November 20, 2015 - flashasaurus
Locked in Target store overnight, fired next day
So there’s something that doesn’t happen everyday. I just started working backroom about a month ago, and I was closing today, which meant I had to make bales (apparently no one except backroom is trained to throw cardboard into the baler so I had like 7 cages just overflowing with the stuff) and I needed to set the line. Today had not been a normal day. There were trucks that needed to be unloaded we don’t usually unload trucks on Fridays so we were understaffed, not only that but FAs were dropping like mad crazy. This meant I couldn’t really do my closing stuff until pretty late. My LOD would come in every half hour or so to check up on me, make sure I was doing my work and all, she saw that I was struggling and when I asked for help she said she didn’t know how to use the baler.
It’s 10:00 right now, and I should be clocking out, but I tell her I can stay till 11 to finish making bales and setting the line. She says I can, but tells me I NEED to be done by 11. What I didn’t know, because I’m new, and absolutely undertrained, was that the doors lock at 11:00, Not just to the general public, but to anyone inside. So as soon as I finish setting the line, I am locked in Target, and can’t get out. I call my Boss but she didn’t answer, so I left a message. I called my coworker, straight to voicemail. Called my friend, but his phone was about to die so he couldn’t really help me.
After suffering a mini panic attack (after all I was locked in a Target) I calmed down, figured I was still on the clock, backroom was an absolute mess so I did what any good employee would do. Their job. It’s not until 1am that my boss calls me and offers to unlock the doors for me, at this point, I figured I might as well stay till 4 when the early morning people come. She said it was fine, so I stayed in till 4 doing backstock, I was a bit worried, I figured I was neck deep in shit, but she said I had nothing to worry about, that it was my neglectful LOD’s fault that I got locked in the Target. She assured me that I wouldn’t get in trouble.
The next day, I get in trouble.
I get called into the ETL for loss prevention’s office and he is absolutely, fuming. The LOD that locked me in is sitting behind him. They were trying to pin this on me. They said it was irresponsible of me (an undertrained, new, backroom employee) to take so long setting the line and make bales (bear in mind, I had just learned how to make bales that day, PLUS there was a lot of shit to do on this particular day, and we were very understaffed). I said “well it was irresponsible of the LOD to lock me in Target!” to which the mallcop replied, and I shit you not, “watch the sass”.
“Okaaay…” I said, with much sass.
After that, it was a bunch of loaded questions, I could tell the cards were stacked against me and the mallcop was trying to let the neglectful LOD keep her job. He called me irresponsible, and that I shouldn’t have stayed past 10 (plenty of backroom employees stay past the time they’re scheduled to, because we’re always bogged down with so much shit to do.) He said “I should be fired. and/or sent home today” which implies I hadn’t been fired yet. I was already planning on putting in my two weeks, figured I’d do it now. The guy said don’t even bother coming in for my next two scheduled shifts. Which implies I was fired? Whatever the case, I’m glad I don’t work there anymore. And I just wanted to share this story.
tl;dr Because of the actions of a neglectful LOD, I was locked in a Target store overnight. instead of firing the LOD, I was fired.
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Don't bother coming in for your next two shifts + not telling anybody he told you that = no call / no show = fired. If you care enough to bother, call HR and corporate and file a complaint. Find a better job either way.
What a load of crap they are. Why don't leaders take the fall like good presidents of the past? They locked you in, therefore it is there fault. It happened to me once also, it's like hello, you are suppose to check all late night employees before taking off and locking the door inside and out. What a dumbass as shit place they are. In a real store if that were to happen like an Apple store or Best Buy the leaders would say we are sorry and will allow you to sleep in today and you don't have to do work today, we are sorry we locked you in and you may have today off now. That's a real human, target is full of unreal humans from another planet. They seriously have no feelings.
This post is close to a year old. My comment probably won't get read. But after reading this post, I don't care.
Your story doesn't make any sense. Your a new undertrained employee, trying to make money while in college. The store is understaffed and extremely behind. Okay, I have worked for Target for 5+ years. So I could believe this.
Let's start with the bailer, with ten big cages, that would of been a maximum of two bailes. It wouldn't of taken you over an hour to do this plus stage the line. Yes, you are a new employee but after being there a month, this should be a cake walk by now. So you are locked in the bldg, probably just finished a 4-6 hour shift. Get no answers when you start to call people. Okay, but than go back to work (shows me you like what you do). Now your getting questioned about staying there to late. Okay the ETL messed up, now they are trying to blame you. Okay. But now out of the blue you are talking about putting in your 2 weeks.
Something is not adding up. Plus now you have an attitude about it. If you really thought it was unfair. The. You should of called the hotline or better yet hired a lawyer for the way you were treated. You sound like a worthless employee.