December 21, 2014 - rainprincess64
Target doesn’t treat pregnant employees very well
I have been working at Target as a cashier since the start of this May. Things were going pretty good for a while until the holiday season came around and I discovered back over a month ago I am actually pregnant. Right now I am about 19 weeks pregnant and my team leads have been aware of this for over a month now. However, I have been rather troubled with how things have been run at my store since the new senior team lead started her new role. Nice lady but she has some very unrealistic expectations (freshly graduated from college). Under the former store manager no one was written up for lack of red cards, low speed scores, or even because 10 people filled out a survey with 1 giving a bad review and 2 a neutral reviews. We all know that as cashiers, people often fill the surveys and give bad ratings even if it has nothing to do with the cashier who’s ringing up their order, had a bad day and take it out on the cashier, etc. Also, it’s not the cashier’s fault if someone tries to enter their pin number 4 times, uses 5 different credit cards before their payment goes through, is very difficult about price challenges even after they swipe their card, cannot get their cash prepared before the transaction is done, the computer system is very buggy and doesn’t want to take the card payment until you hit the “sign a paper copy” button, etc. I got a stupid write-up on the 5th of this month with NO chance to explain myself to the team lead who “delivered the message” (not sure who wrote me up in the first place). I tried to tell her that many of the bad scores are really the guest who is being slow or if the computer is being rather slow. Keep in mind that not long ago in the last few weeks, literally 5-6 registers randomly shut down one day and caused a big mess lasting 30-40 min with ringing up shoppers. I literally had no chance to refute the writeup, as she literally went over the write-up word for word, and made me sign the bottom.
Now this is where my being pregnant is relevant. My team leads have been told by the managers (many of whom are newer, mind you) they’re no longer allowed to adjust the break schedule because of the holiday shoppers. Some people’s breaks have been getting pushed to be 3 hours apart at a time, including my own. I literally told my supervisors multiple times I seriously need those breaks every 2 hours as is company policy and such so I can use the restroom and get a small snack in so I don’t get nauseated and such. Some of them do try to get a break in earlier for me and will sometimes ask other cashiers if we can swap breaks. Mind you, my fellow cashiers are great about this because they understand I am pregnant and need breaks and such sooner than others may. Often times however, they are pretty much stuck to the schedule which makes me feel sick sometimes with all that standing, moving around in one spot, etc. I went to work SO many days feeling downright sick with morning illness (bleh!) for several weeks (to avoid being fired thanks to calling out too much), which didn’t really affect how I was treated by management. It gets very interesting. So it’s a store rule now that we cannot have a water bottle by our work station unless we have a medical note now because some flow team member left their “spit bottle” on a shelf somewhere for a freaked out shopper to find and report to management. So much for management getting to the root of the problem instead of letting one moron fuck it up for the rest of us. Ugh! So I called my doctor’s office on the 9th so they could fax over my medical note over to Target stating that I get breaks every 2 hours for 15 min. at a time, am permitted a water bottle at my work station, and to not lift anything over 20 lbs.
Get this: I asked one of the HR ladies about my medical note being faxed over on the 11th, said they did not get anything. Okay so may be the doctor’s office got busy and that they’ll send it later that day, right? I asked again on the 13th and got a very strange response from the same HR lady: “Hmm, I don’t remember getting any medical note faxed over here. I remember yesterday or the day before we got a bunch of blank pieces of paper over here.” Pause. “May be (the HR manager) received something, I’m not sure. I’d have to ask her.” Now this sounds very fishy to me. When I went to my doctor on the 16th (this past Tuesday) I asked him about my medical note being faxed or not. He told me that they did in fact send it over (does remember writing up that note) last week and that it was archived in their computer system and everything! Regardless, he wrote me a new one for me to physically hand to my managers. I handed the same HR lady my medical note the next day, as I was passing by her in the hallway saying “here’s my medical note” and she said she’ll give it to the HR manager.
I decided to give the Target Integrity Hotline a call just yesterday after I had written down everything that’s been taking place over the last month and a half or so. I had to go through phone logs, text messages, my memory, work schedule, etc. to recall everything before writing it all down (dates and all) before doing so. I made sure that the team lead who gave the review to me; the HR lady who dared to lie to me about my medical note; AND the general management of my store (especially whoever wrote me up) were all reported. When the lady asked if I want to give my name or remain anonymous, I made damn well sure my name was on the report. I’m sick of these people thinking they’re God or something and abuse their power. I cannot wait to see what happens tomorrow when I go back into work and see if they have anything to say about my reporting their asses. I am so ready to quit my job, even though I feel somewhat stuck because of my pregnancy and such (who wants to hire a pregnant woman?). At the same time, I have the right to have a healthy pregnancy and be able to balance my work life at the same time. I shouldn’t feel like I need to choose between a healthy pregnancy and my job (sorry but my son comes first before a pathetic retail job if it comes to that)!
