Countdown to Christmas

Feeling Stressed? Try Life Behind A Cash Register.

Office workers who've been overloaded this week because half their coworkers are on vacation, managers who had to squeeze their shopping into lunch hours and after work, people who wished they were teachers so they got time off at Christmas -- they all still have one reason to rejoice this time of year.

They're not in retail.

At least that's how it looks from the business end of a cash register. "I can take someone over here!" yelled a clerk at the Borders bookstore on L Street, as another staffer directed shoppers to open registers and harried shoppers waited impatiently in line.

At Pentagon City's Banana Republic, Devanshu Manocha reminded himself that it's a good thing when the store is jammed. "They're here to shop, we're here to sell. We all try to get along."

"During the holiday season, people are like, 'Right here! Right now!' " said Folasike Oyinade, a beleaguered appliance supervisor at the Best Buy at Tenleytown.

Oyinade was working amid a frenetic buzz of after-work shoppers, teens screaming as they tried video games and children hanging on harried parents. At the cash register, people were lined up 16, no, make that 18, 19 -- here come a few more -- 22 people deep.

"I need this. I need to own this. Now," a woman insisted, brandishing a borrowed DVD of the documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."

"I'll look it up," said Oyinade, smiling.

The customer rolled her eyes. "I already asked the guy up front and he told me to come back here," she said, with an urgency that would seem appropriate if, say, her carotid artery had just been cut.

Oyinade typed in the DVD title. The store didn't have it in stock. Oyinade said it looked like she could order it to arrive in three days. She agreed. And then -- disaster. It was on back order until after the holidays.

Oyinade apologized. Luckily, her friendly face and quick attempt to help appeared to have won over the customer. "She did say thank you," Oyinade said as the woman left the store.

When she leaves work at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, Oyinade will briefly get a break: She will put down her walkie-talkie. She won't have to smile all day. And if all goes well with family members, she won't have to hear anyone demanding something. Right. Now.

But then comes the return season, which often is more stressful than the shopping season. The only respite until February for most retail workers is Christmas day itself.

According to ComPsych Corp., a national provider of employee assistance programs, retail workers at this time of the year bear the brunt of Grinchiness. The organization said there has been a 13 percent increase this year over last in the number of ComPsych crisis counseling sessions for retail workers.

"During the holiday season stores become a combustible environment," said Richard A. Chaifetz, ComPsych's chief executive. "You have people who have a short amount of time, want to make a purchase and feel like they should be catered to. And you have a reduced workforce because of low unemployment and new employees that are brought in who are not as familiar. People lose patience and become angry."

Chaifetz said he has seen everything from customers verbally abusing workers to physically attacking them, and said he sees it regularly. "When customers feel they're not being taken care of, it's an affront to their ego," he said. "I think people feel entitled."

Some veteran retail workers take the season in stride. Oyinade says she works on maintaining a calm demeanor.

"Smiling puts you in a better frame of mind," said a smiling Rachel Parker, who works at the Pentagon City Banana Republic store.

The National Retail Federation Foundation offers several training programs for workers in how to deal with the public. Workers go through role-playing scenarios, like how to defuse an angry customer, "so when they are faced with them, they have some realization they know how to handle it," said Sarah Conrad, director of training and operations. "We're building confidence."

But the holiday season means a bevy of temps who need their own crash training course, Conrad said. "For people not used to the extra stress and traffic, it can be tough. . . . It's a big learning curve for someone just coming in for that six- to eight-week period."

An important point she makes to them is: "Never take it personally, because it's not about you. It's about an upset customer."

Beth Aldhizer has less Zen-like memories of her 20 years of holiday retail. "It was all about coffee during the day and wine or beer at the end of the night," she said.

Aldhizer said she took a step down for a less stressful job a year ago, as store director at the J. Crew in the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City. As she watches Christmas approach this year, Aldhizer is a happier worker. "I was stressed out for 20 years. It doesn't feel that way here," she said. That's partly because most customers come in knowing what they want, thanks to J. Crew's online and catalog marketing, she said.

But that's not to say it's slow. For now, she's not thinking of her own Christmas. "We don't decorate our houses," she said. As for that holiday break? "I'll take a week off in January."