At the end of my rope. Rant/advice for a struggling inbound TL

Is this SD new to the company or a promote with little to no logistics experience?

cause those are the only two cases I’ve come across of SD’s that hold those unrealistic demands on the Inbound TL.

Also unrealistic ETL’s. I transferred from my inbound role due to this bullshit. This was before the B/C/D change. All my successors have apparently failed far worse than I ever did at that store in the inbound role.

My current SD is also an external hired moron that’s ran out the last inbound TL, has done no planning for the B/C/D change and is driving my ETL and the Specialty Leaders to the verge of LOA.

im happy to be a Food TL now. The bullshit I deal with is nowhere near GM’s.
 
Serabears said:
Hey all,

So we recently got a new SD, right at the beginning of April and he has not made the changes yet for the new breakdown of B/C/D to style.

Currently, I'm at my wits end. I've been an inbound TL for 3 years, always owned PP1s. Hba/OTC/pet/paper/chem. However, my new SD has told me that it's my responsibility for the ENTIRE truck to come clean. I'm not sure how I can do that, when I only work 8 hours. He's told me I have to push, any and all areas that won't come clean without help. I already push like 6 PP1 vehicles a day, I don't have any other time to spare, between doing my morning routines and pushing. My team doesn't get enough hours, so we only come clean with my help.

Apparently, I'm also responsible for performancing out DBOs that aren't even mine, but my GM peers. And also responsible for fixing that particular DBO's atrocious backroom because he has ton of unlocated product in his backroom. So basically I've been told, Plano GMTL only does that. And SFS GMTL only does that. And everything else is mine. I can't even get my ETL to remember a conversation we had 5 minutes before I leave for the day, before getting texts of "what's this and that?" When I get home.

I don't even feel like a leader anymore. All my time is spent pushing because no matter what we need to come clean daily. How can I elevate people when I can't even spend time with them? My peers have created terrible DBOs that I can't even get time to fix..I'm sitting here praying for the moment that style is finally given their new roles in my store...

So huge rant over, but other inbound leaders, what are your areas now after the changes?
Click to expand...
I am P1 TL & I am only responsible for my team. That’s BS
 
Unleashed Dog said:
Is this SD new to the company or a promote with little to no logistics experience?

cause those are the only two cases I’ve come across of SD’s that hold those unrealistic demands on the Inbound TL.

Also unrealistic ETL’s. I transferred from my inbound role due to this bullshit. This was before the B/C/D change. All my successors have apparently failed far worse than I ever did at that store in the inbound role.

My current SD is also an external hired moron that’s ran out the last inbound TL, has done no planning for the B/C/D change and is driving my ETL and the Specialty Leaders to the verge of LOA.

im happy to be a Food TL now. The bullshit I deal with is nowhere near GM’s.
Click to expand...
Sorry it's been awhile, and sadly no changes here, actually, even more was put on my plate. His background is from ETL food/HR.

Unfortunately, I think the only reason my ETL ever survived as an ETL was that the last SD was her friend and carried her ass. It's becoming quite clear she has no idea what she's doing. Unfortunately, we use to get along... However she's become quite stand offish.

Recently talked to pay and benefits about LoA. Seeing a doctor next week, hoping that they will approve me for mental health/stress leave. And I will be focusing all efforts to finding something else.
 
Serabears said:
Sorry it's been awhile, and sadly no changes here, actually, even more was put on my plate. His background is from ETL food/HR.

Unfortunately, I think the only reason my ETL ever survived as an ETL was that the last SD was her friend and carried her ass. It's becoming quite clear she has no idea what she's doing. Unfortunately, we use to get along... However she's become quite stand offish.

Recently talked to pay and benefits about LoA. Seeing a doctor next week, hoping that they will approve me for mental health/stress leave. And I will be focusing all efforts to finding something else.
Click to expand...

Do this, for sure.

Be honest with your dr about how it's affecting you. They will definitely approve medical leave. Short term disability will cover 50-75% of your income and you can use vacation time to cover the rest.

I did this in April 2021 and it gave me a chance to balance myself and update my resume and get it out. It's been a year since I left Target, new job is $60k salaried, Mo-Fr 830-5 and no stress.
 
allnew2 said:
With that many trucks a week I don’t see why wouldn’t you come clean .
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Because payroll is scaled down as well. I can get a 2200 and have one person scheduled for Domestics and HIPA, and another person scheduled for Home/kitchen at 5hrs each. I'm taking trucks with 130 repack for style (plus random case) and 3 style tms at 5-5.5 hrs each who also have to be fitting room coverage. We are running our asses off out here
 
StyleMaven1 said:
Because payroll is scaled down as well. I can get a 2200 and have one person scheduled for Domestics and HIPA, and another person scheduled for Home/kitchen at 5hrs each. I'm taking trucks with 130 repack for style (plus random case) and 3 style tms at 5-5.5 hrs each who also have to be fitting room coverage. We are running our asses off out here
Click to expand...
How many hours is your inbound scheduled?
 
