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Poor ST. An intelligent reasonable person with common sense. Target should have that beaten out of him in a year or so. 🙂
Archived "I'm sorry, I'm off the clock"
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I used to not mind telling someone where something was while off the clock. I usually stated something along the lines of "I'm sorry, but i'm off duty, but the "X" is over in HBA on aisle "Y." That was until one day on my lunch break, I was shopping, had a jacket on over my red shirt, hand cart full of stuff, and talking on my phone, I realized someone was behind me, I thought needing by. As I turned to move out of the way, there was this lady who looked as if she could shoot ice daggers from her eyes, arms crossed, TAPPING her foot at me. As I started to say something, she said "are you going to help me or what!" Needless to say I was shocked. I told my wife (on the phone) to hang on a minute, and told the lady I'm sorry, but i'm on my lunch break. She began freaking out and screaming at her husband that "OH, HE'S ON HIS LUNCH BREAK AND TOOOOO BUSY TO HELP US!" I was pretty much floored and that ruined what had been a pretty decent night.
We had to take some training recently on labor and wages, and one specific topic, was while on lunch or break and we are approached by guests, to politely tell them sorry but I'm on lunch/break and please find someone else. Everyone at my store really got a kick out of this statement, because I guess the old policy was to tell them your on break/lunch but let me help you find someone who can help them, which they felt was the same as working off the clock.
We had to take some training recently on labor and wages, and one specific topic, was while on lunch or break and we are approached by guests, to politely tell them sorry but I'm on lunch/break and please find someone else. Everyone at my store really got a kick out of this statement, because I guess the old policy was to tell them your on break/lunch but let me help you find someone who can help them, which they felt was the same as working off the clock.
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LOL...
Well, I don't work for Target yet and I'm not entirely sure I want to.
Regardless, from what I've read in this thread, they are taking a legitimate management concern, i.e. we don't want employees performing work when they aren't on the clock and taking it to a silly and ultimately self-defeating level.
Although, I do have a nice personal example of this type of "thinking."
I was working at a supermarket and I'd had an ongoing conflict with one of the assistant managers, who happened to be a total jerk.
I even had the lead assistant manager tell me, just ignore him he's a little, fill in the blank.
Well, I was trying to get along and work things out and I, on my own time, asked him if we could talk for a few minutes.
He refused to talk to me because I'd already clocked out and I couldn't clock back in because it was the end of the week and I was up to 40 hours and we couldn't have any overtime.
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The same *expletive deleted* assistant manager once refused to answer a very simple, would have taken him 10 seconds question I had because he was "on his lunch."
That was after I went and found him, after he'd ignored repeated pages because, again, he was "on his lunch."
That was after I went and found him, after he'd ignored repeated pages because, again, he was "on his lunch."
redeye58
Hasta Ba Rista, Baby!
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The primary reason is that Target has learned from some of Walmart's more costly mistakes. After WM got slapped with a class-action lawsuit from employees alleging they'd been told to work "off the clock", they were fined in the millions (one of the rare instances WM lost a lawsuit).
Target, like most of their policies, went to extremes to avoid even a remote possibility of such an incident. A TM at our store is on final (yr-long disciplinary action) because he'd done a few things off-clock & had been verbally warned by the ETL.
Target, like most of their policies, went to extremes to avoid even a remote possibility of such an incident. A TM at our store is on final (yr-long disciplinary action) because he'd done a few things off-clock & had been verbally warned by the ETL.
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Yeah, I get the reasons why.
I may well be doing something of my own volition, but what's to say I won't come back and sue them, claiming they made me do it?
Or say I'm in the backroom, 10 feet off of the floor, climbing the rafters looking for a backstocked cereal for a customer but I'm not on the clock while I'm doing that.
Something I've actually done.
Say I fall the 10 feet from the cereal backstock shelf and land on the concrete floor below...
I'm not on the clock...
What kind of position does that put the company in?
Somewhat change of subject BUT...
I worked with this girl who I was and still am very close friends with.
I was interested in being more than friends and it was a genuine, I care about her kind of interest.
BUT, I was technically her boss.
