October 12, 2013 - TargetSucks
Admitted true feelings to Target headquarters
I’m not ashamed to admit this as I am a true and honest man who tells who I really am. I emailed through the contact us email on target.com and messaged that I am truly developing sickness and depression from the team leads at my store pushing me so hard to get red cards and asking guests for them. I said I have a social anxiety to peoples reactions of no and to yelling of any kind. I clearly stated that I’ve spoken to my store manager about the red cards but that I was scared to admit my personal feelings of depression and anxiety to her, so that is why I contacted target headquarters through there contact us email on there website. If I am fired for this, than so be it as I do not care any longer, but for one I have never been a quitter. The anxiety attacks of asking guests for the red card is real and true about me, I shake and shutter as asking and after, I also get depressed and sometimes angry about guest problems of coupons and stupid buy 2 get a $5 gift card and they only bought one yet they yell at me and yet I told them the entire truth as put in the computers all over Target. I have SAD (Social Anxiety DIsorder), I don’t like to meet random people, I don’t like talking to random people, I have no problem going out with family or friends, I just have a lot of anxiety from anyone I do not know and it’s nerve racking as you can imagine what anxiety is of course. I told the head quarters that I was harassed about asking for the red cards to the guests by the team leads. That’s how I feel because I am not comfortable with a yes or no, I’m not comfortable with helping people either. I can handle a hello, oh I like this candy too, and than an ok, total is this, have a good day, but anything extra is an extreme anxiety attack of nerves shaking and sweating all over my body. I don’t know what they will do, but I’m glad I finally told them who the hell the real me is because I can’t take this shit anymore.
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I simpatize with your situation because I too have SAD as well as another mental illness and I have experienced the treatment you are getting, but I just want to know what contacting HQ is going to do to help your situation?
If you are diagnosed with SAD and are getting treatment for it then your best bet would to be to work with your doctor to figure out what kind of reasonable accommodations can be made for you. It sounds like a cashier position is detrimental to your health and maybe a sales floor or flow team position would better suit you.
Peddling the Redcards is part of the cashier core roles, and if you are not doing it then they have every right to let you know you aren't doing your job. It may seem like harassment, but if they don't know you are disabled from performing a task then they will continue to hold you accountable for your core roles as a cashier.
The American's with Disabilities Act is set up to protect you from harassment because of a disability but your stores leadership need to know that you have a one before you are fully protected. You don't have to tell them what your condition is, you just need to let them know you need reasonable accommodations in order to be a successful employee.
In the end you have to way the cost and benefits of disclosure.
I find it quite odd. When the red cards first rolled out in the 1990's we were told to ask every single guest to apply. As of a result of this, guests felt that they were being harassed by target team members and the guest comment lines were flooded with phone calls. It gets annoying from a guest's point a view when they get asked every time to apply for the card. So, Target in their New To Use front end news letter changed their tactics and cashiers were re-trained only to ask our guests to apply only WHEN THE SCREEN PROMPTED on the register. Bullshit!! Whatever is going on with Target Cooperation now, regional, group leaders, district managers, store managers, etl's and gstls are stressing their store teams out to get 3% in conversions vs the 2.5 % corporate goal. They are pressing the cashiers to ask every guests--more like harassing the cashiers to harass the guests now every time. The emails keep flooding in over and over again about red cards about if the we have the right gstl's or right cashiers in place. Only red card matters to target now. They do not care about us. They do not care about fixing the heat and cooling conditions in the stores. They do not care about us when we hurt ourselves on the job-they want to cover it up-"oh you will be fine." They do not care. Seems like all or most of the people at the regional or group and district and store managers are constantly leaving target due to this red card bullshit and the meagre payroll hours that they are giving out to stores with the same damn expectations! Ever ask a guest to apply for a red card and she tells you something like NO MY HUSBAND WILL KILL ME?" Ever try to ask a guest to apply for a red card but before you could get the word out they tell you NO that they do not want a red card? These are the smart guests. The interest rate is outrageous and people with the red card who are in debt over their heads might just start killing themselves as a way to get out. After we have been pushed to our limits for those of us who do such a a great job overall and are over 3% with conversion when review time comes around, instead of rewarding us with healthy raises they will find a way to demeanor us by giving us lousy ass raises and telling us that they can only give out x amount of money for raises while the Target president George Steineffal or whatever his name is banking most of the profits while we slave to make his ass Rich Rich Rich. Guess he thinks he can take all that money to the land down under
