OPINION: Wolfpack Outfitters — Work harder, get paid the same

When the basketball teams lost a few weeks ago, I was relieved. As much as I wanted to see our school succeed, I knew that if we kept winning, the demand for merchandise at Wolfpack Outfitters — where I work — would go up, as it had done with each successive win. And yet, as the demand from our employers increased, our pay remained the same.

Thanks to the basketball runs we have seen unprecedented demand that my coworkers have described as higher than anything we have had for years at the campus bookstore. Even our annual sale in the fall with items marked down over 70% did not draw such a large crowd.

From the second the doors open, hordes of people flood into the store tearing through the merchandise for the basketball championships. When we close, we have to beg them to leave.

When I clock in at work I am immediately fought over by multiple people telling me they need my help in several different places at once. When I begin one task, someone will come up to me and drag me to another one without question.

The lines of people never end. From pulling and processing online orders, packaging things to ship and checking people out in person, there is an endless amount of demand. This leaves me and my coworkers feeling drained and sore one hour into a shift.

At one point I felt so dizzy and sweaty from checking out nearly 100 people in half an hour that I had to sit down on the floor to catch my breath. A customer then leaned over the register to demand I check them out. There is not a single break for employees because both customers and staff expect too much of us.

A six-hour shift only permits a 15-minute break. This isn’t even enough time to eat a meal after doing all of this work. Normally I would attempt to eat as fast as I can, but the endless running around has made my body feel so worked up that I am unable to eat without gagging. This leads to me not eating and ultimately feeling even worse.

Keeping a drink behind the counter is prohibited which adds to the feelings of dehydration and dizziness. The staff has made me feel as though leaving the register for a second to go get a sip of water would result in disapproval.

The demand has been so overwhelming that many employees have called out to avoid the pressure and stress. This makes working even harder as we attempt to serve thousands of people a day while being short-staffed.

One way staff has tried to ease demand was by opening earlier and closing later than normal. The day before they made this change they emailed all employees and told them they were expected to come in two hours earlier and stay an hour later than usual. There was no request for people or asking if they were free; it was simply a demand.

Jeff Halliburton, the director of retail at Wolfpack Outfitters, said the following in a statement via email:

“Wolfpack Outfitters is thrilled to be a part of many fans’ celebrations of the incredible basketball seasons that our Women’s and Men’s teams have just completed. Every single one of our team members — from our student employees and professional staff, to volunteers from across the university and our vendor partners — have stepped up and been working extremely hard to meet the unprecedented demand for NC State licensed merchandise. We are looking forward to celebrating our retail team’s amazing efforts before the end of the semester.”

Wolfpack Outfitters’ comment on the matter did not address these issues.

We’re currently doing five times more work than we ever have before. A student employee getting paid $10 per hour doesn’t make enough to pay for one month’s rent. Most of my coworkers, including myself, are seeking more than one job just to pay for housing. Leaving this job with insufficient pay and then attempting to go work at another job is impossible.

Student workers are the people actually accomplishing the tasks of putting out stock, pulling online orders, checking people out and providing customer service. We do the part of the job that gets merchandise into the hands of people who pay for them. $10 an hour was already not enough to make ends meet, and if we are expected to work hard enough to give me a chronic headache for two weeks, preventing me from going to my other job, then we should be paid better.

The bottom line is that an increase in work should result in an increase in pay.

If Wolfpack Outfitters is getting significantly more revenue from these sales, they can afford to pay their student workers more for the extra work they are demanding.