Archived Bruises, callouses, and cuts! Oh my!!

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Mamat82

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After being a flow tm for a little over a week I've amassed quite a collection of bruises, scratches, cuts ect... LOL

BUT I have to say I love it. My team must be an exception to the rule as everyone is helpful, friendly, and knowledgeable. My TL was impressed that I took the time to "research" my job and everything I already knew on my first day.

I can only assume its a good thing that I've already been asked if I want to cross train in plano and/or backroom. :)
 
That is awesome! I started flow, then trained backroom and now I am Plano. I would recommend cross training wherever you can! If hours are short on Plano I work flow or backroom. They just had me do the cashier training the other day to, I don't know how often I will do that but I guess Plano is last resort for back up at our store haha.
 
Work gloves! I love them! It's kind of silly, but I got some cheap work gloves at a local store and they changed my Target work experience. Moving shelves, chemicals, tearing cardboard, sorting through merchandise in plastic packages with pointy edges, picking up trash, and carrying boxes around - all of these are improved by a good pair of work gloves with a nice grip on the inside. I work in a large store and there's a very few of us who bring our own gloves and we all wonder why others don't.

Also I've worked Backroom and a little Plano during our remodel, both left me with scrapes and bruises but were fun. Part of the job I suppose.
 
I was told it was a steritech violation to wear gloves...It boggled my mind. I was also told it was one to leave your sweatshirt in a cart, and my personal favorite, place food in carts that needs to be worked. I can understand the no drinks/food on the floor but some of the other ones just confuse me.
 
Wow, learn something new every day. I'd be very interested in learning if I can wear gloves or not...I do understand the need for seemingly unreasonable policies, especially when health considerations are a factor, companies have to protect themselves.

I just like keeping my hands free of cuts, and not spilling chemicals on them when I handle broken containers. I do know of some Targets that provide work gloves to employees - the one I work at has them for the freezer, the one my girlfriend used to work at had them for everything. I fear asking a TL because if they say "no" I'll have to stop using them - anyone else know for sure what the Target policy on work gloves is?

*As afterthought, we have some TLs who use the flimsy disposable plastic gloves all day every day, some who use nothing, some TMs who wear real work gloves with a rubbery grip, and some TMs who wear leather gloves/winter gloves. Wide variety, but a lot of glove use going on. Any of that legal?
 
We are allowed to wear gloves. One of my TL wears them almost all the time but esp when working the line or doing frozen/dairy. I tried wearing gloves but couldn't get my fingers under the flaps to open the boxes. Maybe if I can find some with thinner fingers it might work.

Ive started wearing thicker knee socks to help "cushion" my shins when im working on lower shelves. I don't want to wear knee pad and look like a dork though lol
 
We can wear them in the freezer/cooler but not on the floor...it is funny how policies are different at each store.
 
I wore kneepads all the time when I worked flow (and use them whenever I have to work on the floor for signing).
Used gloves when I worked cardboard, I wouldn't make a bail without them.
 
I remember my first week on Plano we were resetting Toys. So many of the peg label holders were yellow and we had finally gotten some in so we were replacing hundreds of them throughout the week. By the end of the week, both of my hands were covered in small cuts from those little suckers!
 
Thisss. My fingers/ hands are constantly nicked up from the boxes or my own box cutter. I definitely have a lot of scars. My pet peeve is split cuticles...which also happens often. I get some new sort of cut or bruise just about each day. I'm constantly banging my elbow or funny bone on the baler...or my shins on the flats. And I constantly have bruised knees... kneepads might be a good idea but it seems like they would just get in the way.
I usually wear gloves when working frozen and dairy, but I think they're allowed anywhere else on the floor.

But anyway, I like flow team. It's laid back and I can do my own thing. And another upside to all this is that I'm developing nice biceps from all the lifting.. :D
 
Oh goodness, if they told us gloves weren't allowed, I'd quit zoning/pushing freezer. :p No can do in bare hands, sorry!

My hands get so beat up, though. When I was a cashier, I got paper cuts and splits/fissures on my fingertips. When I worked at FA, I'd nick myself on various sharp metal edges and because my hands were always in the dishwater, any teeny cut took forever to heal and was so annoyingly painful. I felt like such a baby complaining about a papercut, but those puppies hurt! I always bashed my knuckles cleaning the hot dog roller and popcorn machine. Worst thing I ever did, though, was "catch" a falling box of pizza boxes with the back of my hand and get the skin taken clean off on my knuckle. Couldn't put a bandaid on it because of where it was located, and it hurt SO BAD.

