Here's what it's really like to work retail on Black Friday

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"Black Friday" is no term of endearment, especially for the people who have to work in retail that day.

From retailers' perspectives, being "in the black" is a good thing — it means profits. For many of them, Black Friday is the biggest sales day of the year.

But the name has darker origins. As Time reports, newspapers in the 1960s reappropriated the term Black Friday, which was originally used to describe the September 24, 1864 stock market crash and ensuing panic it caused, to describe the rush of crowds stores saw the day after Thanksgiving.

These days, to call it the most hectic day in retail is an understatement.

To get a better sense for what it's really like to work retail on Black Friday, we asked a former Best Buy sales associate, who handled customer service and worked as a cashier during five Black Fridays until 2013, to weigh in. Here's what she had to say about her experience:

Describe what it was like working on Black Friday.

"On the day, a couple hours before the store opened, customer service people and sales associates would go outside and start selling accessories, credit cards, and product protection plans. That was difficult because it was cold and the people looking for the doorbusters were less likely to get anything other than the product.

"Once the doors opened, the first few hours were craziness, a blur of customers and product.

"Then it started to slow down, and the rest of the day was like waves of calm and then tons of people. In between the craziness during times of calm, people were trying to clean up and return product back to the floor.

"I really think the best way to describe it is that it is a blur."

What was the incentive for retail employees to work on Black Friday?

"When I started the incentive was extra hours, and there was excitement about the rush of it. But as the shift moved toward Black Thursday, there really wasn't that incentive anymore. It was more annoying to come in on Thanksgiving. However, since you had to come in on a holiday, you got holiday pay."

How did scheduling on Black Friday work?

"Black Friday was tons of work and everyone was involved.

"It was pretty much all hands on deck, especially during that first initial rush of customers. And throughout the day there continued to be a steady flow of people, so everyone had to be available.

"This might have changed since I last worked Black Friday in 2013, but when I was there minors got the eight-hour shifts during the day. More experienced staff usually got a split shift, so one eight-hour shift from midnight to 8 am and then you came back at 3 pm or 4 pm to close.

"I think this has changed now because the store hours have changed, but before you could easily work 15 hours on Black Friday. Not too much anymore — everyone I know this year is scheduled to work 10 hours."