Applying for a Team-lead position

[Kev321]

About a week ago, I talked to my team lead about a team lead position that opened up at another store and asked whether I should apply. I've only been with Target for about 5-6 months, but I've had 6 years of management experience running grocery stores and convenience stores. He told me I should apply and talked me through everything that would happen. A couple of days ago, my ETL spoke to me about it and said you applied for a team lead position and that I couldn't do it without his permission. I told him I didn't know that and that my team leader told me I should apply. He ended up blocking it and telling me he doesn't think I'm ready. And after that talk, I usually average around 35 hours a week, and now I'm getting 5 hours a week. Did I do something wrong here?

 

[Captain Orca]

You're getting screwed by an immature incompetent ETL. Discuss this underhanded bullshit with the STL and if necessary go above to the DTL. Stand up and don't take this shit.

 

[Black Sheep 214]

About a week ago, I talked to my team lead about a team lead position that opened up at another store and asked whether I should apply. I've only been with Target for about 5-6 months, but I've had 6 years of management experience running grocery stores and convenience stores. He told me I should apply and talked me through everything that would happen. A couple of days ago, my ETL spoke to me about it and said you applied for a team lead position and that I couldn't do it without his permission. I told him I didn't know that and that my team leader told me I should apply. He ended up blocking it and telling me he doesn't think I'm ready. And after that talk, I usually average around 35 hours a week, and now I'm getting 5 hours a week. Did I do something wrong here?

Welcome to TBR. Your ETL is being an asshat, which is not unusual behavior for some Target “leaders”, unfortunately. Your store leadership has to approve a transfer, but I’ve never heard that you needed your ETL’s prior approval to apply for a job posting, that story may be true, or may not be. In any case, since your hours have dropped from 35 to 5 hours two weeks before Christmas, you certainly seem to be on the receiving end of your ETL’s ire, for no good reason in my opinion. You spoke to your TL about applying, he encouraged you to apply, and if the ETL’s prior approval was needed, your TL should have mentioned it. Can’t see how you did anything wrong.
You might want to start looking around for another job at a company that would treat you better, if such a place still exists these days, and just hang in at Spot while you search. Considering you already appear to be on your ETL’s list, talking to your SD might be an acceptable course of action if you think they would be helpful, but I wouldn’t count on it. It will likely come down to the office politics at your store, and how positively the SD views your ETL. Unless you have inside info about this, it’s a coin toss at best.
With your management experience, I’m confident that you can get a better job elsewhere, where you wouldn’t have to be an asshat ETL’s whipping boy.(Incidentally for an ETL to get that bent out of shape over a TM trying to improve their position is positively astounding. It’s part of their job to prepare team members for advancement, although some prefer to hold the good ones back because they are too hard to replace.) Good luck, I hope things work out for you.

 

[Him]

Definitely 💯 share a lot of the same sentiments of @Black Sheep 214. What I do happen to see with all levels of Target 🎯 within the past couple of years is anyone who is promoting, having the invisible task of finding a replacement for the position they are leaving behind. So in the case of you @Kev321, it’s like finding your “you” amongst your peers. Not saying that it’s easy as promoting in Target 🎯 is a combination of politics and knowledge. I’ve seen people who don’t deserve the titles, get it on networking alone. Then I’ve seen others who were promoted because of the knowledge they had. Not sure if you actually want to “play the long game” as you might want to be a supervisor right now. In the end, do what’s best for you and your family. I wish you the best 👍🏾

 

[BackLog]

A few details here would help clear things up.

While I agree that this sounds like your ETL is punishing his lack of involvement in you applying for the TL position, schedules are made 3 weeks in advance now so unless he went and deleted your shifts then these were the hours you were already planned to have before all this happened. So if your time line is correct and you applied a week ago, then you should have already known about your scheduled hours for these upcoming weeks. Now if you're talking about a newly released schedule, we are currently writing schedules for the week AFTER Christmas. That means a ton of Q4 workload is done and gone. Fulfillment becomes bare bones, inbound trucks start to normalize, the only thing that really picks up is Plano for all the sets to get rid of any sign of the holidays in the store. Hours run and jump off a cliff every year after Christmas and this year is expected to be one of the worst.

Also if your store is continuing to hire seasonals for your work center then your hours may also drop from having to spread hours out to other team members.

And just some general info, while I personally don't think you need 'approval' to apply to TL positions, your ETL will get an automated email every time you do. He can't turn down the application himself, but inevitably the store you applied to will reach out and ask for feedback on you before any interview takes place. So it would be wise to talk to your ETL before applying to another position in the future. There is the option to apply through the Target careers website, which wouldn't trigger an email I believe, but that could also seem shady to the person reviewing the application.

Either way, best of luck on future applications!