July 13, 2012 - ToldYaBoy
Fired for Following Directions!
Who would have thought they’d fire you for doing exactly what they want? That’s what happened to me. I’m the kind of employee who always tries to do the best I can. I was never late or absent, not even once, in fact I was often early, too early to go in, and I got along well with everyone. If I finished something, I moved on to the next task, I didn’t take the time to yap or have a conversation with a friend. I tried to do what they want, or what they “claimed” to want, unload and accurately stock merchandise, but in reality, that’s not what they want. They don’t give two shits about accuracy, and the proof is all over the store. Hundreds of items in the wrong spot, purposely put there by employees too scared to take that extra 2 seconds and look at the tag to find the proper location. Why? Because that extra 2 seconds could cost them their job, like it did me. Speed is a true requirement, we all came in at 4 AM to unload the truck, and no matter how many boxes are on it, a certain portion of the store (about 75%) MUST be done by 8 AM (opening time). A truck with 1600 boxes was ALWAYS 75% finished between 7:45-8:00. But here’s the thing, so was a truck of 2600, or a truck of 3000. How is that possible? It’s possible because once it gets to about 7:30, it no longer matters where items go. They go where they fit, how they fit, even if that means destroying them to get more to fit. I was not slow by any means, but the fact was I wasn’t as fast as some of the others. Why? Simple. I did the job the bosses asked, properly. I didn’t throw items on the shelf anywhere they would fit, I actually put them where they belonged. I removed the grey “out of stock” dots when required. If I had a question about something, I asked someone, I’d never just throw something in the wrong spot or backstock it. When I rotated dairy, I did it properly, I didn’t just rotate the first item and ignore the others to make it look rotated like the other folks did. Apparently, that’s not what they’re looking for at Target, at least not the one I worked at. They’re looking for the guy who can stock the fastest, they really don’t care where the items go or if they get damaged getting there. And if you think that’s bad, wait till you hear this! There’s a reason the back rooms say “Team Members Only”. Not because they give two shits about customers getting hurt going back there, its because they don’t want customers to see how poorly they handle the items! Items are unloaded from the truck in horrible ways. They are thrown incredible distances and broken glass, smashed televisions, crushed cans, broken/leaking food items, etc are a daily site. As long as the items doesn’t physically look broken (a bashed up microwave box is still a good item in their eyes) they’re stocked on the shelf with the belief that, if they doesn’t work they will be returned by the customer. No, I’m not making it up, I’ve actually heard them say this, numerous times! Once boxes are stocked onto dolly’s in the backroom, they are then “bowled” to their proper location in the aisle. Well, that’s what they call it, but that’s inaccurate. Nobody actually “bowls” them, as in bowling, but rather everyone THROWS them. This leads to another large amount of items being damaged. Damage bins are all over the store during these morning hours, and they’re always full to the top by 8 AM. Of course, they MUST be off the sales floor by 8 AM (opening time), I cant imagine why! This is what speed gets you, and this is what Target REALLY wants. But here’s the funny part. At the 8:00 “Huddle” the bosses always start complaining about people not properly stacking the merchandise, removing the grey dots, and there’s too many items being damaged! All the stuff I, and only I, made sure to properly handle, AND THEY FIRE ME FOR SPEED! If you actually try to do the job the way they say to, they will fire you. If you plan on working in their Logistics Flow team, regardless of what the bosses say, you best not give two shits about anything but speed, or you wont last long.
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Ok, when you say that you worked with speed, you probably were looking at it from your perspective. From your "fellow team members'" perspectives, you were being that annoying perfectionist who's got to do everything right...therefore, you take way longer to get anything done, making the whole team look bad. It's Target...you shouldn't have been wandering around, making sure everything was in its proper place, when you know that speed is an issue and that your store could give two shits about accuracy.
Your bosses bitch at huddle that productivity needs to be hastened...that's EVERY boss in EVERY Target. They're always going to bitch about speed and accuracy. But they don't actually have the motivation to make sure that its getting done. If all of your flow team was being lazy asses, shoving shit where it didn't belong, you were actually slowing the process down. Removing gray dots? Leave that for Instocks. What did you really care? Chances are, you were only being paid somewhere in the $8-9 range, give or take a whopping 50 cents. So at that rate of pay, why did you not just follow suit with the other "team members" on your team?
You were the picky, persnickety person who your co-workers probably bitched about. You are the type that would drive me nuts during a zone. We always had that person who had to make everything PERFECT because they actually gave a shit about a company that didn't give a shit about them. Ultimately, it slowed everything down, and the ETL's were too stupid to even notice the difference between their "good job" and my "fuck it" job.
Your productivity standards weren't being appreciated, and you were too ignorant to see that. So what, you got fired from Target. Big deal. It's fucking Target...
As far as "bowling" shit down the stockroom floors, what do you care if their product gets damaged? Did you pay for it? No. So why the fuck did you even care? So what, a microwave got banged up and thrown in the bin. Target makes millions in refunded merchant sales each year, and they really don't care if that one microwave got beat up, or that tv got smashed. The retailer will either send them another one, or refund their money.
You should have just followed suit with what other people were doing, if you wanted to actually keep your job. Your ETL's or TL were most likely very aware of what was going on in that back room. They didn't care, because it promoted productivity and urgency. Your work ethics suck in their eyes, because simply, you cared too much about a shitty job. Your perfectionist bullshit ultimately landed you the title of "slow poke", and you were therefore fired.
Thank God you worked for Target, where you just need to be able to fog a mirror to get hired. Get over it, and at your next job, remove that stick from your ass and get shit done.
You're not alone. I worked as a cashier breaker. GSTLs said bathrooms had to be checked and cleaned every hour. Others just checked off the sheet and left it a mess but I actually took the time to clean. I got a lot of compliments from customers about how clean the bathrooms looked and that I was doing a really great job. GSTLs always acted pissed off like I was hiding or something because everybody else did a shitty job and was out in 2 seconds while I took maybe 5-10 minutes if things were really bad. In my opinion, they just want you to back up at the registers, skip bathrooms and breaks because that increases their scores the most. They would never actually admit that though. I don't think it's wrong you actually cared and had a brain. Hate Me has got it wrong. Target is losing a hell of a lot of money breaking all that merchandise, which is reflected in their stocks. Also, with just some of the money they waste they could afford to pay their hourly workers better and retain staff rather then having crazy turnover and losing additional money to training and inefficency. If you ever find a serious job with a serious company you will do well. Hate Me will continue to work at Target until they flop when their current strategy bites them in the ass, and either be unemployed or continue to remain a bottom feeder for life.