Sales Floor Does anyone else have unrealistic push times?

[Peter Parker]

I had 19 uboats for the middle (C and D ). My ETL said my push goal was 4 hours. This is insane and physically impossible. Does anyone else have these issues ?

 

[Captain Orca]

Basically we paid no attention to those times, we hustled and did it accurately. Most ETL's were decent, one was a blithering idiot. We paid no attention to her.

 

[Peter Parker]

Basically we paid no attention to those times, we hustled and did it accurately. Most ETL's were decent, one was a blithering idiot. We paid no attention to her.

My ETL has threatened a CA if we cant complete these goal times.

 

[commiecorvus]

My ETL has threatened a CA if we cant complete these goal times.

Does your ETL push with you?
If not, I would recommend that you, in the politest possible way, ask them to demonstrate how they would go about the task.
It is, after all, the role of the ETL to model the instructions they are giving.

 

[Peter Parker]

Does your ETL push with you?
If not, I would recommend that you, in the politest possible way, ask them to demonstrate how they would go about the task.
It is, after all, the role of the ETL to model the instructions they are giving.

Yes i have asked him to show me how to accomplish on time but he refuses to help out.

 

[commiecorvus]

Yes i have asked him to show me how to accomplish on time but he refuses to help out.

So he's one of those ETL's.
Fuck'em.
Just do the best job you can.
The asshole is going to shift the blame and be an asshole no matter what you do.
So just be proud of yourself for doing your best everyday.
Talk to some of the old heads, see if they have any suggestions.
Maybe bribe them with food, they are usually grumpy and hard to get along with especially if they have to work with this asshole as a boss.

 

[Peter Parker]

So he's one of those ETL's.
Fuck'em.
Just do the best job you can.
The asshole is going to shift the blame and be an asshole no matter what you do.
So just be proud of yourself for doing your best everyday.
Talk to some of the old heads, see if they have any suggestions.
Maybe bribe them with food, they are usually grumpy and hard to get along with especially if they have to work with this asshole as a boss.

Yeah i do the best i can and go home. Sadly i was injured earlier this year due to Target and have not been able to do what i used to do. So i am only able to go so fast and that is all i can do.

 

[Captain Orca]

My first and greatest ETL got down in the dirt with us daily, she was fantastic. In her mid 40s, lots of experience and an all around nice person. Patient and a listener.

 

[Peter Parker]

My first and greatest ETL got down in the dirt with us daily, she was fantastic. In her mid 40s, lots of experience and an all around nice person. Patient and a listener.

WE had an ETL like that once. He left for a better position at Amazon . Most of our ETLs will not push a boat to help us out.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

Yeah i do the best i can and go home. Sadly i was injured earlier this year due to Target and have not been able to do what i used to do. So i am only able to go so fast and that is all i can do.

We do the best we can do, especially with unrealistic expectations and awful TLs.
Something new in MPM is estimated push time. The TM who pushes case packs in OTC and Personal Care (I do all those repacks) says it seems to be pretty accurate for her. Looks like it includes just cases though, not repacks. Take a look and see if that's where your TL is getting his push goal time.
Don't push yourself so hard that you re-injure yourself. A job at Target isn't worth that.

 

[ZeroOneAce]

imho, it's the higher-ups trying to make things efficient. the faster the push, the faster the next project can be done. at the same time, if the push can be done faster, there's less of a need to keep us "machines" working x amount of hours.
*dons tin-foil hat*
think of it this way: johnny law tells ya that he has 10 uboats for you to push. he sets times on post-its based on the amount of boxes on each uboat, regardless of contents. You are then told by johnny law you have X amount of time to get those uboats pushed because he added the collective times of each of the 10 uboats. oddly enough, if you successfully do this regularly, then there's no need to keep you working extra hours, right? even more interesting: johnny law is telling you to do this because they are being told by johnny's superior that the expected metrics are not being met, and merch is not getting to the floor fast enough. johnny then passes that buck right to you.

 

[Peter Parker]

We do the best we can do, especially with unrealistic expectations and awful TLs.
Something new in MPM is estimated push time. The TM who pushes case packs in OTC and Personal Care (I do all those repacks) says it seems to be pretty accurate for her. Looks like it includes just cases though, not repacks. Take a look and see if that's where your TL is getting his push goal time.
Don't push yourself so hard that you re-injure yourself. A job at Target isn't worth that.

Oh damn those repacks suck. I have worked them before.

Thanks for the info i will have to check MPM for my push time from now on as well. I isually have to do the middle case pack plus repack with minimal help. Idk about your store but mine has gone so far downhill in just the last 6 months.

 

[Peter Parker]

imho, it's the higher-ups trying to make things efficient. the faster the push, the faster the next project can be done. at the same time, if the push can be done faster, there's less of a need to keep us "machines" working x amount of hours.
*dons tin-foil hat*
think of it this way: johnny law tells ya that he has 10 uboats for you to push. he sets times on post-its based on the amount of boxes on each uboat, regardless of contents. You are then told by johnny law you have X amount of time to get those uboats pushed because he added the collective times of each of the 10 uboats. oddly enough, if you successfully do this regularly, then there's no need to keep you working extra hours, right? even more interesting: johnny law is telling you to do this because they are being told by johnny's superior that the expected metrics are not being met, and merch is not getting to the floor fast enough. johnny then passes that buck right to you.

