Archived Being told to "Work faster"

[SnowWhiteOfAnA]

How many hours a week should one work, according to you, to make a living?

They're not saying you should work more hours. They're shitting upon the fact that some people actually choose to work retail and seem to lack the understanding that some people enjoy working in the retail industry. It would seem they're projecting.

 

[Times Up]

Why? How about because that was the intent of establishing a minimum wage in the first place.

That was decades...times were different. Market conditions are very different now and those that spearheaded, supported, and enacted the law couldn't foresee how a global economy, automation, and technology would change our economy.

Back then Mom and Dad were married... to each other. Mom was tasked with raising the family and caring for the home. Dad was responsible for bringing home the bacon, and mowing the lawn.

 

[Tessa120]

That was decades...times were different. Market conditions are very different now and those that spearheaded, supported, and enacted the law couldn't foresee how a global economy, automation, and technology would change our economy.

Back then Mom and Dad were married... to each other. Mom was tasked with raising the family and caring for the home. Dad was responsible for bringing home the bacon, and mowing the lawn.

If those who enacted it could foresee a global economy, automation and technology, they probably would have strengthened it. The reason the original law had maximum hours was so that employers wouldn't put a crazy number of hours on some people and leave a large amount of the population unemployed. The maximum number of hours originally in the law was put there so that the hours needed to run a business would be spread out and therefore employing more people. All the things that lower worker need today would only have made the requirement that increased the number of people getting work and able to make a living to be more important.

And back then, as you put it, a worker was supporting a household would also strengthened the resolve for minimum wage. The bill also all but eliminated legal child labor, so a household couldn't rely on children making money, so Dad would need good wages. Single parents today are supporting one less adult than a nuclear family, so less bills, and therefore should have more disposable income than one adult supporting a nuclear family.

 

[can't touch this]

back then: too many hours
now: not enough hours
in the future: no hours at all (robots)

 

[Kartman]

Domo arigato!

 

[Times Up]

If those who enacted it could foresee a global economy, automation and technology, they probably would have strengthened it. The reason the original law had maximum hours was so that employers wouldn't put a crazy number of hours on some people and leave a large amount of the population unemployed. The maximum number of hours originally in the law was put there so that the hours needed to run a business would be spread out and therefore employing more people. All the things that lower worker need today would only have made the requirement that increased the number of people getting work and able to make a living to be more important.

And back then, as you put it, a worker was supporting a household would also strengthened the resolve for minimum wage. The bill also all but eliminated legal child labor, so a household couldn't rely on children making money, so Dad would need good wages. Single parents today are supporting one less adult than a nuclear family, so less bills, and therefore should have more disposable income than one adult supporting a nuclear family.

While obviously the law served it's purpose at the time, it's outdated.

I'm agreeing to disagree.

 

[SnowWhiteOfAnA]

Back then Mom and Dad were married... to each other. Mom was tasked with raising the family and caring for the home. Dad was responsible for bringing home the bacon, and mowing the lawn.

Not to be argumentative, I just wanted to point out that most of this wasn't always the norm. Maybe in the suburbs, but not everywhere. I can honestly say my family fits that description way more now than "Back Then."

 

[Black Sheep 214]

One thing hasn’t changed and will never change- corporate greed.

 

[NPC]

I'd rather work 20 Hours for $20 an hour.....than 40 hours for $10 an hour.

 

[Militantagnostic]

Where's my universal basic income!?

 

[can't touch this]

UBI is such a dumb idea but I wouldn’t mind if it were rolled out just for me and my homies

 

[RedcardReba]

I'd rather work 20 Hours for $20 an hour.....than 40 hours for $10 an hour.

Ditto.

 

[Steffy]

Your leaders should never be saying something like this to you. It’s disrespectful and ultimately counter productive. I’m sorry.

However, working at Target is a non skilled job. It’s true that there is beyond a ton of information to memorize to be particularly effective. I was a team member, specialist, team leader, senior team leader and exec before I called it quits... 10.5 years in. I learned a lot about how Target works but... it’s a non skilled job.

Given that it is a non skilled job, Target’s publicly held social justice values are going to hurt itself, all of its employees, and the guests.

$15 an hour is too much money for an unskilled job. And while Target pretends to be socially justice driven, at the end of the day, it is a publicly traded company with major shareholders that ONLY care about profitability.

You think employees are just going to get massive raises without consequence and that those shareholders are just going to take that on the chin? Please, anyone who thinks this, grow up.

There are only a few ways this plays out. Target cuts hours to meet previous overall payroll expenses which means... the workers that remain have to work that much harder with fewer coworkers.

Or... store brand suffers which deteriorates sales even further which causes payroll cuts regardless.

Or... Target just starts closing locations they deem to be not meeting enough profitability levels.

Summary... your leader sounds like a jackass that doesn’t know how to lead, but at the end of the day, with wages going up, expectations are going to rise and if they don’t you’ll all end up unemployed.

Edit: I suppose I should also add that expectations rise over time regardless because of corporate greed, but this type of thing really has an exponential effect on hastening that process.

Can you please define a “skilled job”?
Just for my personal reference moving forward...

 

[can't touch this]

It bugs me that a lot of folks think wages should be determined solely by skill level. What is cost of fucking living? My landlord and car insurance company don't care if I flip burgers for minimum wage or smash atomic particles together in the LHC, that rent is due on the first of every month regardless.

