July 7, 2013 - angrytps
Target will fuck you in a heartbeat
One year ago today, I started my job as a TPS (target protection specialist) in a mid america target store. To give a little background to those of you who don’t work at target, the tps is the little stuff bitch that does everything that the etl-ap, aps, or aptl doesn’t want to do. They are dressed in all black and usually “create a presence” at the front doors. Well, being an 18 year old fresh out of high school, I was looking for a job that paid decent and didn’t require any college, so I applied and after three interviews was hired. . . Thus, the fucking commenced.
I was hired to work at the store on the east side of the city and on day one, they advised me that I would be training at that store only and would actually be getting transfered to the store on the west side. I was happy about this because I lived on the west side, so I gladly took the transfer in stride, however they forgot to mention that I would be filling in all over town if someone was sick. So I sent all over the city filling in a litte over here and a little over there and not accomplishing a whole lot.
Once all of my cross city travels had ended, they took away my etl-ap and transfered him to another store. I got a female etl-ap who was a complete and utter moron, she lacked both common sense and good morals.
To make an extremely long and boring story a little shorter, I will skip ahead to the incident that led to my getting terminated.
I was working one day and was called to the fitting room by the attendant, who told me that she had just seen a woman enter the fitting rooms w/ merchandise and then leave without anything and the attendant swore she could see clothes in the woman’s bag. . . . Doing the only thing we could do (seriously people, if you want to shoplift, target is the spot), I “made a presence” at the fitting room, so that the woman could see I was aware. After the woman purchased some merchandise and headed for the door I stopped her to make a receipt check and then informed her of what the fitting room attendant had told me. With this, the woman was understandably upset and showed me the inside of her purse which had no clothing inside of it. I apologized and she went on her way.
Several days later, my lovely boss recieves a phone call from the same woman who threatens to sue the store because she claims I accused her of stealing. Now, keep in mind I never once said she had stolen the merchandise, I simply informed her that the attendent had seen her go in the fitting room with merchandise and leave with none and I just asked her what she did with it. So my boss, tells her boss, who comes and reviews the footage (which mind you has no audio what so ever). From watching a 3 minute blurp of soundless audio, I was terminated for violating policy, however I was not allowed to know which one even after calling the HR director. . . . . . I am a simple man, so I did not file for unemployment or sue for wrongful termination. However, looking back I realize that they heard the word law and suit in the same sentence and fucked me over for any possible liability issues.
FUCK TARGET and all that it stands for, you are all a bunch of self centered, self righteous ass holes that are all about yourselves and don’t have the balls to stand up for one of your own. I was never late, never coached, and had never recieved even a warning for anything discipline related, and after getting boned by these dumb fucks, I went on to work loss prevention at a hardware store. I stopped twice the amount of people and never once got in trouble for stopping criminals from committing crimes. Now I am currently a 911 operator for a large metropolitan city and make a little over twice what I made with target. My advice to anyone wanting to go into law enforcement, security, loss prevention, etc. is to go to a company that actually does what they dress you up to be, which is a security guard. Not a black suited vagina that stands at the front doors of a store everyday handing out carts and walking laps in the store.
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I'm sorry to hear you were terminated, but what you did was in CLEAR violation of some of the most important AP Directives you HAVE to follow if you want to work in AP at Target. I worked as a TPS for almost two years.
Like you said, all you can do as a TPS is "make your presence known" and hope the guest dumps the merchandise before they exit.
Even an ETL-AP or Investigations Specialist can't make a stop unless they physically witness the act of concealment and are sure (through constant surveillance) the merchandise was not dumped.
Yes, you are allowed to make receipt checks at the door...but only on EXPOSED merchandise.
Anything that is concealed is not fair game for a stop and is basically accusing the guest of stealing...which is probably the most important AP Directive to follow...NEVER accuse a guest of stealing unless you have witnessed:
1. The guest select the item off the sales floor
2. The guest conceal the item.
3. Maintain visualization to make sure the guest does not dump the item before exiting.
4. Then, and only then, can you make a stop (if authorized to do so)
I believe Target has something close to a zero-tolerance policy for violence of these directives.
I know being a TPS sucks because you can basically do nothing except stand around and ask CIHYFS, but the directives are there to protect you from things like law suits and termination.
I hope this explains a little why you were fired. I believe you're better off because being a TPS is a dead end job.
They would be so soon to hire a bimbo with just a college degree in "business administration" with no criminal justice training to be an ETL-AP over someone who has experience in loss prevention and an eagerness to support the AP mission.
I really appreciate it!!! I was never told exactly why it is I was fired and only worked there for about 6 months before being terminated. . . I did go through the directives and everything before hitting the floor, however I got a "crash course" because they needed someone like right now. Thank you for the explanation, I was pretty pissed that they wouldn't tell me why exactly I got canned. I agree that I am better off, I have a career oriented job now and feel bad for whoever had to replace me.
You are also dead on with the comment about ETL-AP's. They hire whoever has the most school, and the one I worked for flat out told me she didn't want to be there. . . . Which was fantastic since she was the only one allowed to make stops.
Sorry about that. The problem with Target is that everything is a "rush" from orientation from Hr to training in the position that you are hired for. They are so hell bent on pay roll that training is not effective. Everything looks good on paper for Hr but the harsh reality is that so many opportunities are missed during training hence the frustration and high employee turn over. I do not even know why they have an ETL-AP in some stores because they serve absolutely no purpose. Gone are the days when Target had ETL-Ap's that cares. The majority of the good team members in AP-from store level to district level in our district have all left the company. Target has an excellent training program in place but with the bad morale, favoritism, unfairness, bad raises at review time, but most importantly their poor choices in senior management it seems like all will be lost over time. If senior management worked the same way everyday as if they are expecting a district or corporate visit, then Target would perhaps be a better pace to work.
My theory is that they intentionally give you crap training just so they can yell at you for doing everything wrong later. Makes them feel better about themselves I guess.
This is so true!
I transfered from a great Target to a shitting one that does everything ass backwards.
I'm so much more productive then any of my coworkers, but I don't do things "their way" so I'm constantly coached. And the thing is, THEY NEVER TRAINED AND STILL HAVEN'T!
They either get off at yelling at me or they just like to remind me of my place in this shit hole.