It's Greg Steinhaffel, but anyways, thanks. Yes when I joined Target in 2008 we were asked as cashiers to ask guests about the Target red card when prompted on screen. Starting in 2012, for some strange reason, they started with the ask every guest if they want a red card and tell them benefits of it if they say no, try to convince them with the 5% off, free shipping, extra 30 day return policy, 5 subscription pick ups and get 5% card for all day off. Yeah yeah I know it, I tell it, I ask it, but it's gotten to the point where I do not even try anymore. I don't give a shit. They can hassle me all they want, give me a small raise, even fire me if they choose to. A friend of mine did great on red cards and got a small 7 cent raise. I did not so great on red cards, yet got a 15 cent raise once. Now, everyone gets 5 to 8 cent raises now and that's it. Target executives are getting greedy. Greg and his execs are rolling in the millions of dollars per year they have now pushing this crap out. I'm not a quitter, never have been, but if Target wants to fire me for not doing something I hate about the job, than so be it. I'm not ashamed to be myself and get fired for it.
Target made a profit of $21.57 billion in 2012¹, with a total revenue of $73.3 billion². Considering that there are 361,000 employees³, they could give each employee up to $59,753.46 a year more (~$35+/hr at 30 hours/week, or a raise of ~400%).
I got a 2.1% raise (a whopping $0.20) - which they felt was "acceptable" - with some of my coworkers who have been there for longer getting even less.
All Target cares about is the bottom line, plain and simple. They don't care that we, the employees on bottom, are the ones making their stores function. And I don't think they will until we do something to change their minds.
1: http://buswk.co/17pW111
2: http://buswk.co/1933NRf
3: http://buswk.co/1hFL9Rc
It seems that if you're not willing to condone the "guests" rude behavior than their mission is to make your day as miserable as possible.
That is so true. Guests make me feel horrible, I want paper, I want this serperate, cold stuff seperate, gotta buy this seperately, why is that price that when the shelf said that? For fuck sake people, I can't accept this coupon because you don't have that exact item, duh. The price is different because someone put it in the wrong spot, duh. Your coupon doesn't work because it's expired, duh. OMFG, it's so many duh moments there I so badly want to scream how dumb as shit people are about shopping and prices and coupons. Than there's the ones about WIC and food stamp crap, it's like, it's free money from the government, who the hell cares how much you spend, it's not your fucking money. Drives me so nuts I want to break the computers.
they ever try to hit on canadians with a canadian rbc target cc to sign up for the american red card?
And does the american red card credit card offer extended warranty?
What do you know, Target head quarters didn't even reply this time, not even an email back of saying thank you for sending us an email and support of our stores. I got that the first time I contacted head quarters through the contact us on the website, but this time, it's been about two weeks since I did this and no email back, not even my store team manager talked to me at all, no one. So they must think of me as a problem now so I don't get any help on anything at all. Must think of me as more of a problem and just want me to keep suffering the feelings of anxiety and hoarded on by the TLs so I'll scream and swear and get fired some day. Nice try idiots, but I'm too smart now, you can keep trying to torture me with anxiety of getting the red card crap and firing me, but I'm not gonna do something wrong because I'm better than you for not going insane on your asses!
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I was under the impression that the "Contact Us" forms on the website were for guests and that the emails went to the guest services department? (Or Investor Relations depending on the form).
I've never tried it though, so it's very possible I'm mistaken. I would say call the integrity hotline, but... well, we all know how that works (i.e. it doesn't).
You're right, Target.com is actually it's own subsidiary and has little to nothing to do with the brick and mortar stores.
Going to corporate is not that answer. I wrote this before, but if you have a serious medical condition that is diagnosed by a specialist and you are currently getting treatment for this, you need to work with that doctor to come up with a plan that allows your employment at Target to be a positive experience.
After you figure out what kind of employment is best for your condition, talk with your store's HR about reasonable accommodations that can be made for you.
It's a simple as that.
hope all goes well for you