Anyway, now I'm PFresh and so far my hands are in the worst shape they've ever been. Calloused and I have SO MANY splits and cracks on my fingertips, especially my thumbs. Not caused by anything but plain old use. They are as painful as all get out, and heal only to come right back. I have an at-home moisturizing regimen but I'm thinking its not going to get better until after winter, if at all. I probably will buy some medical tape to keep my thumbs covered because I'm tired of using up three bandaids a day. :p
 
I think I win this game...Food Ave -> Wet Floor + Fryer Grease = Burns -> Skin Graft Surgery
 
Yup, working BR makes me come home every day with a new bruise or cut. My shins and ankles get the worst of it from leaning against ladder rungs and running into tubs and flats. I'll get random bruises on my arms from bracing boxes against them. But the worst have to be slices from waco bins! Those sting like something else.

My hands also get in pretty rough shape if I don't stay on top of moisturizing them. I use the cheapo requisitioned lotion about once every hour, and then some really nice stuff I bring with me when I go on breaks. It doesn't stop every split cuticle and rough patch, but it helps.
 
buliSBI said:
I think I win this game...Food Ave -> Wet Floor + Fryer Grease = Burns -> Skin Graft Surgery
Click to expand...

Yep, you win. If targets still had fryers in most stores I bet you'd be in that orientation video, lol.

I had one FA TM who burned herself badly enough that she was off work for weeks, but that was her own stupid fault. She stuck her hand inside the breadstick warmer. INSIDE. How dumb do you have to be...
 
I've been known to wrap my fingertips in medical tape due to cuts and splits as well, fortunately we have some available for us at the store. Otherwise Neutrogena "Norwegian Formula" hand cream is my savior, learned about it while working in a restaurant during the winter and washing hands constantly, one tiny drop heals all kinds of things.

Also I can't talk for others but I found my first few weeks at Target I was coming home battered, bruised and sore, but after a while that changed quite a bit. I see bad things coming now, and learn to step into an aisle when someone is headed my way with a vehicle that won't fit (after calling out a warning to them, or course) - watch out for falling stuff, ladders, baler, anything dangerous. I've danced around 100 hazardous situations with minimal injury this month just due to experience, and work gloves keep my hands safe for the stuff I know will hurt (also - boots. Dunno what Target policy is' cuz most people wear sneakers, but mine don't draw attention, just have steel toes and have saved my feet a few times.) Yaaay, learning at Target.

Also, can't beat the Target Workout, that thing is awesome as a few people have said already.
 
Certainly, experience and safety awareness cuts down on a lot of little and big injuries. But some just can't be avoided, lol. I'm 5'3 and pushing milk at my store can lead to bruises up and down my legs because I lack the upper body strength (and height!) to get the top crates down using just my upper body. Our other pa is the same height as me and once she gave herself bruises that covered her entire thighs.
 
I have a really bad habit of running into the steel in the back, pretty much anywhere there is a corner.....my poor funny bone and elbow are taking the worst of it.....
 
I use a set of baseball batting gloves as work gloves when I work in the backroom. I'm pretty careful with my box cutter, but when I don't wear any gloves, I get cuts just from cardboard boxes. The leathery layer provides some grip but is thin and tactile enough to press buttons accurately on a PDA. The gloves are not entirely weatherproof, but I can still use them for handling in the freezer and coolers. No one at my store has told me it's a steritech violation to wear gloves such as mine. I try to clean my gloves frequently because they do get dirty quite often.
 
My ETL-LOG has been a saint about getting equipment for the back freezers/coolers. Lately they ordered some "Ice Gripsters" gloves that are insulated winter-style work gloves with the tacky rubber coating on the outside. Oh, man! How did I ever live without these? If you work in the freezer, ask someone to order you some Ice Gripsters. I do keep another set of the cheap rubber-coated gloves in my pocket at all times for stuff like carrying splintery pallets, or dripping chemical bottles, so I can see how using those for food purposes would be a Steritech violation. Wish I knew what gloves Steritech advises we use, if any.
 
Usually for me, the only issue I have is the occasional blister on my toe, or a bit of a callouse buildup. Since I started working as flow I've made sure I have both blister and callouse pads.

I did end up accidentially poking myself in the pinkie with my box cutter last night, though. A bit of a cut, but nothing much.
 
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