August 20, 2015 - TargetBS
A Company With a Distinct Lack of Integrity & Tact
I won’t rant or draw this out, but this site has definitely been a beacon of relief that I’m not the only one who has received such embarrassingly tactless treatment by Target. Here goes, my attempt to make a long story short.
I was hired as an Overnight Flow Team Member in mid-July, just over a month ago. This was my second time applying for Target. First time was last summer, hired as cashier. No real complaints about that store, aside from the constant “harassment” about opening RedCards. Each time was the same situation, just a side job for a little extra income.
Interviewed with the Store TL & HR ETL. Interview went fantastically, was hired on the spot for Overnight Flow. I disclosed to them that I was a student and my semester starts at the end of August in which I would only be available weekends due to having classes throughout the week. No problem, the Store TL said and Flow Team managers would be notified. This comes back to haunt later. Started about a week later. First thing that struck me was the distinct lack of training for Flow. I was put with a trainer, who was literally just a co-worker who was assigned to “train” me the second I checked in with the manager. I was show how to operate a pallet jack and move pallets, which they didn’t want me to do, just observe my trainer. Next night, I was put on the line and expected to know where to place the boxes on pallets, despite not knowing which pallet was which or what to do with back stock boxes. I winged it by reading the labeled signs. Essentially I would just help push boxes off the truck every night from here on out.
About a week ago I spoke to the gentlemen who coordinates the scheduling for the Flow Team and reminded him, or so I thought, that school is starting soon. He was completely taken aback by this news and had no idea, to which I said the Store TL & HR said they would pass on the notice to Flow Team Leads. First Red Flag looking back. He then tells me that it is no problem, as they like people who can work weekends, having worked the past two weekends I know this to be true given that each night, Sat & Sun, literally had 5, 6 people max to work the line & unload the truck with 3-4 pallet pullers, severe understaffing. He also said to just let him know if I can work more days, honestly he isn’t who I have beef with, he was genuinely very sweet & accommodating, and told me to submit the availability change on eHR. Two days later I see the Store TL on her morning store walk as I was filling in batteries with my other TM, I was placed in Electronics. She says I’m just the person she wanted to see and proceeded to ask me how things were going. I responded with the usual “great” which I meant, because I thought aside from the lack of coverage on the line, my co-worker in Electronics was a delight to work with. Then she proceeds to ask “What’s with the availability change you submitted?” I immediately said “You knew that I would have that coming up given school starting in two weeks.” She then said that she needed people with open availability given the current understaffing on Flow Team, that there was no way such a request could be approved and she wouldn’t have hired me if she knew I would ask for an availability change. I was confused and needed a second to register this given that during the interview process, I pointedly disclosed that school would be starting in one month from the interview and could only work weekends. Now as an aside & to be fair, I did say that I could work Fri, Sat & Sun during the semester, however a class that I needed for my major opened up in the interim between interview and employment and there was no way I wasn’t going to jump on the opportunity to add it. However this switched around my class schedule, so I would have a day during the week free to work, so still 3 days total. I told her that we discussed this during the interview regarding school, which her response was that she would not have hired me without open availability. A little back and forth where she seems to willfully forget that during the interview I disclosed all this information that is seemingly now a surprise to her and it basically ends with “You must have open availability to work here or we can just pay you out for what you have worked so far.” Paraphrasing of course, but that is the gist of it. I tell her I’ll think about it.
Next day, I see her again, immediately she says she looked at my schedule and it does say I have open availability and nothing on the form I signed indicates that I’ll need flexible scheduling for school. I remind her it was discussed, she says she wouldn’t have hired me knowing I don’t have open availability, and the kicker is that she reiterates she would only allow the availability request if it was for school, which I again remind her it is, and she can’t trips over her tongue failing to come up with a response. I ask to see this paper which she tells me to see HR ETL to see it, I visit her and ask to see it, she shows it to me and indeed no annotation about school starting. I remind her that during the interview, it was discussed that I can work weekends only due to school, which she responds with “Well, had that been noted I would have written it down, but since it isn’t written down, that must not have been indicated since it is not noted on the form. You signed for this availability and we can’t change it. Then shows me another person’s file that they needed surgery on these given days and that it was marked so she could allow it, and this person needed these days off. This made me uncomfortable given that I know these must be confidential files that I shouldn’t see and frankly, it is information that I don’t need to know and has nothing to do with the situation. She was on of the interviewers with whom school was discussed and agreed upon and now was flat out denying that such terms were discussed, without saying it directly. I tell her that I did add one additional class which switched some of my schedule days and she more than once tries to use that to get on me with “You didn’t tell us that you added one class!” Despite the fact that she is ignoring the bigger picture that she is denying the discussion during the interview that I have a full-time semester coming up. So i let it go and walk away. Come in to work two days later and getting ready to clock in, say hello to my delightful co-worker and a guy asks if they can speak with me. I say sure, figuring that he is going to have me sign a sheet as I admittedly missed my 5-hour lunch break, and my Flow TL said that will be a warning, can’t do it again for 6 months and expect to sign off on the warning. He leads me into the HR ETL office and notifies me they’re letting me go, citing “performance issues.” This, despite the fact that my managers praise my performance and how quickly I learned the tasks at hand night after night, and in more that one huddle and have not received one coaching. I try to probe what performance issues, to which they disclose that since I’m under my 90 days they don’t have any obligation to tell me specifics. I then tell them the short version of the above story, to which even they seem surprised to hear what a mess that ordeal is. I’m fairly certain the Store TL or HR ETL or both pulled strings, especially given her “we could just pay you out” remark from two days prior. She couldn’t even dismiss me face-to-face and instead sent two cronies to take care of it, who were obviously taken aback by the story. I’ve never been dismissed from a job but more importantly never seen such tactlessness and lack of integrity when it comes to, in this case, being “flexible” and discussing one thing in the interview and doing everything the opposite when hired. Given that there were 2-3 nights of the week when there were, as I said, 6 people max on line and pulling, clearly they needed me more than the opposite. Luckily, this was merely a second job, and my other primary job, is more than willing to work with my school schedule. At the very least, the pay out they gave me paid for new glasses given that mine recently went missing. I definitely am contemplating a BBB report, not in an effort to get my job back, but just to get out to someone that this goes on at Target.
On my way out, a co-worker was shocked to see me leaving and I told her what went down, she told me that she is always scheduled on days she has classes during her semesters, so the “flexibility” issue isn’t exclusive to me.
This definitely went longer than I planned, so sorry for writing this into rant status and possible questionable grammar in an attempt to make it fast, but it feels good to just share this on this website, and see that others, even if not a mirror of this situation, can relate to such tactless treatment.
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Well after reading this a few times to make sure I understood the chain of events, it seems to me the management there is a walking disaster and you got shafted. Good luck with school and don't look back at crap pile Target.