I thought Aritzia would be a cool place to work. I mean, they have winged cats flying around in their windows. Any place with winged cats has to be awesome, right?
Wrong.
Instead of going on an on about how much I disliked working there, I thought I'd share with you the Pretend Resignation Letter I wrote. "Pretend" in that I will not actually hand it in; it's actually a real letter. You can see evidence of it's realness below. Maybe Secret Resignation Letter would be a better name. Or maybe I should just hand it in so I can rename it the Greatest Resignation Letter Of All Time. Hmm.
To Whom It May Concern:
I am writing in order to inform you that I am resigning as a Sales Associate at Aritzia Sherway Gardens. My last day of work will be Wednesday, October 20, 2010. Yes, today.
I would like to express my sincere appreciation at having been given the opportunity to work at Aritzia, even though just for a short time. After careful consideration, I have come to the conclusion that I am just not the right fit for Aritzia. It was a surprise to me too--don’t worry. I mean, I’m so awesome . . . but sometimes awesomeness just isn’t enough.
Firstly, I just don’t think I am clever enough to be a good Aritzia employee. For example: during both of my interviews, I said that I would be out of town from October 23 to November 1st. I was up-front with this information because honesty is always the best policy. (Except this one time that I drank the last of my brother’s chocolate milk and he was really angry so I blamed it on my mom.) When I told both the store manager and district manager about being out of town, they wrote down the dates, nodded, and said “okay”. I took this to mean that the time off had been authorized. Silly me. It turns out that there is a special form you have to fill out that I didn’t think to ask about because I didn't know it existed. So when my name was put on the schedule to work while I was away, I only had myself to blame.
As well, I used to think I was a good multi-tasker, but it turns out I am not. I thought being able to accomplish two tasks at once was impressive, but I’ve learned at Aritzia that it isn’t about accomplishing tasks: it’s about keeping busy with as many things as possible. Sometimes up to five. Here I’ve been thinking that there is value in seeing a task through from start to finish, but it turns out that is not the case.
From my past retail experience, I had been trained to think that everything from maintaining to re-stocking to getting new shipment out on the floor to doing security checks to customer service was an important part of a successful retail store. Now I know that the most important thing is sales goals.
I will admit that I am not the best sales person—in fact, I suck—so it was a relief to hear that Aritzia employees didn’t work on commission. And anyway, I know that I would only want to achieve my sales goals for the simple satisfaction and peer respect instead of money. “Why would anyone want a monetary reward for their sales achievements?” is what I always say. It’s so good that Aritzia has its priorities sorted.
I thought that maybe my other retail skills would be valued at Aritzia, but I soon realized how this was a foolish thought. And I think you feel the same way as I do about me not being a good fit: in less than two weeks of employment, my hours were being drastically cut. (And I hadn’t even been properly trained yet!)
But, I really do have to commend you on being able to see how expendable I was in such a short amount of time. If you hadn’t judged me with such a lack of regard, I might have never figured it out myself. So, thank you.
All in all, I think we can both agree that parting ways is for the best. Thank you again for the opportunity. And the jacket--it’s really nice.
Cheers,
S.
Tomorrow will be my last shift. I will have to fight the urge to run around the store high-fiving everyone from the sheer joy of it all.
I Just Quit Five!
