January 20, 2016 - MrSharkNasty
Unobtainable Expectations
Many of the post I read on here have very valid points, but often they show great examples as to why Target might consider you a poor worker. My previous sentence does not mean Target is in the right, it just simply means you might not be as good as you think you are. Many of you on here seem rather juvenile and uneducated yourself, which from my experience is no better than what Target had to offer me. However, it’s very clear Target is treating very good people very poorly!
I worked for a Home Improvement Store for 6-years prior to working at Target. I was a sales associate in our busiest department. I did everything you pretty much could do in a retail store: setting ad, removing ad, placing special orders, building displays, merchandising, inventory, stocking, overstocking and so on. If my manager wanted something done accurately and quickly he would come to me. In 6-years worth of work I only missed 6-days of work! I was never once late for work! I was secret shopped twice scoring perfect scores! The pay was alright, better than Target for a low level employee. As a whole I did not care for this Home Improvement Store. The guest were just nasty! They treated you like dirt! Far worst than any guest I ever dealt with at Target. I thought the training was poor, well I was wrong Targets training is worst! The Home Improvement Store offers all sorts of training options and is constantly keeping you updated on policy changes. The end of my stay at this Home Improvement was rather dramatic! One day they fired our stores General Manager and replaced him with some corporate puppet. The corporate puppet got straight to work firing people when ever he could. Eventually it was obvious my time was limited. I had been there to long they were paying me to much for the position I was in so he had to come up with reasons to let me go. Eventually the inevitable happened I had a couple falsified guest complaints from unreasonable people and he ran with it. Thankfully unemployment called him out on this BS and I received it straight away. So I took my time trying to find a job, I had 6-months and the last thing I wanted it to be was retail. After several interviews for very solid positions it was clear my honesty only hurt me. Very few companies are going to hire someone who had been fired, regardless of the facts.
Shortly after my unemployment term was up I saw a job posting from Target for a part-time Flow Team Member. I didn’t need the money my wife makes enough for the both of us, I needed the job to show future employers I really am a good worker. Going back into a retail setting was the last thing I wanted to do, however, I figured at least it was only 4-days a week 4-6 hour shifts and most the time I would be there the store would be closed. I had a phone interview and an in-person interview. When I arrived for my in-person interview there was a red flag. I arrived exactly where I was told to go and asked for the person who was suppose to be interviewing me. The person at the service desk says have you taken your test yet? I’m like what test? No one mentioned anything to me about a test? They just said come here and ask for so and so. She looks at me like I’m stupid, then radios the guy. He is like did he take the test? I say I’ve not taken any test I was simply told to come here and ask for so and so to do an interview. Finally it’s all sorted out and I pass this test with flying colors. This was the very first sign of major communication problems at Target. My interview went well and it’s clear I will be hired in the near future. A few days later I get a call saying to come back in for another interview so once again I do exactly as I’m told. I go to the service desk and ask for a different so and so this time and that I’m there for an interview. Different person working the service desk this time, but once again I’m looked at like I’m stupid. He is like are you sure? I’m like yes I’m certain, I just talked to the person. Again he looks at me like I’m stupid. He finally radios the person to find out I actually was suppose to meet her at this time. All she wanted was to offer me the job. About a week after being hired I came across the logistics lead who interviewed me and he didn’t even remember me……..
I was at Target for 6-months when I decided enough was enough! I received the bare minimum of training for this flow team position and the store as a whole. No big deal, I’m a fast learner. I quickly discovered they had a lot of unwritten rules that were counter productive to getting the job done and had rules that totally contradicted my 6-years of previous retail experience. My main job was unloading the truck. The first day I unloaded the truck we beat goal by 40 minutes! Of course I continued this pace, well what does Target do they just say get it done FASTER! For 6-months straight I was the only person there every single day while people would miss work constantly! This left us understaffed all the time, yet the BAR STILL WOULD BE RAISED! People would quit and not be replaced, yet the BAR STILL WOULD BE RAISED! Target didn’t want us to win! They essentially set us up always to fail and then take it out on us. One day we had at least 3 no shows and 2 other out on vacation, we were majorly understaffed. Well as you can guess we didn’t come close to the goal time, our team lead flipped out. She blamed everyone who showed up to work that day for the short comings. Let me give you some clarity our trucks ranged from 2200 to 3000 in size.
