December 12, 2019 - shay5
Less than 2 months and plenty of issues
I’ve been working at Target for about a month and a half now. The day of my interview I got into a minor car accident which really should’ve been seen as a sign for how my job there would go. As a sidenote/preface of sorts, this is only my second job ever and my first in retail.
During my interview, the first person to interview me said it would be about a week or so until I found out whether or not I’d been hired but then the schedule person came in and immediately started talking about availability and whatnot. I needed the job to help pay for school (I’m a college student) so I went with it, though I was highly confused. They also made sure to mention their busiest days are the 3 weekend days: Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Since I was largely available for weekends, that’s when I would be scheduled most but they said they would never schedule me for all three days in a row yet the last few weeks I have worked all the 3 days.
At my orientation, they gave me a paper schedule with all the times I’d be working/training for the next two weeks and a couple of the days they had me scheduled for 7:30 but when I read the posted schedule, it said I was supposed to be there at 7 pm and no one had bothered to tell me. Also during this training period, they never bothered to have me do the online training modules. I didn’t even know I was supposed to do those until I heard a new hire mention something about the required videos. Every time I brought up that I had yet to finish them to different LODs, they’d always reply with a shocked, “How have you not done it?” and promises of getting it done but I’ve never done anything past shift 2 for Style Team.
A lot of the issues I’ve had with the management comes from things I’ve seen them put other employees through. One of my first evening shifts, one of the leads was talking about how they needed someone to pick up a shift for someone so I stupidly volunteered. They said it was all clear and I was good to come in but when I showed up the next day, no one had any idea I was going to be there and the time clock wouldn’t let me clock in. That same day, one of the Style Leads had started his vacation so he left a list of what every Style Team Member would do for that day except for the person who owns IHP. He wrote everything she needed to get done and how much time it would take for each task on a post it note and stuck it to the time clock.
Another employee has made it very well known that he does not have personal transportation to and from work and takes the bus, yet on Thanksgiving and Black Friday, he was scheduled until 1 am and had to remain at the store until 2 am before he could get a ride home.
Just two weeks ago, there was the Frozen 2 Toy Demo we were supposed to do but no one sent out an email letting anyone know about it and I was told the day of the event that I would be leading it. The night people were supposed to set it up the day before but there was nothing except a cart of toys in the Team Lead office. One of the leads would come over every so often asking how it was going and telling me I needed to walk around the toy aisles and ask the kids if they wanted to play with the toys and show them how they worked. I was like “fuck no” and walked to the toy aisle until she left and then returned to my post at the table doing nothing other than handing out gummies and coloring books.
This is already quite long so my final story will be the one that’s pissed me off the most. I had a test one Thursday morning and with the way Target had scheduled me, I had had no time to study for said test when I had other classes and responsibilities to get done. Wednesday, while I was trying to cram a little bit before my closing shift, I decided there was absolutely no way I would have enough time to study and feel decent enough about the material so I called in. It was only 6:30-close so I figured it wouldn’t be too bad. I started calling the store at 2:00 ish but I couldn’t get a hold of anybody whatsoever. I called every department, and at this point no one had told me about “Silent Option 9.” I didn’t reach anybody until around 3:15. When I finally got on the phone with someone, they transferred me to one of the leads and it ended up being the person who makes the schedule. I told her about the situation and that I would still come in if they really needed me (my mistake, I should’ve just said it was an emergency) and this is what she said, most of it actual, direct quotes: “Well, let’s see you’re calling in at what, almost 3:30 and your shift starts at 6:30, right? Since you’re new let me give you a little feedback. Did you know about this test? See, this is an adult job (actual quote) and you need to plan for things like this. It takes me two days to make a schedule and to make sure every department is covered and you calling in on such short notice really puts us in a tight spot. Let me go talk to [LOD] and see where we’re at.” She talked to me like a child and in the most condescending way. I didn’t get to call off entirely but she pushed back the time I’d come in to 6:30. I didn’t work that Thursday but Friday when I went in, I saw her a few minutes after entering the store. She smiled at me real big and said, “Hey how’d your test go?” I said, “Honestly, I think I bombed it.” A week or so later I was talking about it with someone else and they said, “Sometimes she doesn’t even make the schedule. There’s supposed to be 3 weeks up on the board at all times and if you’ve noticed there’s usually only 2. If it gets to a certain day and she still hasn’t made it, the computer auto generates it so a lot of the times it’s not even her making the schedule.”
Reading through all of the other posts, I can say I probably work at a Target with better management, but I’m also seeing that some of the issues I have are consistent at other stores. One of the reasons I’m staying now is because it’s one of the higher paying jobs in this area without a college degree and I really need the money. The regular team members I work with are wonderful and I’d even be willing to admit that I really like a couple of the LODs, but there are definitely some issues with how higher level people treat employees.
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Well Tarshit does care about you or your schooling. To them the company needs are more important than school.
I meant to say doesn’t care.