My boss and my boss' boss also tried to hook up with her.
A good attorney could have sold that to a jury as, this poor girl, she's a single mother, trying to live on $9 an hour, in an economy with a 10% unemployment rate, they told her if she didn't do what they wanted, they would fire her, etc.
I FULLY understand the concern companies have regarding avoiding anything that could lead to litigation against them.
At the same time and within reason, you have to take care of your customers. If you don't, then nobody is going to have a job.
I may well be doing something of my own volition, but what's to say I won't come back and sue them, claiming they made me do it?
Or say I'm in the backroom, 10 feet off of the floor, climbing the rafters looking for a backstocked cereal for a customer but I'm not on the clock while I'm doing that.
Something I've actually done.
Say I fall the 10 feet from the cereal backstock shelf and land on the concrete floor below...
I'm not on the clock...
What kind of position does that put the company in?
Somewhat change of subject BUT...
I worked with this girl who I was and still am very close friends with.
I was interested in being more than friends and it was a genuine, I care about her kind of interest.
BUT, I was technically her boss.
My boss and my boss' boss also tried to hook up with her.
A good attorney could have sold that to a jury as, this poor girl, she's a single mother, trying to live on $9 an hour, in an economy with a 10% unemployment rate, they told her if she didn't do what they wanted, they would fire her, etc.
I FULLY understand the concern companies have regarding avoiding anything that could lead to litigation against them.
At the same time and within reason, you have to take care of your customers. If you don't, then nobody is going to have a job.
I'm sorry, but while I do enjoy helping people out - if I haven't started work yet, or am off work, I don't want to deal with guest/customers on what is supposed to be "my time".
Sometimes if I'm on break/lunch and someone stops me, is polite/nice and asks me where something is, I will let them know where it can be found. But if they expect me to take them there, or spend a bit of time helping them - sorry, but no.
I apologise if that, to you, is me being unfriendly/nonhelpful/promoting bad guest/customer service but I bet if the situations were reversed, chances are they would be just as unwilling to help me out.
Sometimes if I'm on break/lunch and someone stops me, is polite/nice and asks me where something is, I will let them know where it can be found. But if they expect me to take them there, or spend a bit of time helping them - sorry, but no.
I apologise if that, to you, is me being unfriendly/nonhelpful/promoting bad guest/customer service but I bet if the situations were reversed, chances are they would be just as unwilling to help me out.
Okay, ST, this is absolute crap. You think helping people while off the clock is "polite"? Help yourself, but I am NOT going to waste MY time WITHOUT PAY helping the very people that give me nothing but verbal abuse all @$%^ing day long. The idiots that make a mess of the store every day, that have the screaming kids, that actually shop black fridays, that throw money at the ever rapidly collapsing horror that is retail.
I ASSURE you that the same people that expect me to help them while I am NOT MAKING ANY MONEY doing so wouldn't want me to come in to their homes and randomly ask questions. Or call them about their individual jobs. Piss on that.
I ASSURE you that the same people that expect me to help them while I am NOT MAKING ANY MONEY doing so wouldn't want me to come in to their homes and randomly ask questions. Or call them about their individual jobs. Piss on that.
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If someone asked me if I knew where something was while I was shopping some place else, and I knew where it was, I would tell them.
The same goes with my store.
If the customer wants more then that I'll see if I can find them someone who is on the clock.
None of that takes much of my time, it keeps the customer happy, and it's all part of a polite society.
This from a man who is the first person to fight for a persons working rights.
The same goes with my store.
If the customer wants more then that I'll see if I can find them someone who is on the clock.
None of that takes much of my time, it keeps the customer happy, and it's all part of a polite society.
This from a man who is the first person to fight for a persons working rights.
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It's not your HOME.
It's your place of employment and without customers you WOULD NOT have a job.
In my time in retail, I've been,screamed at, cursed, threatened, had them throw things at me and in two instances, had to physically defend myself.
Three if you count the coworker's jealous boyfriend who jumped me in the parking lot.
I'm not saying they are angels who are always right, I'm just saying that without them, we wouldn't have jobs and you need to keep that in mind.
