Archived Karma for having to work on Thanksgiving

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Him

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Does anyone else agree that reasons we as a company in general "suffer" the way we do or have "declined" in not only the good service we used to provide, but overall quality is by being open on this day?? Thoughts, feedback welcomed!! That and also I feel being greedy and staying open later as well.
 
Does anyone else agree that reasons we as a company in general "suffer" the way we do or have "declined" in not only the good service we used to provide, but overall quality is by being open on this day?? Thoughts, feedback welcomed!! That and also I feel being greedy and staying open later as well.
I don't really think you can logically blame a decline in culture or process because of a single day. Especially when that day and that weekend contributes more sales than any other.
 
I don't think it's that complicated. The simple fact is that people are willing to shop on Thanksgiving and wait out the front door in hours-long lines just to get the "deals." If people want to shop, corporate America will happily oblige. Workers be damned. So blame the public for being so willing to throw away their own holiday just to save a couple of bucks. And corporations like Target for refusing to take a stand.

I'm so glad I work at Lowe's now. We won't be opening until 7am Friday.
 
I could make an argument that as a culture we have suffered by decimating cultural touchstones like Thanksgiving in favor of naked greed and that has damaged Target just as much as any other company.
However that doesn't make them any different than all the other companies who have made the same decision.
For that matter every liquor store that is open on Thanksgiving is just as libel and the fact is we need them to get through an evening with the our assorted obnoxious family members.

Yes, the word is changing and not everyone cherishes Thanksgiving the same way but I remember in the days when my wife and I weren't talking to our families we would gather friends and even coworkers who didn't have a place to go and give thanks that we had food, friends and had made it another year.
The thing is that so many holidays have religious or other kinds of baggage attached, I appreciate one that just gives us the chance to offer thanks for being together.
 
I could make an argument that as a culture we have suffered by decimating cultural touchstones like Thanksgiving in favor of naked greed and that has damaged Target just as much as any other company.


I wouldn't make that argument. I don't think someone straying from the norm for how or when they chose to celebrate an arbitrary holiday, says ANYTHING about their morality or values.


However that doesn't make them any different than all the other companies who have made the same decision.
For that matter every liquor store that is open on Thanksgiving is just as libel and the fact is we need them to get through an evening with the our assorted obnoxious family members.

Yes, the word is changing and not everyone cherishes Thanksgiving the same way but I remember in the days when my wife and I weren't talking to our families we would gather friends and even coworkers who didn't have a place to go and give thanks that we had food, friends and had made it another year.
The thing is that so many holidays have religious or other kinds of baggage attached, I appreciate one that just gives us the chance to offer thanks for being together.

This I agree with mostly, but I'll add to it. Simple fact of the matter is, if you don't support businesses being open on Thanksgiving...then don't go shop. The end. That's how that works. I support that far more than simply demanding businesses stay closed because they personally feel attached to the holiday.

I think people are shopping less on Thanksgiving anyway. At least for this year, I expect it to be pretty slow after the first initial rush. I don't think the cause of that will have anything to do with the general public somehow reconnecting with some sudden attachment to Thanksgiving and good ol' fashioned family values. I think it will have more to do with people not wanting to spend money right now after such a stressful and "scary" election year, people doing online shopping instead, and just because the deals this year are pretty vanilla.

If that somehow leads to businesses staying closed next year, then great. But you know what makes me sick about that? That businesses will market it as if they're doing it out of the concern for the wellbeing of their employees and families. Anyone who buys that story is a fucking imbecile. It's 100% about the money. I think it's irresponsible to look to companies to represent our values as a culture, whether good or bad.
 
I don't think thanksgiving is the reason why target isn't hitting their marks. Black Friday is one of the biggest days of the year for retail along with like super Saturday... and maybe cyber Monday. There's a handful of reasons target isn't doing as well as they'd hope. I don't think thanksgiving is among those reasons. Then again, I do think they overstaff thanksgiving. I swear the 6pm years have been so slow, granted I only have 9pm and 8pm years to compare it to.

