To that one Team Member - II

[Tessa120]

There was an accident and that one was examined? It isn't to discourage trips, it is definitely due to the accident and definitely CYA. You are lucky that they didn't fuss at you, doubly lucky no fussing if you didn't report it. There's going to be retraining before leadership allows their use.

 

[Hardlinesmaster]

As far as I am aware, neither is the case. All current cart attendants are present, accounted for, and not maimed. There was an incident a couple weeks ago, but that involved a guest driving too close to the cart pusher and scraping her car, and not any improper action by the cart attendant. (For matters of full disclosure, I was the cart attendant when the incident happened. Also, that guest realized she was at fault, and didn't file an incident report). The machine was in proper working order when I closed the store on Wednesday. I was told that the Leadership removed it before the morning cart attendant arrived at 11:00 AM Thursday. No motivation was given, but one of my former GSAs was speculating that they were trying to discourage multiple trips to the more distant cart corrals. Mind you that any cart attendant worth their salt will only go there once the closer corrals have been emptied. I had an ETL tell me yesterday that it should only take 10-15 minutes to clear the lot by hand. Maybe, if I weren't also doing backup cashier, carry-outs, and drive-ups.

Did your mgt do an incident report? I hope so. It sounds like guest had second thoughts & said you caused the accident .

 

[Tessa120]

Or AP was actively watching that camera at that moment. Or someone was on a smoke break and saw the whole thing and talked about it.

 

[Target_serf]

Nope. They gave us the cart machine today, because it was the weekend, but we were admonished that we were to go up and down one aisle and come straight back, rather than going down multiple aisles to get the machine to capacity before returning. They're manufacturing a situation where none existed.

 

[IWishIKnew]

I wonder if someone(s) complained about parking aisles being blocked to long because of long lines of carts. I think, at my store, they do one aisle at a time, at least on the ends, but that pretty much maxes out the pusher, anyway.

 

[happygoth]

Nope. They gave us the cart machine today, because it was the weekend, but we were admonished that we were to go up and down one aisle and come straight back, rather than going down multiple aisles to get the machine to capacity before returning. They're manufacturing a situation where none existed.

It will take longer but it's probably safer and smarter to do it that way, even if there was no real incident. It's better for a company to overreact on the side of safety. A very sad incident happened at my old company involving a mirror falling on a child, and mirrors were removed from stores nationwide. Better safe than sorry.

 

[calimero]

TTOTL : stop telling me your sob stories about your poor kids ... I am not giving you money !
First , you make more money than I do , second , lay off the drugs , 3 rd , you have enough money for your cigarettes and Starbucks but not for your kids ?
TTOTm : if I see you giving a TL cash again , I will break your neck !!! That TL is clearly using you !

Ttotm : if I inf one item for a drive up , it means I could not find it ! Asking me to really look for it because the guest is here and really wants it is pointless ! I don’t care if it says we have 3 on hand , I CANNOT FIND IT ! I do not INF for the heck of it !!

 

[seasonaldude]

TTOTL: Me telling you that I'm finding a lot of items unlocated in one of your backroom aisles was not an invitation to rant about what other OPU TMs do in your aisles. I have no control over them and barely see them. I was just letting you know about an issue in case you wanted to talk to your team about fixing it and get your floor filled.

 

[oath2order]

To that one TM aka me:

The team member may have a slightly Spanish sounding name, trouble understanding guests, and may be brown.

This does not mean that she speaks Spanish and you should not ask her to translate for a guest.

Pictured is me preparing for work on Saturday.

 

[Hope4Future]

To that team member who writes the schedule: I'm kind of worried since I heard one front-end team member asked for next Thursday off since it's her first day of classes, and yet she was scheduled for a closing shift. Same for another older cashier who requested time off for tomorrow morning since she has a doctor's appointment for her knees. Both have asked me to take their shifts, but I can't take the older cashier's shift since I would go over 40 hours for this week.

I get that there are fewer team members left, but you should still follow any approved time off requests. I'm worried since I'm planning an extended vacation next year and I'm wondering if it will be approved.

 

[Target_serf]

To that one ETL, we had a nice chat in June about me cross-training in GM, something I have been trying to get since I was hired 19 years ago. Then we had one cart attendant (front of store attendant, whatever) get fired and another put in his notice so he could go away to college, and my cross-training got put on "indefinite hold" when I was returned to cart attendant to cover until new team members were hired and trained. I can (kind of, sort of, almost) understand that. Fast forward to this weekend, when I see one of the newly hired cart attendants on the salesfloor training in GM. Lucy (not the ETL's real name), you got some explaining to do!

 

[softlinesarehard]

TTOTM:
Please stop NOT doing your job bc the other person “left too much work for you and it’s not fair” honey it’s not sixth grade, be an adult and stop being salty!!

 

[The Death King]

TTOTM that radios channel 1 asking where to find this or that in the store...USE YOUR ZEBRA! Or your phone since the Target App is better.