That's the issue many stores are facing. The process just doesn't work without adequate payroll. It's impossible for one person to push all of domestics, kitchen, and decorative home while also pulling OFOs, working price change, zoning, backup cashing, pulling SFS/OPU batches, etc.. Lots of DBOs are also Inbound at the same time, so that's at least 2 hours just for the unload. It just doesn't work, yet that's reality for many stores. Every single store in my district has pallets of repacks, be they kitchen, home, or style, wrapped and staged in the steel simply because there aren't enough bodies to work them.

Fulfillment at my previous store had just enough payroll to cover OPU on slow days. When the SFS workload was fairly decent, almost every TM in the store had to pull at least one batch. When OPU spiked, everyone had to jump in. That's hours and hours they're spending outside of their areas. There were days where the Inbound team had to come in, push freight to be able to unload, unload the truck, and pull SFS for the rest of their shifts. It isn't maintainable and is leading to a lot of burnout, especially among TLs who are seeing pressure from above to "make it work".
 
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On any given day...with call outs...Leadership can make up 50% of bodies on the floor not counting FF and Guest Services. " Making it work " ; using common sense and basic math ,would put those hands to work but sadly ours now spend TWICE a day in Starbucks with walkies turned off. Unfit.
 
At our store payroll is so light that inbound usually does about 80% of the push and everyone else has to jump into OPU & SFS because we're always drowning in orders. Everything that doesn't get pushed just collects in the back, gathering dust and cobwebs. Style needs the most help. So many clothes and truly nowhere to put them. You take a shirt off the rack and 10 shirts fall off with it. I spend half the time I'm picking a cart cleaning up after myself in style. Doesn't even matter how carefully you grab it. It's just so over-pushed.
 
Don't know if I commented here but this is my current state...as a TL.
SD has unrealistic expectations, down several leaders storewide, trying to hold the store together as one person while getting little support from most other leaders that still remain.
Only one ETL storewide actually cares, HR ETL feels like does nothing but sit in the office and answer equipment calls, AP ETL feels like only comes around when you did something wrong and the other ETLS are just gone, MIA.
Fun life right now as a TL. Counting the days of how much longer I can keep smiling and acting motivated like everything is okay before I finally snap and quit.
 
TheClopen said:
Don't know if I commented here but this is my current state...as a TL.
SD has unrealistic expectations, down several leaders storewide, trying to hold the store together as one person while getting little support from most other leaders that still remain.
Only one ETL storewide actually cares, HR ETL feels like does nothing but sit in the office and answer equipment calls, AP ETL feels like only comes around when you did something wrong and the other ETLS are just gone, MIA.
Fun life right now as a TL. Counting the days of how much longer I can keep smiling and acting motivated like everything is okay before I finally snap and quit.
Click to expand...
You sound like where I was a year ago. SD got promoted to DSD, my ETL quit and most of my fellow GM team leads either quit or got promoted, a bunch of team members quit. It was rough. There were definitely times where I felt like I was one of the only leaders in the building that cared about the state of the store in general. I cried a lot and had panic attacks almost every day before work. We've stabilized now though. Our former specialty sales ETL became our GM ETL and we're finally in a good spot leadership wise and team member wise. I love my ETL - she's the type of ETL who knows when she needs to help out on the floor but still spends enough time in the office that she can plan and schedule well. When she does help out on the salesfloor she works incredibly quickly and efficiently and the team really respects her because she can absolutely do whatever she tells team members she expects from them.

Now our specialty sales team is going through what GM went through a year ago. Two of our specialty sales TLs who were some of our best TLs - they really cared about the team and store - quit because our new specialty sales ETL is a moron. No ability to plan, delegate, prioritize, hold anyone accountable or write a schedule. On top of that spends most of her shift in her office chatting with our SE ETL while all her workcenters are drowning other than tech. She just put in her two weeks. Pretty much everyone in the building is excited she's leaving. The last remaining specialty sales TL who was going to quit is staying now that this ETL is leaving. Our HR ETL who never helped with anything got replaced by a new ETL who used to be specialty sales so I'm hopeful she'll help out more on the floor. Our old HR was the type of HR where the whole store could be in flames and she'd still be in her office. Now the only dead weight left on our leadership team is one of the new specialty TLs (used to be fulfillment) and our SE ETL. I also started tattling on the SE ETL and SS ETL to my SD when they would spend half their shifts in their office. Luckily I have a good relationship with my SD - he started timing them on how long they spent in TSC shooting the shit with each other. Hopefully now SS ETL is leaving our SE ETL will spend some more time on the floor since her bestie won't be at work to distract her anymore.
 

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