Methods, systems, and devices for data retention handling are described. In some data storage systems, data objects are stored in a non-relational database schema. The system may support configurable data retention policies for different tenants, users, or applications. For example, a data store may receive retention requests, where the retention requests may specify deletion or exportation actions to perform on records contained within data objects. The data store may determine retention rules based on these retention requests, and may periodically or aperiodically evaluate the rules to determine active actions to perform. To improve the efficiency of the system, the data store may aggregate the active actions (e.g., according to the dataset to perform the actions on), and may generate work items corresponding to the aggregate actions. A work processor may retrieve these work items and may efficiently perform the data retention actions on datasets stored in the data object store.