Dealing with backstabbing TMs

[Boxman]

Not enough info in OP to formulate a hypothesis and offer advice or a solution. If it's a guy, simply say so. If its a girl, simply say so. If you choose to not label by gender, simply say so. Having a closed door discussion with anyone is a foolish thing to do. Don't do it. This is nothing new.

Not true. I constantly pull my team into an office by myself for coaching. I have a lot of sensitive team members so I always pull them in the office and tell them to "get the door if they like"

This way if they want privacy and don't want others to know they are coached they can have it.

If they are uncomfortable in a closed door then they can leave it open.

I also pull my team off in a closed door setting to recognize them, thank them, reward them with a soda/candy etc. I do this so my team doesn't associate being "pulled of stage" as bad. They don't know if it's good or bad. They also can't spread rumors amongst each other afterwards.

"Oh so and so got called to the principal's office" is the shit I don't want.

Just some ideas for you.

 

[Fluttervale]

hg no need to tell me that, of course they need some guidance and an occasional reprimand. It's just the nomenclature that is irritating. The team concept is slowly going by the wayside in some stores. Going back to my question, are there minimums that must be met?

Minimums depend on the severity of the infraction. Stores have to make a concerted effort to remain fair across diverse TMs while also enforcing safety and policies.

So you could get a coaching if a guest overheard you say "well this is fucked" but a CCA for going off on a peer and using the word fuck while violating the harassment policy.

 

[Bufferine]

We used to have an HR that would bring a third party in every time she did a CA. That way it is not a he said she said situation.

 

[Berry]

Short answer is no, but speaking generally about frontline work like we do, leaders with a lot of team members under their supervision should be praising or reprimanding frequently imo, just to reinforce the rules and the culture. If you have a good team, it's nice because that communication is mostly positive, and if you have a bad team, it's a lot of hair-pulling as you are always doing the balancing act of correcting people while still motivating them and finding things to praise them for.

Target approaches this super-softly. I've never seen a supervision environment like this, but Target's method is based in social science. The theory is basically that the ratio of positive reinforcement needs to be about 4:1 to any sort of reprimand for optimal learning and reinforcement. And those reprimands have to be delivered in as positive a way as possible. We have to be far more positive than most would consider realistic in the American culture in which I was raised (the "shit sandwich" was considered forward-thinking). It's new and sometimes difficult for me.

Seriously? In our store there is no positive reinforcement for anything.

 

[NotCynicalYet]

Seriously? In our store there is no positive reinforcement for anything.

Not surprising tbh. My store is super marshmallow plush toy soft and leadership stresses positivity. If you bark at a TM, you get a talking to. But I'm sure plenty of stores are a little more old-school. My background is more old-school so the official Target way is something I'm taking a while to learn.

 

[Florida Dawg]

If it's important regardless of gender and magnitude always have someone you trust present during the talk. Trust no one.

I trust maybe one or two people at my work because they actually are understanding. A lot of them are high school minded gossipers.

 

[Florida Dawg]

Not surprising tbh. My store is super marshmallow plush toy soft and leadership stresses positivity. If you bark at a TM, you get a talking to. But I'm sure plenty of stores are a little more old-school. My background is more old-school so the official Target way is something I'm taking a while to learn.

Yep cus we live in a soft ass PC world, They don’t do shit right and the lazy workers or ones who can’t do right cant admit when things are wrong. Management is full of it on the positivity, They won’t be when they hear someone mad.

 

[Captain Orca]

Spend 6 wks at Ft. Jackson South Carolina in the summer. Lug around an M-16, climb over, under and through barbed wire, live in mud, for hours. Ain't no soft ass PC shit there.

 

[NotCynicalYet]

Spend 6 wks at Ft. Jackson South Carolina in the summer. Lug around an M-16, climb over, under and through barbed wire, live in mud, for hours. Ain't no soft ass PC shit there.

Not gonna say I ever took a course like that, but I did spend a couple winters of 12 hour/6 days a week out busting my hump on a flightline in some serious weather. Definitely gave me a new perspective on what is real hard work and hard-to-get results. As hard as retail is at times, it never gets quite like that.

I'm okay with the world changing though. The benefits of being self-sufficient and tough when necessary are probably outweighed by the downsides of the sheer trauma, and the mental health and productivity upsides of the softer, gentler way of doing things.

 

[NotCynicalYet]

Yep cus we live in a soft ass PC world, They don’t do shit right and the lazy workers or ones who can’t do right cant admit when things are wrong. Management is full of it on the positivity, They won’t be when they hear someone mad.

Treating lazy people with kid gloves is my greatest pet peeve. They throw a cry or two, and now they're the victim instead of the lazy person. Yeesh. I guess I don't know how to navigate that kind of situation yet.

 

[Florida Dawg]

Treating lazy people with kid gloves is my greatest pet peeve. They throw a cry or two, and now they're the victim instead of the lazy person. Yeesh. I guess I don't know how to navigate that kind of situation yet.

Yep it’s bullshit, You will find me as one of the few from My Gen (Gen Z) who isn’t so sensitive and just constantly lazy at work and being a pussy about a lot of things.

 

[Caliwest]

Seriously? In our store there is no positive reinforcement for anything.

Sell a red card and you ll get a walkie call out wahoo from all tl, etl s .....that s it. . It d be nice to get a shout out thank you for backup casheiring so the new tm cashier could get that red card sale cause you just took some of the heat off their line...but..nah.