There’s a moment in working from home when you realize the most human interaction you’ve had all day was with your coffee maker.
I’ve been remote for several months now, and while I genuinely love the work — the clients, the strategy, the writing — there’s something that’s been missing. My husband would walk through the door after a full day in the world and I’d practically meet him at the door with a list of things I’d been saving up to say out loud. To another human. In person.
So I did something a little unexpected. I applied for a part-time job at Anthropologie.
“You’re just going to come home with shopping bags rather than a paycheck,” he said.
And he’s not wrong.
But it was never really about the money. It was about seeing people and helping people and using a completely different part of my brain for a few hours a week. Because I have been an Anthropologie loyalist for as long as the brand has existed. Head to toe. Birthday gifts. Christmas presents — just ask my three daughters what Santa Claus brings every year. It’s a whole couch full of Anthropologie for them. I know the Fort Worth store team by name. When I stopped in and visited with the store manager one afternoon, she said something that stuck with me: “We always love to hear from our customers.”
So I told her I wanted to be one of them — on the other side of the register.
What I Didn’t Expect
My first shift was four hours on the floor and in the fitting room. And I’ll be honest — it was out of my comfort zone in a way I hadn’t anticipated. I’ve spent three decades in communications. I’m comfortable in boardrooms and media interviews and high-stakes client situations. But retail? That’s a completely different skill set, and it does not belong to the faint of heart.
It’s listening — really listening — to what someone needs. It’s remembering that she wants the blouse in pink, not green, and that she’s a medium in one cut and a large in another. It’s multitasking at a pace that keeps every part of your brain engaged. It’s thinking on your feet, managing energy across a four-hour block, and being fully present with every single person who walks through that fitting room door.
In PR terms? It’s human relations in its purest form.
What I Learned About How People Shop
Here’s something I didn’t expect to take away from my first shift: a genuine appreciation for the theater of retail. People shop differently — and watching it up close was its own education.
I’d say 95% of shoppers are thoughtful about the space — they hang their clothes back up, leave the room as they found it. And now I have a whole new appreciation for the team working behind the scenes resetting everything so the next customer walks into something beautiful.
I will never look at a fitting room the same way again.
And I noticed something else about the people who come in. They aren’t all there to buy something. Some of them are there to decompress. To run their hands along new fabrics. To smell the candles. To exhale for twenty minutes in the middle of a hard week. Anthropologie has always known that they’re not just selling clothing — they’re selling a feeling, an exhale, a moment of beauty in an otherwise ordinary Tuesday.
That’s extraordinary brand work. And experiencing it from the inside made me appreciate it even more.
Cookies, Breaks, and Things I Didn’t Know I Needed
Here’s something I haven’t had in thirty years of professional life: a scheduled break.
In communications, you eat lunch at your desk, you answer emails between meetings, and downtime is something that happens to other people. But in the middle of my first shift, someone tapped me on the shoulder and said: “It’s your scheduled fifteen-minute break — do whatever you want.”
Do whatever you want. Fifteen whole minutes. Just for me.
Someone had also brought in homemade cookies for the whole team, which was the sweetest gesture — and I genuinely appreciated it. I, however, walked down to Eatzie’s, because fifteen minutes of freedom and I’m going to use it exactly how I want to. But the fact that a teammate had taken the time to bake for everyone set the tone for exactly the kind of place this is.
Scheduled downtime — built right into the shift — is something my professional career never once offered me, and I didn’t realize how much I’d been missing it until I was standing in Eatzie’s with absolutely nowhere else I was supposed to be.
I’m a fan.
The People Behind the Brand
One of the most unexpected delights of this whole experience has been my fellow employees. The team is a beautiful mix of people at completely different stages of life — recent high school graduates stepping into their first real job, new college graduates figuring out what’s next, students working toward their master’s degrees, and stay-at-home mothers who, like me, simply wanted to get out of the house and back into the world for a few hours a week.
Different ages. Different chapters. Different reasons for being there. And yet the energy is genuinely collaborative and warm. There’s something quietly wonderful about working alongside someone who is just starting out while you’re several decades into a career — you see the excitement of possibility through fresh eyes, and they remind you that showing up somewhere new and uncertain is always worth it.
It also made me think about what this brand attracts. Anthropologie doesn’t just draw a certain kind of customer — it draws a certain kind of person. Curious. Creative. A little bit adventurous. That shows up on both sides of the fitting room door.
A New Friend I Didn’t See Coming
This might be the best part of the whole story.
On my first shift I was helping a customer find the perfect outfit for her birthday celebration dinner. We pulled options, talked through the occasion, debated cuts and colors — the whole joyful process. She lives near me. We have kids the same age. Somewhere between the dressing room and the final decision we realized we just clicked — one of those instant connections you genuinely cannot plan for.
We exchanged Instagram handles before she headed to the register.
I went looking for a reason to get out of the house. I didn’t expect to help someone find her birthday outfit and leave with a new friend.
That’s the thing about saying yes to something new — you genuinely cannot predict what’s waiting on the other side of it. A new skill. A new perspective. A quick walk to Eatzie’s on a fifteen-minute break. And sometimes, a woman trying on dresses for her celebration dinner who turns out to live right down the road.
She’s already invited me to her workout class. I said yes.
Leadership That Shows Up
The thing that struck me most wasn’t the product. It was the culture.
My new leader is exceptional. She is positive and encouraging and she gives praise freely and specifically — to every team member, new and veteran alike. You can feel it in the energy of the store. You can see it in how the team moves together.
I thought: this is why this is one of the top-performing stores for the brand. The product brings people in. The people make them stay.
“Strive for Five”
One of my favorite things about this brand from the inside: the philosophy of strive for five — arriving to your shift in at least five elements of your personal style. It doesn’t mean wearing the whole store. It means a necklace, a scarf, something in your hair, a bracelet layered with something you already own. It’s an invitation to show up as yourself, assembled with intention.
I love that. It’s what the brand asks of its customers too.
And then there was the job interview itself — which involved sharing an outfit of the day and shopping the store for a fictitious trip to Italy. I walked out thinking: this brand knows exactly who it is. It hires people who love the thing they’re selling, who understand that style is personal and joyful and a little bit brave.
About That Employee Discount
I didn’t mention this earlier, but there’s one more detail worth sharing: the employee discount.
If you thought I was wearing Anthropologie before — just wait.
My husband has been warned.
Bonus: Four Hours of No Screen Time
Here’s something I didn’t see coming: four hours with no screen.
No laptop. No notifications. No emails stacking up in the corner of my eye. Just people and fabrics and fitting rooms and conversation. For someone whose entire professional life lives on a screen, that was an unexpected gift — the kind you didn’t know you needed until you were standing in the middle of it.
I can’t say I wasn’t tired after that shift. But it was a different kind of exhaustion — the good kind. The kind that comes from being on your feet and fully present and genuinely engaged with the world around you rather than a glowing rectangle on your desk.
I came home clearer than I’ve felt in months.
The Real Reason I Did This
It wasn’t about the clothes (okay, not entirely about the clothes). And it certainly wasn’t about the paycheck — my husband called that one from the start.
It was about getting out of the house. About seeing people and helping people and stepping into something completely new. It was about trusting a brand I’ve believed in for decades enough to want to be part of it from the inside.
Remote work is a gift, and I’m grateful for it every day. But humans need humans. And sometimes the best thing you can do for your creativity, your energy, and your perspective is to walk into a dressing room with someone who can’t decide between the pink and the green — and help them figure it out.
Try something new. Believe in a brand. Get a little uncomfortable.
The good stuff is usually on the other side of that.
