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Stories about the daily grind of work.

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  • 3

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: The Last Day

  • October 2, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
In the final chapter of Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer, the author looks back to the feeling of a last day at work.
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  • 4

Computers and Retail

  • August 28, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Brian Brehmer looks into how computers have made ordering a milk deliver anything but easy. Retail Tales is back.
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  • 7

Have You Suffered an Injury at Work That Wasn’t Your Fault?

  • August 3, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Brian Brehmer, no stranger to being injured in the workplace, again descends into bureaucratic hell in order to make a compensation claim. 
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  • 5

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: Invisible Employees

  • July 6, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Brian Brehmer looks into an unusual phenomenon in the world of retail; the invisible employee.
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  • 3

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: Too Many Managers

  • June 15, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Brian Brehmer has a look around him and sees managers, managers, and more managers.
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  • 4

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: Job Titles

  • May 1, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Brian Brehmer goes into the confusing world of job titles in the joy of working in retail. This is how management get away with paying you less.
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  • 5

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: The Transfer

  • April 23, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Brian Brehmer is torn from the relative comfort of his store to be transferred to another, then another, then another. It can only be Retail tales.
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  • 7

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: Inventory

  • April 9, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Brian Brehmer describes the utter soul-destroying misery of an inventory in the world of retail.
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  • 4

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: A Visit from Corporate

  • April 5, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
When a nameless corporate stooge comes to check the shop, Brian Brehmer and the retail crew attempt to appease the managerial presence.
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  • 5

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: The Job Application

  • March 25, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Retail veteran, Brian Brehmer, looks into the life-sapping questions on a standard job application form. It can only be Retail Tales.
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  • 9

Driving Corpses for Money

  • March 23, 2021
  • by Brandon Christopher
The following is an excerpt from Brandon Christopher’s book ‘The Job Pirate: An Entertaining Tale of my Job-Hopping Journey in America’.
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  • 5

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #17 The Interview

  • March 15, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
The begin of any descent into the world of retail always starts with two simple words: Job interview.
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  • 6

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #16 The First Day

  • March 8, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
After this, I was handed over to a department, given a walkie talkie with which to communicate and told to work. The department I received first? Men, shoes and baby. Seems I could not escape shoes even if I tried.
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  • 4

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #14 The Time Clock

  • February 17, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
In a perceived act of corporate evil, it seems that the time clock at work is operating on a different wavelength from the rest of the world. Time for Brian Brehmer.
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  • 4

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #13 The Customers

  • February 14, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
In his column, Retail Tales, Brian Brehmer looks at the essential, but often unpredictable, aspect of retail: the customers.
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  • 8

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #11 The Annual Review

  • February 3, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
After a year of mind-numbing repetition, Brian faces up to the enticing prospect of reflecting on his actions in the annual review. Retail Tales, with Brian Brehmer.
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  • 3

Working in a Canning Factory

  • February 2, 2021
  • by Jeff Burt
I took a job in a factory that cans peas, a less than rosy introduction to the working world.
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  • 6

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #10 The Worst Jobs

  • January 31, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
The soul-crushing tasks that make up the world of working in retail. Whether it’s mopping up sewage, or taking babies’ passport photos, you can count on Brian Brehmer to take you through the worst jobs.
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  • 5

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #9 The Employee Handbook

  • January 24, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
The employee handbook. Time to knuckle down and get ready to give everything, even your life, for the multi-national corporation in which you work. This is the nature of retail. This is Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer.
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  • 5

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #8 Muzak

  • January 18, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
A voyage into the world of unintentional music today. Maybe you don’t notice the music, or muzak, that plays away while you shop. Why would you? Well, the workers do, believe you me. Retail tales with Brian Brehmer is back. It’s time for ‘Retail Tales’.
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  • 5

Dole Life: Part Two

  • January 18, 2021
  • by Steven Bradbury
The Jobcentre can be an ugly place. Steven Bradbury follows up his experience of trying to get on the dole in austerity Britain with the second instalment of ‘Dole Life’.
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  • 6

The Job Interview

  • January 7, 2021
  • by Holly Watson
Skint but with the mouth-watering prospect of working as a potwash in the local pub, famous for its aroma of old farts, Holly Watson reluctantly goes to a job interview.
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  • 3

Retail Tales with Brian Brehmer: #6 The Award

  • January 6, 2021
  • by Brian Brehmer
Don’t you hate the corporate drivel? They give you an award for all the time you have spent earning very little while making the company so much richer. When they take your time and your dignity to boot, then it’s time for Brian Brehmer.
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  • 4

Dole Life Part One: What you have to do for £50 a week

  • January 1, 2021
  • by Steven Bradbury
What you have to do for £50 a week in Britain. This is British life on the dole. Steven Bradbury gives Talking Soup the inside scoop on a life of Job Seeker’s Allowance.
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Inspired by the never ending cycle of work and play that takes us from school and delivers us conveniently by the graveyard, Talking Soup shares the stories of everyday life however mundane or extraordinary.

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