Sales Floor Does anyone else have unrealistic push times?

[Captain Orca]

Most were good. Always a few bad ones. It's life, same with everything.

 

[HInbound]

When I was an inbound lead i went over freight times with my team, explained how it was calculated, and addressed the concerns they had. Ask your leader how he got the numbers. There are some nuances but the times given aren't typically too off. Candles/H+H/furniture may be slightly longer then it says. 19 vehicles Is a lot and I would be surprised that it would of been a single trucks worth of freight. When freight is left over calculations go out the window. They would have to manually count boxes and repacks to get an accurate push times

H&H is ridiculously overblown now from our experience. Our team is getting H&H done way before the stated goal times. I think they've overinflated the detrash time by quite a lot.

 

[MrT]

H&H is ridiculously overblown now from our experience. Our team is getting H&H done way before the stated goal times. I think they've overinflated the detrash time by quite a lot.

Good to know i have not been an inbound lead for some time was not aware they even changed it

 

[animalcrossing]

Wow that is crazy that they get away with that. My store softlines team is that way. There are 7 z racks plus multiple 3 tiers of back stock in the backroom on a daily basis. No way my flow team ETL would allow us to stop for a moment to catch our breath let alone leave so much stuff left over.

We used to have an opening TL that would NOT let that behavior slide - he'd make sure everyone was up and at it which explained why U-Boats were always done way before I got there at the time. I wasn't a fan of him because he'd always make me pull priorities even when they were super low but wow I miss him. I think he's an ETL at a regular Target now? Anyway - sad that your softlines team sounds like a bunch of jokers. Style is so easy to make look horrible and their lack of effort certainly doesn't help

 

[Dead and Khaki]

I'll say it over and over and over and over again: "Because I said you have to" is NOT a valid answer to "How?" Not even grammatically. Accept it only as a poor translation of "I have no fucking clue."

 

[Peter Parker]

So it happened again today. I had 15 uboats and 26 repacks. I didn't receive help until well after 9 oclock. I only worked 6 and half hour shift and got grilled why i still had 4 uboats left on the line. Told then it was impossible for me to finish all of that and keep in mind i am on permanent restrictions due to a back injury that occured earlier this year that happened at work there. Is it just my ETL and TL being an asshole or is this company wide ?

 

[Peter Parker]

I'll say it over and over and over and over again: "Because I said you have to" is NOT a valid answer to "How?" Not even grammatically. Accept it only as a poor translation of "I have no fucking clue."

Exactly. Happens all the time . My flow ETL will help push uboats if it has 5 or less boxes on it. Other than that he just yells at eveyone to hurry up.

 

[allnew2]

And that is why when I took over Etl inbound we went back to waving.
All departments were 1h top but strictly push . I had someone who would do their trash and someone who would take care of backstock.

 

[Peter Parker]

We used to have an opening TL that would NOT let that behavior slide - he'd make sure everyone was up and at it which explained why U-Boats were always done way before I got there at the time. I wasn't a fan of him because he'd always make me pull priorities even when they were super low but wow I miss him. I think he's an ETL at a regular Target now? Anyway - sad that your softlines team sounds like a bunch of jokers. Style is so easy to make look horrible and their lack of effort certainly doesn't help

Yes it gets pretty bad. There are so many OSHA violations at my store but noone ever really cares until the Upper people come and they make us fix everthing before they get there.

 

[Peter Parker]

And that is why when I took over Etl inbound we went back to waving.
All departments were 1h top but strictly push . I had someone who would do their trash and someone who would take care of backstock.

That is very smart and efficient. I feel like that would be more efficient at my store as well. I have more frieght than anyone else and usually there is only 2 of us to do 14 to 20 uboats daily with TM only working like 6 hours due to the hour cuts. I am lucky if i get another person to help out daily , when i do it's usually with like 2 hours left in my shift. I can't keep up with the demand and am worried they will put me on CA for not being able to complete on time.

 

[MrT]

And that is why when I took over Etl inbound we went back to waving.
All departments were 1h top but strictly push . I had someone who would do their trash and someone who would take care of backstock.

Wave push is the way

 

[FlowTeamChick]

There are so many OSHA violations at my store but noone ever really cares

If your store really does have OSHA violations, you can probably make an anonymous report to your state's labor department. They can get into some serious trouble with stuff like that and your store's leadership should not be letting it slide.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Wave push is the way

Cannot disagree more. The slackers slack and basically take advantage of the TMs who work hard. If TLs got after the slackers, that might be okay, except they don't. So nope to the wave.

 

[Peter Parker]

If your store really does have OSHA violations, you can probably make an anonymous report to your state's labor department. They can get into some serious trouble with stuff like that and your store's leadership should not be letting it slide.