Target is nothing but disorganized and has major communication break downs! I was hired part-time 4-days a week 4-6 hour shifts! HA, that must have been a joke. I would have never taken this job had they told me how things really go down. I soon was working 6-7 days a week! Every week they would add an extra truck or two! And then they would act like no big deal it’s just this week. Then again the next week another added truck. Often these added trucks would come with zero notice, it would be the day before you would be told you’re expected to be here tommrow! Doesn’t matter that you have plans! Target expects TWO WEEKS NOTICE WHEN YOUR QUIT, but TARGET gives you Less than 24 hours notice to be at work for a day you had scheduled off. If you say no they find other ways to get back at you. Management even wrote up one of my coworkers because they changed the schedule on him and he hit him for a no call no show. COMPLIANCE! I never thought much of this word until I started working at Target. This word is used to intimidate and bully you into doing what Target wants. If you work 6-hours you’re forced to take a 30+ minute break or you’re put on compliance! When I worked at the Home Improvement Store You could work 7 hours and 25 minutes with out having to take a lunch. So why is Target forcing me to take lunch for 6-hours of work? They want you to believe it’s the law, well GUESS WHAT IT’S NOT(not in Wisconsin anyways)! Anyways if you don’t take your lunch before 6-hours you’re on COMPLIANCE! So here is the problem about this forced lunch. If we were behind we would be expected to stay late, and because of staffing issues we were always behind! Management wouldn’t let us take a lunch until last minute because we were suppose to be done before 6-hours. So often we would be sent on our 30-minute break TO COME BACK AND DO 20-30 MINUTES WORTH OF WORK! I always refused, I was not going to take a 30 minute break to work another 30 minutes when I could have just kept working and finished in that 30-minutes. If you refused to stay late they would treat you like your the problem, when the problem was people not showing up for work! One person would tell you you’re over-filling the next person would tell you you’re under-filling. After being there one month they decided we didn’t need PDA’s or My-device it was reallocated to other positions like plano. Now we didn’t have the tools to do our jobs accurately or efficiently. Yes you can get away with not having those tools, but what successful contractor or artist does a great job with out their tools? They once again managed to maintain the insane expectations as if we still had those tools!
Target management liked to use the word Team, but it’s clear they had no concept of what a team really is. I know what a team is, I have participated in sports my entire life! A real team looks out for one another. At Target their just waiting to stab you in the back. I’ve never felt more out of place in my life. I did not fit in at all. My work did not matter, not one bit. I did not matter to Target. Everyday management would just be sitting around in the break room gossiping and talking out right trash about employees. They would never address the problem directly like strong leadership would. I even heard my name thrown around a few times out of ignorance total assumptions that had zero truth to them. Had they simple asked me I would have told them exactly what had happened, but that’s not how Target operates. They would rather spread childish rumors instead of solving a problem they could easily solve. Finally I had enough. I simply did not go back. I did not give them notice they had not earned my notice. They never called me to ask me where I was. For all they know I could have been dead in my apartment or in badly injured in a hospital somewhere. Like I said before they didn’t care about me and they don’t care about you either.
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I had a few outbursts of anger at management and ETLs while I've been with target, and it's because they never understood my health reasons. Finally after 6 years they understood me, now I'm just at the end of 7 years almost 8 years coming in June. I had to tell them again and again, I have an unknown form of extreme fatigue, no one's been able to find out why I get tired in only 6 hours, so now I only have 4 hour days 4 to 5 days a week. I am working as cashier, it's so annoying. People are all scam artists, that price isn't right, it said blah blah on the shelf, no it didn't, you got it in completely the wrong area so your lying cause you don't know the real price cause it was in a different area altogether! That coupon didn't work, it's expired, target doesn't take expired once so ever, I tell the guest that they yell no no no get manager, I don't believe you get manager, manager comes oh yes we can't take expired. Guest says than you to manager but not me, yet I wasn't lying at all, yet I know the truth and rules just like manager yet people still think I'm a lier when I'm exact with everything just like the manager. Can you believe this?!!! It's bullshit! Than you got people who use coupons, cartwheel, target phone app coupon, there red card, and there extra 5% pharmacy rewards, oh you saved $60 today. WTF? Target allowing to lose $20 to $60 on every single buy? WHY? They are losing thousands and thousands every single day, so I told managment about the problems, they say no no no, it's ok we're still making tons of money at our store here. Yeah I guess you got that marketing thing were items are actually already $20 more than what the company paid for them, ok often marketing scheme than. Target is nothing but garbage, I have shown that I care more about target in money, learning about coupons, I know the computer like it's part of me, what to do in case of money mystake or any change of what the guest wants, help people more than anyone, yet it doesn't matter, it's crap to them at target.