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They definitely have no right to put you or your child's heath at risk. Keeping a log is very smart, and if they harass you about your completely reasonable medical needs, you should speak with a lawyer. Keep us updated!
It gets even better. So I went into work yesterday and noticed something very interesting. When I went to look at the schedule for the week of 12/28-1/3, there was a big note plastered in front of it saying something like "Team members, please recheck your schedule for the week of 12/28-1/3, as there have been minor changes to the schedule. Thank you." (forgot to take a picture of it yesterday but I'm sure it'll still be there when I go in around 2:45). Get this: my hours are now at 13 for that week (3 days for shifts no longer than 5 hours a piece!), despite the fact I in fact requested to have a few days off that week. By the way, this request for 12/28-1/1 or something like that was "auto denied". I tried to put in another request for like 12/23-12/28 or something of the sort was previously denied because "it's during the busiest time of the year. Please see (ETL- Guest Services) if you have any questions."
I can't prove it at this point but I am starting to think this is the start of them retaliating against me for reporting the store on them. The HR ETL also did not even acknowledge me yesterday (she often times says "hi" or something to me whenever she walks by), even though she passed by me yesterday a few times. Hmmm.... I think something really fishy is going on here. To be honest, the idea of contacting a lawyer about this is starting to become more of a reality than a possibility. One of the team leads who REALLY can't stand working there anymore (and was a law student a while ago) told me it was very good of me to report all of them for what they've been doing and wouldn't be surprised if I sue them (and win). He also believes this write-up was completely bogus and knows that I am one of the better cashiers there, and said the ETLs really need to ask the TLs about work performance before writing up anybody.
I also forgot to mention that I was getting about 25-33 hours or so a week on average the last month or so beforehand (have ALL of my previous schedules in photograph stored in my phone).
Wowwwww that is the lowest of the low. Target is just...wow. That's awful. Dx
I completely agree! Well someone from the hotline called me earlier while I was working. Apparently headquarters is starting to look into my case for review and will be investigating my complaint. I am very certain they have already been notified about my complaint to them, and that their reducing my hours is in retaliation of my complaining to headquarters. I'm very much expecting to get called into the office sometime this week while I'm at work and getting spoken to by some supervisors. At this point anytime a supervisor wants to have a private word with me, I am going to be recording the conversations I have with them (NC is a one party consent state for recording private conversations). Should they call me into their office, I have my phone app ready for recording the conversation on my phone's home screen. I am very much expecting harassment and even possibly further retaliation for my calling the hotline.
To be honest, I am hoping they fire me because if they do, I can get them for not only clear retaliation but wrongful termination.... and talk about the lawyer getting them for everything else on top of that as well.
They made a VERY pregnant lady work at 6 am on black friday. There were other people they could have gotten in, but they booked her instead. Tarshit thinks we are all robots.
Your story should read "tarshit does not treat ANY employee very well, except corporate yahoo's in MN"
Target seems to treat most people like shit, and at the one I work at the ones who have some REASONABLE accommodations required even worse. One of the front end team leads told me that they were going to fire him if he went in a wheelchair after he had a foot injury. Funny enough, the HR manager had a high risk pregnancy sometime last year and she was in a wheelchair for 6 months. Interesting how HR and the upper managers get and do whatever they want, yet it's worth potential firing someone when the other lowly employees need perfectly reasonable accommodation (God forbid we're all human and some have slightly different needs, temporary or otherwise)?
They are probably retaliating against me now after having made that call to the hotline. While I did get what I asked for breaks wise and am permitted to have a water bottle (yes I now get 2 even if I am working say 5 hours funny enough), now I have been getting literally all short shifts the last few weeks. Of course, people who have been there for like no more than a month and a half have been getting more hours than I have (myself like 17 on average these days) and them like 25-28 on average! The team lead I told about my dumbass writeup and the fact I reported the store's misdoings to the hotline (and the fact HR just isn't as friendly to me anymore) sarcastically said "and that's not retaliation?" He said he saw my medical note and what I was asking for to be perfectly reasonable. On top of that, if I ever said I really needed to sit down for a few minutes because my feet hurt (thanks to swelling feet, ugh) he said he would have absolutely no problem letting me do so. I'm probably going to ask the manager who does the scheduling why I'm only getting short shifts these days. I'm certain it's in retaliation of my reporting them for their misdoings and also for my asking for something perfectly reasonable. I will see what the manager has to say about it, and I will be recording that conversation. Thank you state of North Carolina for being a one party consent surveillance state!