January 20, 2014 - anonymous
One year with Target, worst company by far
Where to even begin? I guess from the beginning..
-Start working shipping / receiving / reverse logistics and all backroom positions in January of 2013. Job is great at first with steady hours (40-50 per week for first few months)
-Store opens to the public in early 2013 and sales are (surprise surprise) not so great due to lack of product on shelves and high prices
-Hours take a major cut to about 10 per week (even though my availability is completely open and I have been a very reliable employee) HOWEVER management is clearly playing favorites as some employees are still getting a steady 30-40 hours weekly while the rest are barely making a paycheque due to the lack of hours
-I apply for a front-end, management type position in hopes for more consistent hours. I was denied the position due to “lack of front end experience” and the fact that most of the staff outside of backroom were unfamiliar with me. Fair enough (or so I thought at the time). So I took it upon myself to get cross trained in all of the front end positions so that if another management position opened up I would be more prepared for an interview.
-Hours are then cut again, many weeks some employees were only getting two 3 hour shifts if they were lucky (and yet some others are still getting 30-40). Employees were at this point quitting and management could tell frustration was setting in. Their response was to call a meeting with the backroom team and what was said was the final straw for me as far as backroom was concerned. We were told “some of you act like we’re getting away with murder, well the truth is those who work hard will get the hours and those who slack will not.”
-This explanation was absolute BULLSHIT considering the effort I had been putting in, and for them to say I wasn’t a hard worker despite consistently being there and working overtime when they allowed it was ridiculous. I transferred out of backroom and onto cash that day.
-Hours were still low however management was slightly better.
-Got a new fulltime job and so changed my availability to afternoons and weekends only. Management was not happy that I had to change my availability.
-Now think about that for a moment. This multi billion dollar company pays me minimum wage and won’t give me enough hours to pay my bills and yet has the nerve to complain when I change my availability? That really struck a nerve to say the least. Moving on..
-I was let go from my new fulltime job relatively quickly as it was temp work, therefore my availability opened up again for Target. I managed to get fulltime or close to fulltime hours for a two month period between Nov-Dec due to the holiday season.
-Hours have again taken a major cut now that it is January.
-There is a new manager (coming straight out of backroom) working the management position I had applied for in 2013 mentioned earlier in my rant. No internal posting was made and therefore I did not even have the opportunity to reapply for the position. BULLSHIT considering the reason they gave me for not getting the position in the first place. Now that’s not to say the new manager isn’t fit for the position, he is. But regardless, his qualifications when applying for the position were no better than mine when I applied first time around and therefore he should not have been considered for the position just as I hadn’t been considered.
-Found new employment thank god. Last day is coming up soon and I will never look back at that place.
Things I noticed during my year at Target..
-Management is terribly unorganized. Many point fingers and expect miracles. Others were more hands on. There were also some good managers who I enjoyed working with and actually learned a lot from
-During slow season (which at this rate will be the majority of the year) they split a few hundred hours per week between 50 or more employees. And yet they are almost ALWAYS short staffed. Why? Because a large percentage of the employees are unreliable highschool and college students who either don’t show up for work at all or consistently call in sick. And yet they still keep them around! Slap on the wrist every time!
-This leads to a select few reliable employees getting phone calls to work at all times of the day and never being able to lead a normal life outside of work.
– They won’t fire the unreliable employees and they won’t schedule the reliable employees more hours. They end up short staffed and desperate for help with the daily sick calls. Rinse and repeat. Nearly every day.
-The WORST part of all of this is that management never communicates with the employees to tell them why it has to be this way. Things they could do for improvements that would make sense to do are never done and employees are always left in the dark.
-Guest is the word used for our customers. LOD (leader on duty) is the word used for our managers. And in reality we don’t serve our “guests” milk and cookies or hand them a beer when they walk into the store. They are paying CUSTOMERS. Target tries to promote team culture and a squeaky clean image by using all these different words to describe how the Target experience is somehow superior to that of other retail chains. SMOKE AND MIRRORS. It’s no different and in many cases probably worse.
-I have toilet paper more reliable than the plastic shopping bags.
-The self checkouts are a joke. It is very rare that we have even two of them working properly, and if you somehow manage to come in on a day they are working well GOOD LUCK USING THEM. Any mistakes made require an employee to assist you. Even something as simple as removing an item that has already been scanned requires a team member to help. What part of that is self serve?
-Clearance items rarely scan in at the correct price. This obviously causes problems for both the customer and the employees on cash.
-At least half of the store is usually left in a mess each night due to being short staffed constantly. 1 person to cover 3 departments is their idea of acceptable.
In conclusion if this is the way things are going to continue running at Target then I SINCERELY hope they fail miserably here in Canada. Good riddance.
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I could not agree more with the accuracy of this posting, but do you want to know the funny thing, is I am sure the leaders at target will think I posted it, and I will be blamed for it. I agree most with the part about many many of us cannot wait until the day you pack your little suitcase target and return to the US where you belong.
Lol this post is 100 % true. I feel like the shittier an employee I was the more hours I got. Also spot on about the plastic bags I mean GOD get some real fucking bags, Target.
But customers like the bags because they are freeeee! Not 5 cents a bag like zellers!
just been to my local target. Looks like they finally got their inventory issue all sorted out. Still empty shelves in areas. And some look like it was merely facing. Prices are about on par with walmart. The mall entrance used to have i think 6 tills now only has 3 self check outs. Looks like the # of available tills got reduced. I remember each entrance had at least 4 tills. Only thing that got changed was a plano reset to copy Sears's planogram. Still looks like zellers. I miss the old zellers 🙁
if i remember correctly the kwantlen entrance only had 4 tills, the main entrance had I think 8 tills, and the mall entrance had about 6 tills. I should go back to my local target and count the # of tills xD. Imo reduction of tills = reduction of service. hmm, 8 +8+8+1+1 =26 tills altogether thoughout the store. I haven't checked the electronics section if they have a till yet. But target deleted the pharmacy till. So 26-5-1=20. loss of tills so target reduced the amount of service people get pffft. Haven't counted the tills in the other two entrances. I swear zellers had tons more stock than target ever had. Bags sections was literally empty. half the original size as well. And the jewelery and watches got cut into an eighth of it's original size. >_> Really their motto expect more pay less, am totally not buying it. More like expect less pay more to me.
i may have thought wrong about the kwantlen entrance. i do remember it being 4 aisles But two tills were in each aisle, so i'm thinking there used to be 8. Mostly only a couple were open at each entrance. xD, target sure chasing customers away by reducing service and stock. Plus walmart is footing the bill for a new outlet mall in the area. Quality items from designers.