August 8, 2012 - target_slave
Skeezy management
First of all, I’m sorry, but I just have to laugh that a vast majority of these posts are tagged as “employee experience.” That’s pretty bad. They do their bullshit “team member appreciation” events, but that’s like putting a band-aid on a heart attack. I feel like the events are just to appease us, like management is doing them just out of obligation. When it comes down to what really matters, you can tell they hardly give a crap about us. We’re all replaceable. Every last one of us.
Secondly, I’m glad to have found this site. I didn’t know if it was just me being oversensitive, or if I was just unlucky enough to have a bad store, but it seems we all share similar experiences.
One thing that bugs me is how LODs often know less about the store than the TMs who slave away to run it. Rather than promote from the inside, they get new people to manage the store. The new ETL-AP straight up told me that she might need my help. But that’s nice, Target, don’t bother promoting TMs who actually know what they’re doing. A co-worker of mine was a team lead for about 7 years at a different Target, left, and now he came back and is just a regular TM. Recently, he applied for a team lead position, and they only told him that he “has potential.” Are you KIDDING me? He WAS a team lead! For seven years!! But our ETL-HR used to work with him at the other Target, sooooo it seems pretty shady, like she has a grudge against him or something.
But even the LODs who have been there a while still are not as familiar with the store as they should be. I work in electronics, and for you TMs in other workcenters who may not be as familiar with all our duties, in addition to the usual reshop and zone (electronics AND toys/sporting goods), we have to help guests more extensively with technical questions, ring people up (oftentimes assholes with no electronics who think I’m just another cashier), do our pulls, unlock certain items for guests, help with AP, and all the while making sure our survey scores stay green. It’s a LOT for one person to do. When there’s another electronics TM working a mid-shift, most of the time, it’s not bad, but since we got a new STL, our hours were cut, so most days it’s just one person alone in electronics, expected to do ALL this work, while staying in the “green zone” (the dumbass name they came up for the area around the electronics boat) to keep up our service scores.
Sorry, but no, I’m not busting my ass and stressing myself out just for someone else’s bonus. And when they ask why scores have dropped, they don’t accept cut hours as an excuse. My team lead has tried explaining to them that they don’t get how much stress is put on us electronics TMs, but they’ve been just as hard on him too and expect miracles from us.
And whenever we bring the concern about hours forth to management, we get this impersonal, cookie-cutter “oh, it’s all what corporate gives us, nothing we can do” bullshit reply. First off, I was told by an ex-LOD that they get better bonuses for good scores while using less hours. And secondly, how about at least pretending to care about your employees? Maybe there’s nothing you PERSONALLY can do, but go to the DM or someone and say, “Hey, my team has these concerns. What can we do to make the store run better?”
Needless to say, I’m desperately trying to escape from this hell.
I’ve already written way more than I expected to. Wow. So I guess I’ll just stop here, then!
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Welcome to the site! Yeah, it's funny how there's generally a lot more disgruntled employees than customers...or at least disgruntled enough to google their hate for Target. 🙂
Retail bonuses are generally based on P&L (profit & loss) and customer service scores (assuming they pretend to care). P&L bonus in a nutshell is HIGH REVENUE + LOW HOURS = MORE PROFIT. Wages are an expense of running a business and therefore considered a loss. So paying you extra hours (or paying additional employees) to get work done means a lower profit margin, but a higher profit margin generally means a better bonus. Many companies require a minimum profit margin before managers can even get a bonus, so there's no way your managers will give a damn about your stress level if it means lowering their income level.
That's one place where Target culture and American culture overlap. The well-being of the many is forsaken to increase the profit of the few.
This website is amazing, I wish I would have found out about it earlier, Sunday was my last day in Hell, but My hate for target will never go away. I am glad I am so close to graduating and have a chance at a real job in the coming months.
Target and Walmart will always suck. That is why there are so many websites that make fun of these places. These companies make their millions or billions off of paying their employees extremely low wages and at the same time making them bust their asses. In a real job, you often work by yourself with no one waatching over your shoulder because they believe you can do the job. When I worked for Target, any little mistake in their mind that I made they brought me back to HR for. What a fuckin company!
Why is it that places such as Target and Walmart have these sites?
Because they're large corporations in Amerika. They care more about profits than anything else, and the laws allow them to get away with some serious bullshit. Some states are worse than others. But from I've seen Target is by far worse than Walmart.
I agree with that .My question is when are they going to finally expose Target like they did Walmart? I've seen that documentary about Walmart and what they do to their employees regarding low wages and super expensive health benefits. Hope someone exposes their shit very quickly.
And yet Target, compared to Walmart, seems to promote more of an upscale image.
They may present themselves that way, but reality differs.
"...expected to do ALL this work, while staying in the “green zone” (the dumbass name they came up for the area around the electronics boat) to keep up our service scores."
That isn't actually a made up name - years ago, Target stores were divided into different areas: green, yellow, red and blue. I started working for Target when they still had these zones and saw the change out of it. You could probably still find evidence of these colored zones in stores that are due for a remodel...they'll have these different colored neon accents on the walls and will have their store maps done in color block sections.