July 22, 2014 - comicalPercents
“Safety First!”
So I’ve worked at Target on overnight flow for less than a month. It’s basically my first job (aside from a brief training phase at Jimmy John’s which ended in termination because the store’s labor count was too high). Like most of the stories, I thought the job would be good esp for a first time employee and the pay’s really gorgeous. On paper, anyway.
My base pay is 9 bucks and 10 bucks for every hour after midnight, which is nice except that medical bills might end up draining anything I make. So far, the LODs have been helicoptering me and I’ve received no training in anything. I’m rarely allowed to use a PDA because our PDAs are too fragile to give to a clumsy newbie, and as such I’ve got to waste a lot of time spinning boxes around and checking labels, half of which are unreadable or torn off. Not that the PDAs work most of the time anyway. The LODs are always on my and the other newbie’s throats because we don’t work fast enough, even if we manage to clear out all of grocery in record time it’s not good enough. The other “senior” employees spend most of their time gossiping like high school cliques and rarely help us. When we work the trucks, they often scold us for not stacking boxes properly and not getting boxes off the belt fast enough, but sit there and do nothing when we’re backed up to the end of our belt because none of it is their stuff. We’re constantly running around trying to find space for all the backstock that the store orders every day, because some days we have to leave it at the end of the aisle and other days we have to find a tub for it or we’ll get in trouble.
I’ve heard the others talk and insult us because they think we’re too slow and stupid to understand them. We hear them loud and clear, and it just makes us feel worse. Between gossipy co workers and LODs who wouldn’t be satisfied if we finished the entire store in 30 minutes, my depression has flared up and it’s 3x worse than it was before. I feel like crap and often go home crying because I feel like useless garbage. Every day I think I’m going to go in and find out I’ve been let go.
But the real kicker is how much the other team members don’t give a flying fuck about safety. They’ve all parroted safety first but so far no one has acted like they’ve ever read a safety guidebook in their life. I’ve had two pallets, fully loaded, dropped straight on my foot because of careless and/or high workers. Both on my foot that had an inflamed tendon earlier in the year. I’m starting to develop the same limp I had again, and I really don’t want to pay for another doctor visit or for the inflammation meds. Can’t slow down or else I’ll get in trouble. Can’t complain either, because they just spout some mindless bullshit about how I should have been paying attention or that I’m impeding on my team member’s work.
I sure as I fuck don’t want to lose my foot over this bullshit store. After my next paycheck I’m looking for a new job.
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If you were injured on the job and don't report it, you're a hypocritical moron.
sigh steel toe shoes.. are you even wearing them? anyways report the injury and for heaven's sake get some steel toe shoes.
Welcome to Target, where the bitching never stops. I work flow too, and I am constantly bitched at for something.
Who do you report the unsafe behavior to? The GM worked and bitched the whole time about us being slow. He actually ordered employees to throw items off the conveyor belt to the floor. How safe is that??? I was fired today because I had the nerve to yell at the dumbass manager who threw boxes at my feet. I will never shop at Target again.