasty computer virus, I'll still have to eat!
Some people seem to have the stereotype that Millennials prefer online shopping over brick-and-mortar. This one doesn't.
I don't have time to read all these responses tonight, so forgive me if someone else has already explained this. I know nothing about nursing but I do know retail because I got into that game after I took early retirement from a very stressful corporate job where I traveled all the time. One thing you need to know about retail: the hours are very punishing.
Stores like the ones you mention do NOT give their employees straight hours. Schedules are posted every two weeks some places, every month in others. Clerks are assigned a different hourly schedule every week, and sometimes two different ones within a week. At holiday time, for example, when the store might be open to 11 pm or even midnight, if you work the late shift you won't get home until the middle of the night. And you might be switched the very next day to an early shift where you are required to open at 7am. That kind of thing is hard on anyone, but for people predisposed to depression, it's killer. Weird sleeping hours exacerbate depression symptoms. Also, people are just as mean to store clerks as they are to any other service professionals, so if it's dealing with the general public you are burned out on, I'm sorry to say shoppers can be no picnic.
If you are a full-timer (and most department stores like Macy's usually have only two of those per department) you will at least have about a 40-hour week, but usually people with no retail experience are hired only for part-time work at first, meaning you will have no idea in advance how much money you will make. At holiday-time, it might be as much as the few full-timers, but come January your hours will crash and your paycheck along with that. And it's virtually impossible to juggle two separate part-time jobs because of the hours that change so extremely week-to-week.
The good thing is, there's a TON of turnover in retail, so if you are a good, reliable person who shows up on time, quickly learns how to close a cash register properly, and gets a reputation for good customer relations, you can probably move into a full-time job rather quickly. Pay will depend on where you live. I was in Mid-Atlantic state where strong unions historically pushed pay scales higher than they are in many parts of the country and clerks were making between $9 and $14 an hour, depending on length of service. In some cities like Seattle or New York, they might be much higher, but cost of living is, too. Only you know how much you need to make to support your lifestyle.
Best of luck to you. When you're burned out, you're burned out and you have to take care of yourself, so don't listen to what other people say. Your mental health is of the utmost importance.
With 35 years in nursing, we relocated to SC and I was determined to do anything besides nursing. I filled out so many applications and sent out resumes daily with no responses. Someone mentioned biometric screenings and that's what I am doing now and I absolutely love it. It's not for someone who needs a steady paycheck and benefits, because the work is sporadic, but for me it's a great gig with a lot of flexibility. Basically, a team goes to a work site and screens employees for cholesterol, glucose, BMI, blood pressure. It's usually a 5 to 6 hour shift. You work hard and then go home with no drama or work place politics.
That reminds me of my job at a blood bank. I started out screening donors, but left before I was going to be trained to become a phlebotomist. They had stationary and mobile positions for phlebotomists. The mobile positions were for blood drives, and the stationary positions were at the HQ where people would come in to donate.
The recurring theme in this thread whenever someone discusses what it's like to work in retail seems to be the uncertainty of getting hours (post-holiday rush, of course) and the irregular schedule. It has made me appreciate one very important fact about working as an RN, namely that I am guaranteed my hours and, in most cases, know when I will be working and can make plans.
Okay, so maybe retail isn't exactly paradise and I'm glamorizing it just a bit. I have an interview today for a dialysis job that I already know how to do, will be 30 hours a week with no Sundays or major winter holidays, pays over $30/hour, the patients only stay for four hours max, and I get to wear good old, comfortable scrubs instead of business casual (I HATE dress slacks!). I think the scales are tipping...
I have been an RN for almost 25 years and I need to get out of healthcare ASAP. I am struggling with anxiety and depression over this because I just need to be done and I can't take it anymore. I just want a simple job where someone's life is not in my hands every time I go to work.
I have started applying at the large anchor stores at our local mall such as JCPenney, Dillard's. and Macy's. I realize that I will have to take a large pay cut, but I am not trained to do anything except nursing and I have to get out. I have job hopped for the past five years (three jobs in five years) trying desperately to find a job that I can stand so that I can make it to retirement age, but it ain't happening. Does anyone know if a middle-aged, burned out RN would be considered for retail positions at the mall?
Please don't laugh, this is really what I want to do. I cannot express how burned out I am.
I have a better idea for you. Why don't you get one of those work from home RN jobs to handle a nursing line. They pay a $3000 bonus.
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With a pulse and the ability to smile you should be good to go in retail. You may find that the employers lie in that field as well, and the public will be a royal PITA most days, but it won't be nursing. 
Not True
