My Brief Time @ Target: Honest & Uncut

When lines were crossed to the point of no return during my 14 years as an employee at Walmart, I decided in late 2020 to throw caution in the wind and apply for brand new employment elsewhere.

Among the few places I applied, one of them was Target.

I’d always been warned that working for Target and shopping at Target are two different experiences. Despite the few warnings I received from people, I accepted the interview when it was granted to me, as well as the job offer after the interview.

I was also told that very unbelievable things such as Target being notorious for their very shady behavior towards their employees, particularly minorities.

I unfortunately am now a part of the list that have been victim to this and I can confirm this to be 100% accurate based on my experience alone.

I was hired to work for this particular location in the middle of September under the impression that I was just a regular hire.

I initially really enjoyed my job at Target. I worked with great people who seemed genuinely nice (I do still keep in contact with those people) and I honestly felt I was at a job where I could truly be myself with no issues.

Unfortunately it wasn’t until December that I actually found out I was a seasonal hire despite starting in the middle of September.

I was also told that after the holidays they may not have many hours to give which was also fine.

It wasn’t until after Christmas when I looked at my next week of schedules that I found that my hours were dramatically cut which triggered a little concern but not too much because it was after the holiday season.

It wasn’t until later on when I was pulled into the office by my remaining team lead (the other team lead had transferred stores by this time), a woman I initially had so much respect for, about the status of my job.

She proceeded to tell me that this location wasn’t going to be keeping any seasonal hires after the first week in January because of the lack of payroll. I was totally fine with that and proceeded to find a new job.

It wasn’t until one of my coworkers who was also hired in seasonal (and she’s white; trust me it matters) told me that she was scheduled beyond the week that was supposed to be the last week for all seasonals, as I was told by this particular team lead. This is when i was raised concern because I found out that there had been two different sets of conversations had by this team lead to the seasonal team members; one conversation for all the ones they wanted to keep, and another conversation for the ones they wanted to let go (which consisted of her lying saying all seasonals were being let go which was revealed to indeed be a lie).

So naturally after I find out this particular team lead pretty much lied to my face about my job status, I go to HR to inquire.

All he gives me is a generic “I don’t know” aka “I don’t want to deal with this”, which wasn’t surprising to me because I did notice during my time at Target that leadership seemed more so focused on being cliqued up amongst each other than actually caring about the team members.

So after this, I had no choice but to try to call corporate and report this and her because lying to my face in a private sitdown about the status of my job (the thing that makes me able to live comfortably day by day) is a major red flag.

So I call corporate, report the concern, and go from there.

The next time I work, I’m pretty sure my corporate report got back to the store because this team lead who lied to me all of a sudden has nothing to say to me. It’s almost as if she didn’t think I would find out the truth. Either way, I didn’t see any particular reason why she felt the need to lie to me. My one regret is that I didn’t record that conversation because now she can literally deny anything that was said because I have no proof or record this conversation.

I would have more respect for this woman had she just told me the truth.

I will admit a few of my biggest issues during my time at Target was:

A.) Attendance –

I will admit that on several occasions I was late because of the delay of public transportation, my only way of getting to work every day. The COVID-19 pandemic really put a lag on the city’s public transportation system and that did cause me to be late a few times. This issue was discussed in a private sitdown with both team leads at the time and I was under the impression that we were going to try to work on it, especially since the majority of it was out of my control.

B.) Me not feeling totally confident in certain roles at Target-

During my time at Target, I felt like I really succeeded on checklane, I did pretty well at self-checkout but my biggest issue and area was guest services. I felt that it was a little overwhelming for me and on several occasions, I did express that I wanted to be re-trained at the whole thing so I could do better at it. The concerns pretty much were never escalated to any kind of point where I felt I really succeeded up there. I even had a panic attack up there, barely making to the bathroom and pretty embarrassed because I never wanted anyone to see me like that, especially at work.

C.) Nitpicking,Obvious Favoritism, Two-Faced Shit-talkers –

I do feel like a major decline in my job performance probably had the majority to do with this particular point. At times I did feel like the team leads were nitpicking at me; if I didn’t get something as fast as someone else, it was almost like they were devaluing me not only as an employee but as a human being as well. And if there really was an issue with my job performance, nitpicking at me about every little thing while letting others they may have liked more slide by really didn’t help the situation.

Which leads me into my next point, which is the obvious favoritism happening especially on the frontend. It doesn’t take me that long to realize that leadership in retail will always have their picks on who they like and who they want to bring down no matter what you do. Half my life in retail, starting out as a naive teenager growing into a grounded adult, you see things. FACT: Just because I don’t speak on everything doesn’t mean I don’t notice everything. And what I did notice during my time at Target was just that: Leadership was already set on who they liked as employees and it was nothing I could do to change that. In most of my jobs, I’ve always felt like I was a target to be picked on and not liked by leadership, most because I stand alone and I don’t conform. Whether they see that as intimidating or they just see me as an easy target because of that is really none of my business. But what is definitely my business is how it makes me feel and how it affects my performance at work. Picking at me and making me feel devalued is not going to improve my performance at work; it’s actually going to do the exact opposite.

Not to mention, and this leads me to this point, all the fellow co-workers I heard saying some very vicious things about me behind my back that they think I didn’t hear or know about, but just remember: Walls are very thin and some people are very bad at whispering.

So the next time someone wants to call me or anyone for that matter a “shitty employee”, make sure that person is well away from the proximity and not just 5 feet away from you.

Yes, I was called a shitty employee by several of my coworkers (particularly at the Guest Services desk.) when they thought I walked away far enough where I couldn’t hear them. Then again, maybe they didn’t care if I heard them or not. Oh well, it is what it is.

It was said and while it didn’t really phase me about who I am as an employee in general; it was definitely one more reason why I did not want to work the Guest Services desk anymore.

So those were the 3 points of why my job performance may have slipped while at Target and why that may be the reason why I was lied to about being let go but let’s get back to the real point of this whole story:

Even if it was just about my performance at work and it just wasn’t working out, I feel like she could have just told me that instead of making up some lie that I’m expecting that she didn’t think I would find out or maybe she just didn’t care if I did, since she clearly lied to me with zero remorse. It would be a whole math problem if I even began to attempt to figure out why she felt the need to lie to me. Some people just don’t have a conscience I guess.

I’m not writing this or sharing my story to bash Target as a whole. I just think it’s important to share this because from what I heard now that it’s happened to me, is that this kind of situation has happened at Target to many others as well.

This basically me warning people to always be cautious and fully aware of “wolves in sheep’s clothing”; the ones that think they have all the power to take something away from people who they feel superior to just because of who they are.

I did end up finding employment within the one week’s notice aka lie I was told about what would be my last week at Target. But it also raised my anxiety level through the roof, especially considering my present and my future.

Had I not found alternative employment as quickly as I did I was going to be at risk of losing everything I worked hard for this last year, causing my whole life to take a complete 180 in the worst way possible.

And it’s situations like this and people like her that dont care about the long lasting effects that their fucked up actions can cause.

This is a testament to how I always say we shouldn’t be so selfish and above all, be honest with one another.

It could save a lot of unnecessary anger and pain later on.

This is just a my account of what happened to me during my time at Target, honest and uncut because it’s the only way I know how to be.

I’m just really grateful that as quickly as someone attempted to trip me and throw me off course is just as quick as I got back up and landed right on my feet, definitely with a new perspective moving forward in wherever this journey may take me next.

But for now, I’m just taking it one day at time and enjoying the ride for whatever it is.