You are exactly right. 10 years i have been at my store and hours have never been as bad as they are now. They want to push us so hard to get everything done in short amount of time so they can keep payroll to a minimum and have greater profits.

 

[FlowTeamChick]

They want to push us so hard to get everything done in short amount of time so they can keep payroll to a minimum

And who cares about accuracy or appropriate back stocking or if the area is zoned at all?
I keep harping about the demise of the DBO model, but I can tell you that when we had good DBOs in place, my store looked great - well stocked, neat zones, back stock done, price change up to date (and not a lot of missed salvage), POGs done well and on time (or early).
Now? Totally different story, and none of it good. Worst of all is the decline in morale.

 

[animalcrossing]

My eyes nearly fell out when I saw 19 U-BOATS IN FOUR HOURS. Even if 16 of those U-Boats were just boxes of pillows that'd still be impossible!
My store is still on the whole "one U-boat per hour" idea which works in theory but falls apart fast at a crazy small-format like mine when you have to respond to nearly every guest service call, constantly go to checkout for support, have to get carts pretty often AND won't stop getting asked questions. Because of this, I only tend to get like three U-Boats done before I have to start pulling priority product for my area and it just sucks. Although it's worth asking why the huge morning team seems to never get the u-Boats done - a closer like me maybe shouldn't be doing u-boats at all but I digress

 

[Peter Parker]

And who cares about accuracy or appropriate back stocking or if the area is zoned at all?
I keep harping about the demise of the DBO model, but I can tell you that when we had good DBOs in place, my store looked great - well stocked, neat zones, back stock done, price change up to date (and not a lot of missed salvage), POGs done well and on time (or early).
Now? Totally different story, and none of it good. Worst of all is the decline in morale.

Spot on. My Store Director spends most of the day zoning the store because we no longer have time to do it. He tells us we need to stay on brand but our Flow ETL and TL says there is no time to zone and we must hurry and push the truck. I went another store in my area and it was very clean and neatly zoned.

 

[Peter Parker]

My eyes nearly fell out when I saw 19 U-BOATS IN FOUR HOURS. Even if 16 of those U-Boats were just boxes of pillows that'd still be impossible!
My store is still on the whole "one U-boat per hour" idea which works in theory but falls apart fast at a crazy small-format like mine when you have to respond to nearly every guest service call, constantly go to checkout for support, have to get carts pretty often AND won't stop getting asked questions. Because of this, I only tend to get like three U-Boats done before I have to start pulling priority product for my area and it just sucks. Although it's worth asking why the huge morning team seems to never get the u-Boats done - a closer like me maybe shouldn't be doing u-boats at all but I digress

Yeah that is wierd that a closer is pushing truck. The flow team and morning sales floor crew are responsible for truck in mu store. Our Closers are supposed to zone but they don't have time for always being on a register every night.

 

[animalcrossing]

Yeah that is wierd that a closer is pushing truck. The flow team and morning sales floor crew are responsible for truck in mu store. Our Closers are supposed to zone but they don't have time for always being on a register every night.

That's technically how it is supposed to be at my store too but 90% of the morning team just goofs off and doesn't even attempt to push anything in time. My store closes pretty early so my closing shift on weekdays is 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., but there should still not be so much truck left. Zoning is something I can almost never do anymore because of the ridiculous workload and having to pick up everybody else's slack so I feel it

 

[Peter Parker]

That's technically how it is supposed to be at my store too but 90% of the morning team just goofs off and doesn't even attempt to push anything in time. My store closes pretty early so my closing shift on weekdays is 11:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., but there should still not be so much truck left. Zoning is something I can almost never do anymore because of the ridiculous workload and having to pick up everybody else's slack so I feel it

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.

 

[Captain Orca]

Look, asshole. Stop trying to push us, we'll finish when we finish, got it? (hypothetical font)

 

[Peter Parker]

Look, asshole. Stop trying to push us, we'll finish when we finish, got it? (hypothetical font)

I think about telling him that everyday but i try to be respectul at work but respect is earned and not given so maybe i should say it.

 

[MrT]

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

 

[Captain Orca]

I came close to doing that but I dazzled her with circular reasoning bullshit. She had no idea wtf I was saying and couldn't process it. A rather stupid woman.

 

[Peter Parker]

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

I was off the prior day so it may have been some carry over they didn't tell me. Also there were 5 uboats of repacks so i wasn't sure how he calculates the time. But 5 boats of repacks take a whole shift to complete just bu themselves.

 

[Peter Parker]

I came close to doing that but I dazzled her with circular reasoning bullshit. She had no idea wtf I was saying and couldn't process it. A rather stupid woman.

Yeah we have a few ETLs like that on our store. How they became ETLs i will never know.