August 18, 2011 - goatface
Hard work is the path to nowhere at Target
When I started working at Target 7 months ago, my hopes weren’t set very high. I had worked retail before, and I knew it would be hell compared to my previous well paying construction job. I expected rude and angry customers, horrible hours, and bad pay. What I didn’t expect to see was how little hard work is rewarded.
I started at Target with the usual two weeks of training for hardlines. I picked everything up fairly quickly, and before long I was keeping pace with other team members who were much more experienced than I was. There was one person nobody could keep up with though, and that was our Team Lead. She knew everything there was to know about working the sales floor, and unlike most of the team leads she actually worked HARD. She would show up early in the morning, print all of the planograms and labels, help the back room pull everything needed for those planograms, assign team members to put them up, and in the end she would usually help the team put away almost everything. Every shift she had, she hit the floor at a thousand miles per hour and kept that speed up all day. It was impressive, to say the least. She made all of the other team leads, ETLs, and LODs look like complete morons on a daily basis, and all of us underlings on the sales floor loved her.
A few months after I started, half of our management suddenly left. Two ETLs quit for better jobs, one transferred to another location closer to her home, the HR lady was fired for mysterious reasons, and the STL took time off for maternity leave. Things were pretty chaotic, but our hardlines team lead stepped up and held everything together. The district sent temporary management to fill in all of the gaps, but most of them were useless. After a while, we get permanent management… but all of them are fresh out of college and have never worked the sales floor (except for about two weeks of training, the same that I got for my minimum wage job). We were all stuck training our new bosses how to do everything that they were responsible for. Don’t get me wrong, they were nice and they did their best, but it was pretty lame for Target to send us all new completely inexperienced management to run the store.
Bit by bit, as our management figured out what they were doing, things got better. About a week ago, I was doing a pull with my team lead and I asked her why they didn’t make her the ETL. She knew everything there was to know about the sales floor, she worked hard, and she had worked there for almost ten years. She seemed like the obvious choice. She told me that it was because she didn’t have a silly little two year business degree. She could know everything there was to know about Target, but without a little piece of paper they wouldn’t send her any higher. On Target’s pay, she couldn’t really afford to go to school, especially with a child at home. Even if she could afford school, her hours would have to be cut to attend classes, and then she wouldn’t be able to pay her bills.
I could rant about a million stupid little things about Target: Bad hours, bad pay, rude bosses, rude customers, large work loads, etc. but all of that is just the usual large retail chain bull crap. This really gets to me though… my Team Lead is a loyal employee who works harder than anyone in the store, all of the management looks to her for advice, she pretty much ran the place while it was in a state of chaos, but she was passed over for a job she deserves because her experience is somehow overshadowed by a community college degree in the hand of some kid who has never worked retail. It’s a damn shame, and I can’t wait till a better opportunity comes along so I can get the hell away from that place. As for my Team Lead, it has been a pleasure to serve with you, and till I’m gone I’ll do my best not to be too huge of a pain in your ass.
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Hey,
I worked at Target, as an ETL, for almost 2 years.
In my store, there were numerous TL, who did not have a 4 year degree, that were literally the foundation of the store. Many of the ETL's, either right out of college or someone who had been with the company for 10 years, listened after the TL for direction and input.
There were 2-3 TL in my store whose leadership skills and knowledge of store operations far exceeded that of ETL's. Many of the ETL, I would like to think I was not one, would simply walk around and bark orders. Same with the STL.
It is sad that these TL, other than being promoted to "senior TL" have no other title or serious pay promotions they may receive.
You don't need a 4 year degree to be an ETL at Target. Thats a joke. Target tells you how to move, think, and do everything.
If you want any incite, or info, just post something on the wall and I will comment on it. I have alot more to say about my experience in management with them. I will never work retail again.
John
This sounds exactly like what happened to my store. We got a brand new GSTL and there was a mass exodus of middle management, and our HR lady also mysteriously disappeared. FLO team has had a revolving series of team leads. It's ridiculous.
As an employee at Target, the biggest problem I have seen definitely involves managerial incompetence. The vast majority of hourly employees certainly don't care about the job because they aren't given any reason too. Why should they? When the management is, as you described, inexperienced, unfocused and often just plain overwhelmed by the tasks at hand. Customers only get to see the end result of that: bad service, sloppy presentation and unhappy, underpaid disposable staff.