I'm glad folks are starting to talk about customer service jobs and the toll they take on workers bodies. I had severe back/neck problems in my 20s from working fast food, banking, and retail. Standing for 8 hours straight takes a toll and HURTS.

Banking was probably the worst for my back/neck. Had to stand for 8 hours straight in one spot, and also wear dress shoes the whole time. Though food service/retail involved more physical labor and movement so that came with its own issues

I still have problems because they don't just go away, but being able to sit down most of the time at work now helps. I used to spend my days off in bed, sometimes throwing up from the pain. Now, getting to sit plus being able to afford a yoga class now and then helps.

my last job, working at a gas station, we didn't have chairs anywhere and didn't get breaks. you couldn't even sit now and then. Had to stand to eat your lunch, which you scarfed down quickly in-between customers

We had a little table that we could set our food/phones on, but management would threaten to take it away if we stood by it for too long.

The UMC mental health exam I had to take for ordination flagged me for "psychosomatic issues" when I talked about my back problems. Wish clergy how physically easy most of our jobs are compared to customer service.

I worked at a Tim Hortons where we all had to threaten to pee ourselves on the job, because management took away bathroom breaks until we could get drive-through time down to an impossible amount.

(an aside: until clergy have to en masse threaten to pee ourselves in order to be treated with basic human dignity, we should probably stop saying we have the hardest job in the world. it's not a contest, and there's hard parts of our job, but it's such an ignorant thing to say)

customer service workers are treated like such garbage. the jobs themselves could be challenging but fulfilling. Can be fun and have intrinsic value. I LIKED working customer service when it came to actually doing the job. But workers are treated as less than human.

workers subjected to severe pain that will cause lifelong problems, deadly amounts of stress (the number of times I've seen co-workers collapse due to overwork, overheating, dehydration, heart issues, panic attacks, etc. Happened to me once too!), screamed at by customers

all for what? $7.40 an hour in some places? $10 if you're really lucky? As little as $4 or so under some circumstances? And this is just seen as normal, when really it is a human-rights abuse that should horrify us.

I'll also say my anxiety/depression became nearly instantly more manageable (not cured by a long shot, but more manageable) within weeks of quitting the gas station for my pastoring job, too. I was in therapy and on meds while working customer service. Not on meds now...

...and only do therapy once a month, just as a quick check-in because I am in a pretty good place! But I can manage mostly on my own. And all that changed is my job situation.

This isn't to say that I'll never be on meds again, or that meds don't work, or "just give people better jobs and they wont need meds." But it IS to say we don't talk enough about the enormous toll it takes on mental health to be treated like garbage at work.

Anyway, that's all I have. Just asking fellow clergy to stop saying we have the hardest job in the world, to stop wondering why folks who come to our food pantries don't just "go work at McDonalds," and to advocate for worker liberation!