I don't shop on thanksgiving, though. I don't make any demands to any companies, because I know from being on tbr that some of y'all are delighted to work on thanksgiving, which in my mind means there are people at these other companies who are celebrating the time and a half and/or excuse to avoid family... and maybe there are other reasons.
 
I dont believe being open on Thanksgiving does anything negative at all. It helps our jobs and livelihood. People are gonna go out shopping after dinner anyway, if were closed theyl likely just go to walmart, by being open were helping guests who love shopping at target. We have loyal consumers, its very true. People who only shop at target because they love the energy. If we were closed on thanksgiving wed lose out on a lot of money.
 
People are gonna go out shopping after dinner anyway...If we were closed on thanksgiving wed lose out on a lot of money.

I highly doubt it. I think being open on Thanksgiving actually waters down sales. I remember when Black Friday was a big thing. You looked at all the ads on Thanksgiving, mapped out your plan for Black Friday, got up at 2 am, braved the weather, the crowds, whatever to get the GREAT deal that was waiting at 6 am inside the store. That was fun and exciting. Now...it doesn't seem like such a big deal because there's 10 days of Christmas and special toy deals starting the day after Halloween and oh yeah, let's open ON Thanksgiving to squeeze a little more $ out of the consumer. The extension of the retail season isn't necessarily a good thing, in my mind. I think it dilutes excitement rather than builds it.
 
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I think staying closed would make a big statement. But this company tries so hard at being many things other than itself, so I take the holiday pay and carry on. No family here anyway, so I'd just be sitting around because most shit is closed.

Karma? I mean, no. I don't think so. Just says a lot about our society. A lot of us don't take much time to relax. If Karma is how you want to think about it, more power to you
 
The truth is the consumer ( in our case guests) hold most ( if not all) the power. If the consumer wasn't willing to get out on Thanksgiving day to shop Spot and other retailers wouldn't be open. I don't like being away from my family on Thanksgiving ... However, I don't blame Spot for opening up. If people weren't willing to get out and shop then there would be no reason to open up. Do I think Stores should open up on Thanksgiving or be open up late on Christmas eve? No. However, Spot looks at it from a business standpoint....the consumers have xxx amount of money to spend during the Christmas season...Spot is trying to make sure they do all they can to get every penny they can. Spot isn't concerned about tms missing time with their families etc...its just a business move on their part.
 
I highly doubt it. I think being open on Thanksgiving actually waters down sales. I remember when Black Friday was a big thing. You looked at all the ads on Thanksgiving, mapped out your plan for Black Friday, got up at 2 am, braved the weather, the crowds, whatever to get the GREAT deal that was waiting at 6 am inside the store. That was fun and exciting. Now...it doesn't seem like such a big deal because there's 10 days of Christmas and special toy deals starting the day after Halloween and oh yeah, let's open ON Thanksgiving to squeeze a little more $ out of the consumer. The extension of the retail season isn't necessarily a good thing, in my mind. I think it dilutes excitement rather than builds it.

You can think that, but you need stats to back that up if you want to make a serious claim.
 
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I'll say what I said last year. Of course, I'm not in the same boat as most of you guys because I live in a state where stores can't be open on Thanksgiving. That said, I still had to work at 1 AM on Friday, for a 13+ hour shift, and my store is about two hours away from where my family lives, so it still sucked big time. I also have friends who work in a neighboring state where they open on Thanksgiving, and they hate it too.
However, on the other side of the coin, I think if Target were to "take a stand" it would have to be at the same time as Walmart and other major retailers. I just think, based on experience, that if Target were to stay closed and Walmart were to stay open, we would lose out on a lot of sales because people would go to the store that was open first. For example, my store was maybe ten minutes away from a store in the aforementioned neighboring state where they can be open on Thanksgiving. My store normally did much better in sales than the other store, and we were much higher volume. However, on Black Friday/Thursday, they absolutely destroyed us in sales. We still had a line wrapped around the building, but they did literally something like 3 times more sales than we did. People will go to whoever is open first. I hate that, and I hate the people who are that insane that they will spend all of Thanksgiving sitting on a folding chair out front of Target, but unfortunately those people will spend money, and retail is about money.
At the same time of course, I really feel for all the TM's who don't want to be there, and are missing out on time with their families.
 