 

[commiecorvus]

I'm sure most of the people here know that I work helping to get people with disabilities get back into the job market.
One of the big problems we face now is just what happened with the changes at Target.
Where there used to be jobs in stores and offices where people could focus on one thing now to save money the companies make it so everyone must be able to multitask.

I'm going to keep how this effects the people I work with short.
Mostly that we serve a large population who would be great if they could simply file papers or stock shelves but if you make them help customers, answer phones, make labels and whatever the boss thinks of at that moment as well as get it done in 4 hours then they are screwed.
These are people who would be great employees.
They would show up everyday, be grateful for the job, and love doing it.
They just aren't able to do 'skilled' labor.

Because, that is what multitasking in any capacity is.
When I answer a phone, schedule a person, check someone in who is standing in front of me, and write a case note about the behavior of a client in the lobby, all at the same time, I am doing skilled labor.
If you are having to split yourself between multiple aspects of a job on a dime or do completely different jobs, then return to your job without a blink, you are doing skilled labor.
If your job requires constant updates (or you should be getting them - even if the company doesn't give them to you) for you to do your job correctly, you are doing skilled labor.
If you are trying to meet a monthly goal and can lose your job (or your salary depends on it) you are doing skilled labor.

Don't let people give you shit about how much you make or how much education you have making the difference in value of the job.
You have been convinced it is 'retail' so you should be paid crap.
That is bullshit.
I worked in a union grocery store back in the early 90's and there were people there who owned houses, sent their kids to college, owned multiple cars, etc.
Many retired from there when Safeway bought the company because it started to suck from what I heard but they had worked there for 30 or 40 years, making a good life.

 

[Spot the doge]

I was open 24/7 for two years at spot. Outside of Q4 they'd only ever give me 10 hours, I didn't get training til I was 1 3/4 years into being a TM. I've since left but it's been hard to find a job outside of the one out of dozens I applied that ended up taking me. It's hard out there. I now work 28 hours solid elsewhere, it's a start eh? I also also told for 2 years to work faster despite being faster than many others and disabled; my new job that's not been a problem and infact all my leadership favors the work I produce now.

 

[SnowWhiteOfAnA]

Can you please define a “skilled job”?
Just for my personal reference moving forward...

Technically, a "skilled job" would be one that requires special training or education. Post-secondary education. A college degree or a professional certification.

A "non-skilled job" doesn't. Retail, food service, anything that requires a high school diploma or less and no specialized training. But even within Target, there are many "skilled labor" jobs, obviously.

 

[Steffy]

Technically, a "skilled job" would be one that requires special training or education. Post-secondary education. A college degree or a professional certification.

A "non-skilled job" doesn't. Retail, food service, anything that requires a high school diploma or less and no specialized training. But even within Target, there are many "skilled labor" jobs, obviously.

. Thanks! Seems there are different definitions here

 

[YoNanas]

So tired of hearing we have raised the minimum starting pay and now you should be working harder because of it. How about that you have been paying us too little and this is what you should be paying us.

That and how about that we're getting older every day and our body is not the same like it was 5 years ago and we will not be able to go as fast as we used to.

 

[YoNanas]

One thing hasn’t changed and will never change- corporate greed.

It will only get worse down the road

 

[YoNanas]

It's so much easier to just sell drugs or work in a strip bar.

And apply for public assistance/welfare/food stamps. 😆

 

[Kartman]

And you know that for a fact?

Actually...

 

[SnowWhiteOfAnA]

And apply for public assistance/welfare/food stamps. 😆

A lot of my team are on medicaid because we don't qualify for Spot's insurance and make little enough 😕

 

[can't touch this]

And apply for public assistance/welfare/food stamps. 😆

I tried to apply for SNAP and got turned away because $12 an hour at 15 hours a week is too much money. LMAO.

 

[Jimmy Neutron]

Okay. So I've been with Spot for about 4 years now. Started on truck and now I'm softlines.

When I first started, I was told that I wasn't moving quickly enough, but once I got used to my job and felt more comfortable with what I was doing, I was fine. I got a good review my first year. I was fine for a while, despite being in shoes. People realized that shoes was crazy, and we didn’t have a salesfloor person there, just me.

Then my Flow TL left and my current STL became STL right before reviews were given. My last two reviews were bad and the common denominator is the STL. After my last crappy review, my SFTL even told me not to worry about it too much because she had worked with me a few days before and saw how hard I worked.

But she is now constantly telling me that I need to work faster, specifically since the base pay went up to $12. I've told her multiple times that I always work my hardest, like I've always done, but it never seems to be enough. She calls some of us out over walkie about it.

Is she just trying to encourage us? Or is this something I need to address with her? Because if I'm already giving 100%, what exactly am I supposed to do to "work faster?" She fell today, and I certainly won't risk my safety to make Spot happy. And if she thinks $12/hr=superhuman powers, she'll need to find me a radioactive spider because I haven't suddenly grown extra limbs.

Sorry for the rant, I guess I just need advice.

Ugh tell me about it! I give 110% daily and my TLs still push us to work faster and with more urgency. It’s so unfair because some of us are working harder than a hooker’s pussy out here! I think they just try to keep the standards high by overwhelming us with goals and working faster it sucks though because the TMs not pulling their weight continue slacking while us hard workers are given more responsibilities and they have higher expectations from us