Even if they want me to do something that I can't do because I'll get in trouble for working when I'm not on the clock or I just don't want to, because I'm not on the clock, I can still take a couple of minutes to say, I'm sorry, I can't help you, I'm not on the clock, let me go find you someone who is.
That should be as simple as picking up a phone or walkie talkie.
Now, if AFTER I tell them that, they want to be an ass, then that's a different story.
Edit:
If your post is truly how you feel about working in retail, then you REALLY need to be looking for another line of work.
Correction, without customers the entire economy would be restructured to facilitate different kinds of jobs. Other economies don't run based on service like we do, and some of them do much better than we do. Matter of fact, without the idiots that buy ************ so much, the entire economy would still be a booming manufacturing economy of awesomeness.
I have all of the above happen to me on a daily basis due to the ghetto location of my Target. On a daily basis. Don't you dare ever tell me to help someone off the clock. I would sooner punch you AND the person.
See, I agree, except where I find you someone who is. You have legs, you have eyes, and there's the #@$%ing service phone. Ta!
IF ONLY I HAD THOUGHT OF THAT BEFORE!
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I am in hood, like my store. Go easy on southern t. He doesn't know the ways of spot. I would help guests in a quiet mode, because they know whom I am. Help them, move on quickly. Sales are sales. We need them.
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Darius, it really sounds like you need to find another line of work or at least a different job.
You sound majorly burned out and I can relate, I've been there myself and even if it's another retail job, a change of scenery can help immensely.
You sound majorly burned out and I can relate, I've been there myself and even if it's another retail job, a change of scenery can help immensely.
pzychopopgroove
cyberpunk//my little pony
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AND FOLKS, this is why I don't even pay two !@#$ing licks of attention to a guest when I myself am off the clock. I feel your pain, Darius.
pzychopopgroove
cyberpunk//my little pony
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QFT, sad but true..
pzychopopgroove
cyberpunk//my little pony
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Yet again QFT. My mood improved greatly in the short term when I left my previous job for Target over a year ago.
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This is pretty much how I feel. Maybe it's how I was raised, but I've been asked in random stores if I know where "X" is (and it's OBVIOUS I don't work there), and if I do, I tell them, if I don't, I simply say "I'm sorry, I don't know". IMO, it's the polite thing to do.
Maybe it's just my store too, but 9/10 guests don't ASK for help and will respond "No, I'm fine" when I ask "CIHYFS?"...at least the men will 😉 We watched a guy walk back and forth in front of the pharm one Sunday 5 times looking for "something" after I asked him, at about the 3rd, another tech asked "are you sure we can't HYFS?" and he was "still fine". The last time he walked by, his cart was STILL empty so I flat out asked "what are you looking for?". It was shampoo, which isn't anywhere CLOSE to the pharmacy 😉
pzychopopgroove
cyberpunk//my little pony
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That's funny lol because the Target I work at has the shampoo maybe 2 aisles at most from Pharmacy and HBA.
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Our used to be right in front of pharmacy, but they recently moved a bunch of stuff around. We have aisles directly in front of pharm, then a main aisle, then cosmetics (which run the same was as the aisles in front of pharm), then aisles that run perpendicular to cosmetics from there back...it's now directly behind cosmetics.
PHARM
||||||||||||| OTC, first aid, soap, paper goods, TP, etc.
walkway
||||||||(walkway) _______ Cosmetics then pfresh
-------(walkway) _______ Shampoo then pfresh
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I think helping people in general is the right thing to do, but it all depends on their attitude. If they are asking me something in a nice, respectful way, of course I'm going to do SOMETHING to try to help, even if it is just finding them a coworker who is on the clock or showing them where the red phones are to get help. However, if they approach me in a rude, entitled manner I will return the attitude right back to them.. You reap what you sow.
pzychopopgroove
cyberpunk//my little pony
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I'm the exact same way have been even before my first job pushing carts.
B
Barcode
Guest
If they just need to know an Aisle, like "Where is ???" and you can answer it in a second, I think it is generally OK. But if they want you to come show them something, etc. I think its best to just say that your on break. If you see someone else in Red, just direct them to that person 🙂
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