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Thanks for the awesome feedback everyone. At the end of the day, it's just business, I get it. I honestly just feel for the workers who don't wish to work and are forced into working, but once again it's just business.
 
Thanks for the awesome feedback everyone. At the end of the day, it's just business, I get it. I honestly just feel for the workers who don't wish to work and are forced into working, but once again it's just business.

Except that no one is "forced" to work.
 
Thanks for the awesome feedback everyone. At the end of the day, it's just business, I get it. I honestly just feel for the workers who don't wish to work and are forced into working, but once again it's just business.

I cant speak for everyone but at my store if people wanted it off and asked ahead of time they got it off no questions asked. People who asked at the last second were not so fortunate.

Most workers would prefer not to work Thanksgiving Day but how many of us are going to turn down time and a half unless we have a close family?

I think that is what it comes down to, most of us cant afford NOT to work Thanksgiving Day or we could really use that slight bump in our check. That says it all about retail.
 
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Except that no one is "forced" to work.

I doubt they meant literally forced, but so far no one in sl in my store has ever signed that sheet to volunteer for it lol and that hasn't stopped us from being scheduled. This year's leadership didn't do a volunteer sheet, though. I volunteered sorta one year (after no one signed up, I told my etl I would), and I would've this year, but only because I was/am hoping one of the people who really didn't want it don't get scheduled.

No one gets it off in my store unless they're on loa. Coworker requested it 6 months prior last year, they approved it, then when the schedule went up, she was scheduled. She was pissssssed. But sure, no one held a gun to her head, so I guess we won't call that being forced to work.
 
National retail federation survey results do seem to imply that less people shop in store for Black Friday... and the numbers are going down, but the 2015 surveys they used different polling methodology so they don't think those polls are comparable. But the numbers prior to then were going down. There are no stats about whether the excitement is up or down though lolll...

This site put it all on a table, but maybe ignore 2015 numbers. They linked the nrf site, too
 
I doubt they meant literally forced, but so far no one in sl in my store has ever signed that sheet to volunteer for it lol and that hasn't stopped us from being scheduled. This year's leadership didn't do a volunteer sheet, though. I volunteered sorta one year (after no one signed up, I told my etl I would), and I would've this year, but only because I was/am hoping one of the people who really didn't want it don't get scheduled.

No one gets it off in my store unless they're on loa. Coworker requested it 6 months prior last year, they approved it, then when the schedule went up, she was scheduled. She was pissssssed. But sure, no one held a gun to her head, so I guess we won't call that being forced to work.

My store had a volunteer sheet, but they didn't ask anyone to open up their availability like usual. We also scheduled significantly less people, and there's nothing stopping you from calling out, or requesting it off in the first place. We don't even schedule our new hires for Thanksgiving, something I always thought was odd.
 
Lollllllllll. K. The possibility of being fired stops me from calling out....... and the fact that I volunteered this year. But um, yea, it's supposedly mandatory and they say you'll be fired if you don't show up. I know one person who gets away with it, but she gets double digit redcards on regular days and she doesn't need the job, so the risk is nothing to her. Newbies (under 90 days) are the only ones who ever call out other than that woman (and they get fired) so i don't have proof they'd definitely fire someone not new for calling out, but shiiiit, I'm not gonna be the one to try it when I don't have a job lined up. I appreciate the recommendation though

Ugh, you'd have to be a shit employee to be fired for that.

The professional thing to do would be to make it clear that you CAN'T work in the first place, if you actually NEED (not want) to have the day off. Or getting your shift covered. But if you're a grunt employee with an otherwise spotless record, and are otherwise a good employee, you're not going to get fired.

Your relationship with your employer is not one sided. You offer your time to them in exchange for money. Unless you're a TL or ETL, you coming into your shift is not "mandatory."
 
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