Grunt Work Sucks, But It’s Necessary

Around 2015, I quit tech and returned back to fashion.

I had lost my quickly earned passion for tech and chose to return back to the industry that raised me. Of course, it was more to it than that but I’ll save that for another article. Regardless, I felt compelled to get back into the luxury fashion industry by any means necessary.

I landed a role at Saks as a 5th Avenue Club Assistant. If you’re unfamiliar with the 5th Avenue Club, it’s essentially a personal shopping experience tucked away in the most fabulous part of Saks. It was honestly a great job - it’s where I once answered the phone and on the other end was Aretha Franklin!

My role was to assist the personal shoppers with their appointments. The tasks ranged from attending designer informational about new collections, gift wrapping purchases, and pulling looks for incoming clients.

It was fabulous.

But not all parts were glamorous. There was a sizable amount of grunt work involved such as plating food, putting back many clothing items, and stocking the kitchen. While those weren’t my most favorite parts of the job, it was necessary work to keep things going. Failing to do one task became a domino effect for diminishing the shopping experience. And listen, we truly provided a world-class shopping experience.

While the job didn’t pay much (hello, $18/hour in 2015), it was truly one of my most favorite jobs I’ve ever had - even including the jobs I’ve had in tech! Truly one of those “If money wasn’t an object, what would you do for a job?” experiences.

I took pride in the grunt work. If I had to wrap 10 boxes of Christmas gifts, well you can be sure I was the best damn gift wrapper that day. If I had to plate lunch for a client, then best believe I did my best to come as close to Michelin Star quality as possible. There’s no shame in doing grunt work. Not to sound cliche but it does build character.

And it humbles you, a lot.

There were a couple of other places I’ve worked in fashion that had even less glamour tasks. When I was at Juicy Couture, we had to clean the bathrooms for our closing shifts. And best believe me when I say…those bathrooms were CLEANED to a T by the time I got done with em’! And as someone who spent years in visual merchandising, don’t get me started on the display standards we had to adhere to keep the store shelves and displays in tip-top shape. Hours upon hours of folding piles upon piles of shirts, denim, and sweaters. But let the record reflect, my home closet organization is impeccable these days.

I work in tech now and don’t necessarily work in an assistant capacity anymore. But you can be sure that there has never been one task that I’ve delegated to someone else that I wouldn’t do myself. I think that’s an important quality in a leader. You really gotta be humble enough to do all forms of work that’s relevant to the job. Otherwise, trust can go out the window and you’ll look like an out of touch manager. Nobody wants one of those.

While I probably couldn’t make a career out of doing the grunt work, I certainly don’t regret ever having to do any of it.