October 21, 2013 - Jefok Airk
Social Injustice
What many team-members do not realize, or do not want to realize, is that high-paying positions are given to the privileged. Everyday, college grads enter the company out of nowhere, being placed in high-paying positions, while experienced team members are ignored. What ever happened to work your way up? High-paying (salary) positions are meant for the privileged. The poor-working-class team members are only given more hours, as a compliment. A real compliment would be professional development. However, one must fit the criteria first. The criteria, imo, is being a white male, a hot white female, or minority woman. Of course, their are exceptions. Working at target has taught me that hard work is irrelevant to becoming an exec. Hard workers are only rewarded with more hard work. There is a great social injustice committed by Target Corporation, the inequality between the privileged and poor-working-class. Various movements are in progress (McDonald’s workers fight for living wage, $15 per hr., Occupy Wall St., Labor, counter-culture, Anonymous, etc., Occupy Target should exist, too. It’s important to realize there are more of us then there are of them.
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I wish I could point out the importance of higher education, but it's irrelevant here. You're absolutely right. Target is hugely racist and sexist company. You hit the nail on the head.
I was hired as a hourly employee with a bachelors degree. My ETL said it was her personal goal to get me an ETL position within one year. I was a TPS and worked with a 5 year veteran who was amazing at her job but would never get a promotion because she didn't have a degree.
In the end I never got the promotion. I wasn't global enough and didn't have enough "big picture" projects to qualify me for the new role.
Do you know who they hired instead of me or my partner?
Two blonde hair, blue eyed guys who looked like they just walked off an Abercrombie and Fitch photo shoot.
They had zero AP experience and just graduated with degrees in business administration.
Needless to say I quit soon after this.
The saddest thing is that there really isn't anything we can do without losing our jobs. We could protest, strike or picket - something that is actually protected by federal law* - but all Target would have to do is make up some other reason to fire you. As long as they list a reason that sounds credible, there is no way to fight back against it; especially with most employers being at-will these days.
And even if we could fight back against wrongful termination, the legal battle that would result from it would be a nightmare.
I honestly don't know what to do. As I've said before, I've worked for half a dozen retailers and they ALL work the way Target does. It's a flaw in the corrupt, greed-driven system: not just with Target. Me and my coworkers (some of whom have degrees) have all said that we would protest if we weren't so afraid of losing our jobs, especially in today's job market where finding another job is insanely difficult.
It's maddening.
*http://www.nlrb.gov/poster
Unfortunately in this bad economy Target has got us by the balls.
Want to make $15 an hour? They are sure to find someone that will do your same job for $7.
Don't like the way you are treated? There are a dozen unemployed people that will take your place in a heartbeat. And when they learn how shitty Target treats its employees, there will be 12 more to step in for them.
All Target has to do is pull up your Redcard conversion score or that time you got coached for not completing your zone and they can fire you on those reasons alone.
Since team members are guests it is imperative that we, as guests, and real guests voice what we want through surveys and voicing our wants in social media. For example, informing people through commenting on related posts in social media. Thinkprogress' fb page has a post about walmart employees protests. I commented there. Also, target watchdog is a fb page, to let out frustrations and embarrassing pics. Of course we as team-member/guest must be discreet about out advocating such as using a pseudonym or disposable account.
I actually have a MS in Human resources. My new HR person at the store has neither an education background in human resources or previous experience. I was told by other team members that the only way I could get to a hire position was to quit and reapply. If I was to quit Target, it would not be just to go back.
Unfortunately Target mainly focuses on people from outside the company to hire in as ETLs. They feel they could get better ideas from someone new to the company then from someone who has been there for "X" amount of years. It is actually a real rarity to be promoted to a Salary employee in house.
Another thing is they are wanting to basically have a new policy of working people to the point of wearing them out so they quit that way they get everything out of a person but don't have to worry about paying them more or give them benefits. Especially in this job market they rather just hire someone new to replace the employees who have been there for so long.