We have had TM take pictures and send to OSHA but i havent seen anything happen yet.

 

[allnew2]

Cannot disagree more. The slackers slack and basically take advantage of the TMs who work hard. If TLs got after the slackers, that might be okay, except they don't. So nope to the wave.

At your store maybe. But. Overnights with 2 truck both leaders would be working side by side with the team. They both knew I wouldn’t care about excuses because they had the hours.
Besides why would one still have slackers in their team?

 

[animalcrossing]

noone ever really cares until the Upper people come and they make us fix everthing before they get there.

Now THIS is definitely a company-wide problem. All the major issues get bandaid fixed so the DSD and other people at the top don't flip their lid on our TLs (even when they absolutely should)

 

[Peter Parker]

At your store maybe. But. Overnights with 2 truck both leaders would be working side by side with the team. They both knew I wouldn’t care about excuses because they had the hours.
Besides why would one still have slackers in their team?

Well my ETl wont push no matter how mich stuff is there. And as for the slackers my store is full of them. They havent fired anyone in my store for just slacking off.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Besides why would one still have slackers in their team?

If I only knew. Seriously, it's been different reasons over the years. For a while, we had an awful TL who played favorites; his favs were allowed to goof off with no consequences. Then when covid was bad and people were collecting unemployment because those rules were relaxed (at least in my state), we had a terrible time even hiring enough TMs and having them stick around; so anyone who was breathing was kept on, good or bad.
Now it seems like a combo of a few years of lax leadership where small things like dress code and being on time are allowed to slide; "give them an inch and they'll take a mile" comes into play. The other piece is, I think, TMs who've figured out they can get in trouble a certain amount in a certain time frame and still keep their jobs. They don't do anything that's an immediately fireable offense, but they'll call off a little too often or show up a little late a little too often - that kind of thing. And so they get coached, reform their ways for a while, and then they're back at it.
There are the stalwarts who have been there for years and are reliable, hard workers and they're really the ones carrying the load. TLs know who those TMs are; when 4th quarter rolls around and there are extra hours and even OT to be had, it goes to those TMs.
I think there are slackers in any large organization. I used to work for state government and for an insurance company, so I know bureaucracy. An organization gets large enough, it's easy for a slacker to hide and/or work the system.

 

[Unleashed Dog]

What Im reading in this thread is literally what started happening to my push team at my current location. I took this team over less than a month ago, finally was starting to get good results with push times and unloads. Got three bad ones terminated, several mid ones on CA and other mid ones improving and learning, and then out of nowhere dumbass SD comes out to cut their hours half way into the week. Repacks and Home are sitting there because he thinks 10 flats and 20 repacks can get done in 4hrs by one TM.

 

[Peter Parker]

What Im reading in this thread is literally what started happening to my push team at my current location. I took this team over less than a month ago, finally was starting to get good results with push times and unloads. Got three bad ones terminated, several mid ones on CA and other mid ones improving and learning, and then out of nowhere dumbass SD comes out to cut their hours half way into the week. Repacks and Home are sitting there because he thinks 10 flats and 20 repacks can get done in 4hrs by one TM.

Exactly. I understand corporate pushing all this shit but no way can one person handle such a load on the hours they give us. I was averging 37.5 a week hours last year , that has now been cut to 30 hours a week. And somehow i am supposed to push all of that do my audits and my pulls all in a 6 hour shift. The company has really gone downhill.

 

[MrT]

Cannot disagree more. The slackers slack and basically take advantage of the TMs who work hard. If TLs got after the slackers, that might be okay, except they don't. So nope to the wave.

I mean if anything wave push should reduce the slackers. When I ran my truck the slackers areas would have to be done by other tms. The only way any of this works is by removing them. If your a lead and working with your team doing the wave then there is no room for slacking. If its still happening its not on the team its on the leadership. I built my culture within my team and my team would also hold each other accountable. Turned it around from having having all kinds of issues with slacking, attendance, and just generally negative tms to a cohesive team and just found the wave push much easy to get the job done. People always hate change there is no denying that. I will say wave push or dbo models, leadership and lack of accountability is the reason stores fail.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

If your a lead and working with your team doing the wave then there is no room for slacking.

The last time we waved regularly was when we had a TL who played favorites and worked with them only. There was a lot of chatting about video gaming and sports, not much helping on his part, certainly no holding everyone accountable.
Although if you weren't one of his favorites, he'd grouse that you weren't moving fast enough.
I worked mainly in OTC and Beauty then and mistakes were made all over the place with those little boxes of Tylenol and tiny cosmetic items. And TMs who didn't like that kind of detail complained about having to push that stuff.
Hence, my hatred of the wave concept.
If it had been done as you describe, I'd probably feel a lot different about it.