A Forever 21 worker’s story about employee politics and the frustrations she’s experienced as part of the closing shift has resonated with viewers online in a video with over 55,000 views.
“This is why I quiet quit,” the worker and content creator, MaTreeka (@matreekasamone), tells TikTok, before explaining her workplace’s drama between the closers and openers. She refers to a growing idealogy among workers that fellow creator @zkchillin describes as “quitting the idea of going above and beyond” at work, instead of actually quitting one’s job.
MaTreeka prefaces the video by claiming that the store’s openers regularly complain about how the TikToker closes the store.
“If you wanna close better, you do it yourself,” she says.
She then shares screenshots of an alleged work group chat. Describing how the evening went to her co-workers, she informs everyone they were $5 short of a goal based on a metric from last year. Some co-workers were upset that MaTreeka failed to keep the store open after closing time to make those last $5.
“I was not staying open for those $5,” she says in the video. “Then I gotta wait for these customers to shop? No, I’m good.”
The time it would’ve taken to wait on the customers past close, then shut down the registers, and finally help her associates with other closing tasks was not worth the extra $5, MaTreeka says. The closing staff was scheduled to leave at 10 p.m., one hour after closing, and she alleges the opening team would’ve been upset with a sloppy closing job if they had kept the store open a bit longer.
“Pick and choose your battles,” she says. “Which one? Do you want to make the $5, or do you want to come into a mostly recovered store? I choose a recovered store… I’ll make that $5 tomorrow.”
She then called out one employee who has a set schedule from 9am-5pm, but regularly shares their complaints about the previous night’s close.
MaTreeka also points out a message from the store’s HR manager, which urges workers to keep the store open after hours when they are close to making the goal.
“I’m not staying open for $5, when y’all not gonna give me time-and-a-half for staying open,” the worker says in the video, arguing that she should be paid overtime for working beyond her schedule.
The HR manager also tells the workers that meeting their goal works toward employee bonuses, however, MaTreeka claimed in the comments that the extra $5 wouldn’t get them that bonus. “Just to clarify that $5 is not going to make us bonus,” she said. “We are 10s of thousands of dollars away from that.”
Many commenters took MaTreeka’s side, saying closers and openers would behave the same under those circumstances.
“That’s crazy because if they had to close they would be making it a priority to get the hell out of the store by 10pm too,” one user argued.
Others said they’ve experienced the same behavior in other industries. Many claim that those working the closing shift are often subjected to unrealistic expectations.
“Fast food is the same way, and I was a fresh manager and i most definitely did not work my wage. closed at 11 and i didn’t get out until 1/2 most days,” a further TikToker shared.
The Daily Dot reached out MaTreeka via Instagram direct message.
