November 13, 2014 - valerie
constantly harassed
This is my first job I’ve ever had, I have been a cashier for about 3 months and honestly 3 months has been long enough for me to realize that 90% of Target guests have crawled out of the ground from hell. Don’t even know why I’m still working here because I’m a full time student and they have been giving me 30+ hours even when I asked for less.
Not only are the guests bad, but a lot of my team members really dislike me for some reason. I think it’s because I’m young (I look REALLY young but I’m 20) and in college so they think I’m stuck up, but I have social anxiety. I greet the guests, smile at everyone, yet that’s not enough because I don’t hold 10 minute long conversations with the guests. I applied to work in the back room because of my anxiety, but they hired me at the front lanes because I’m a young female and I guess they stereotyped me to be bubbly and energetic. Then they complain to me when I’m not interactive enough with the guests even though I purposely applied for the back room position for this reason.
I’d say 50% of the guests are literally the devil, while the other 50% treat me like I’m 12. Literally. Which maybe doesn’t sound bad, but they don’t trust me, and are constantly second guessing my every move. I was giving back this woman her change and she said “awwwww thank you baby” in a voice that you would use with a 5 year old. Guests love to overuse the word “honey” and “sweetie” with me, to the point where it has become condescending.
One middle aged team member always comes to my line and talks to my like I’m stupid, saying things like “wow, you’re learning!” in a really mocking tone and then looks at the screen on the register and tells me to count the number of items in his bag vs the number of items on the screen like he expects me to have made a mistake. He’s always very condescending towards me because I look young.
Then there’s this one GSTL who has HATED me from the beginning, she always acts overly nice to other team members when I’m around to make me feel even worse. The other day I called her over to help me because one guest was being difficult, and the guest makes fun of me in front of the GSTL and they both laugh at me and the GSTL acts like I’m stupid in front of the guest. I knew this GSTL was a witch but I didn’t think she would actually tolerate a guest talking down to me for no reason. But she did, and they both had a good old time laughing together.
And guests are always trying to get me in trouble. A GSTL was standing by my register with change for my register while I was ringing up a guest and I forgot to give this guest credit for her reusable bags (she literally only had 1) and she said really loudly “did you get my bag” and I apologized and told her I forgot, and she just kept glaring back and forth from me to my GSTL, like she was trying to get me in trouble. I wanted to just throw a nickel at her like wtf.
Honestly the cashiers, cart attendants, and a few people on the sales floor are the only team members who aren’t stuck on their high horse. The cart attendants are awesome and really cool at my store and are probably the only reason I haven’t quit yet.
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Laughing with the guest at your expense, really bad leadership.
Overall, I would say find another company. You're a full time student and they're not being flexible with your hours. Education is more important and other companies will be flexible. Also other businesses may be less condescending than Target. I was only allowed to train to cashier for one day, and most of the time I was assigned to throw trash out of the public eye. It's like they didn't trust me to do it, but who wants to be harassed about red cards when people do NOT want red cards after what they heard on the news about Target being compromised?
I cashier frequently now somewhere else, and I'm starting to like it.
It's not so bad because it's not Target.
As for your social anxiety, I don't know how old you actually are. You just said you looked young. If you're 21 or over, try drinking just enough alcohol at home to take the edge off. Or if under 21 but over 18, beer. I had the same social problem and now it's completely gone. But I drank in moderation. I didn't become a raging alcoholic. Also try not to take offense when people call you pet names like "honey" or "sweetie". Many do the same to me all the time, and I probably look pretty intimidating. It's just a habit of some people.