 

[Tessa120]

Why should people use personal phones since Target doesn't pay for data plans or breakage?

Not everyone has a zebra.

Even with a zebra, someone in the area looking at the shelf can answer a question in a minute or two while someone across the store will be fighting target.com for 5-6 minutes to get the same answer. So unnecessary loss of time.

 

[The Death King]

Why should people use personal phones since Target doesn't pay for data plans or breakage?

Not everyone has a zebra.

Even with a zebra, someone in the area looking at the shelf can answer a question in a minute or two while someone across the store will be fighting target.com for 5-6 minutes to get the same answer. So unnecessary loss of time.

Our store gives our GSMs the option to use their own phones on the floor to help with customer needs. This is an OPTION.

I can understand someone requesting help every so often, but this TM does it for EVERY inquiry. The unnecessary loss of time is when I have to pull out my own phone and zebra to answer that person's question because no one else has responded.

If I can do it they can too.

 

[GoodyNN]

You've answered your own complaint. They do it for every inquiry because using their own device is only an option, and either does not have a Zebra or doesn't know how to use it properly.

 

[Tessa120]

And if it's your area you can stand in front of the shelf and verify the quantity is right and it's actually there, as well as read off the details and say which colors are there and competitor brand pricing and quantity. Someone assigned to a different area can't.

 

[Tessa120]

Our store gives our GSMs the option to use their own phones on the floor to help with customer needs. This is an OPTION.

I can understand someone requesting help every so often, but this TM does it for EVERY inquiry. The unnecessary loss of time is when I have to pull out my own phone and zebra to answer that person's question because no one else has responded.

If I can do it they can too.

And your 1-2 minutes physically there is a greater loss of time than someone not there trying to fight for several minutes to get the answers off the website? Just pick up the phone and walk to the area and help the guest. Sorry you hate the phone but it's part of the job.

 

[ImRickGrimes]

I'm in charge of the music while we unload. I do this so we're not listening to dead air for three hours. My team members have given me suggestions over time for the work playlist (Weird Al, Red Hot Chili Peppers, etc). I'm grateful because I want it to be OUR playlist, not mine.

They're also really cool and we usually tend to be on the same page when shit goes wrong.

You guys are the reason I haven't rage quit yet. Thank you.

 

[The Death King]

And your 1-2 minutes physically there is a greater loss of time than someone not there trying to fight for several minutes to get the answers off the website? Just pick up the phone and walk to the area and help the guest. Sorry you hate the phone but it's part of the job.

Either you're playing Devil's Advocate with unrestrained enthusiasm or you're that one team member.

Regardless, we've all been trained on what to do to assist guest. If I can do what this person refuses to do half way across the store and no where near the product then they can to.

Reading your comments, I don't even think we are on the same wave-length...but that's to be expected in this form of communication.

 

[Leo47]

TTO(hopeful)TM: bro. I understand you want a job here. But calling me every 3 minutes asking if HR is back from their lunch yet and then yelling and making a huge deal when I say no is not going to get you a job here especially when my caller ID shows your name. I literally had to start ignoring his calls because he was harassing me. He called another 10 times without me answering before he finally gave up. Good luck getting HR to call you back after me telling them how fucking crazy you are, jerk

 

[Tessa120]

Nearly all of my shifts for two years and most for several months were FRO so I dealt with TMs like you all the time. I'm not supposed to leave the softlines area so when someone had a question about storage totes or laundry detergent going across the store to stare at a shelf is something I couldn't do. But hardlines thought it far better I give pricing for that and for the size up and down and for similar items, fighting the zebra the whole time, than they take the phone and read it all off from physically looking at the boxes and the prices on the label. Oh, and it became 10 times more fun when I told a guest that an item was in stock because the zebra said 3 and crickets from the rest of the store and it turned out those three didn't really exist. So, yeah, when whoever is answering a guest query is supposed to stay in their area, it is a lot more guest friendly to walk the couple aisles and more rapidly get the answers for the guest.

 

[JAShands]

TTO(hopeful)TM: bro. I understand you want a job here. But calling me every 3 minutes asking if HR is back from their lunch yet and then yelling and making a huge deal when I say no is not going to get you a job here especially when my caller ID shows your name. I literally had to start ignoring his calls because he was harassing me. He called another 10 times without me answering before he finally gave up. Good luck getting HR to call you back after me telling them how fucking crazy you are, jerk

On behalf of all HR, thank you for the valuable insight. We love a heads up as much as AP does 😁

 

[happygoth]

Nearly all of my shifts for two years and most for several months were FRO so I dealt with TMs like you all the time. I'm not supposed to leave the softlines area so when someone had a question about storage totes or laundry detergent going across the store to stare at a shelf is something I couldn't do. But hardlines thought it far better I give pricing for that and for the size up and down and for similar items, fighting the zebra the whole time, than they take the phone and read it all off from physically looking at the boxes and the prices on the label. Oh, and it became 10 times more fun when I told a guest that an item was in stock because the zebra said 3 and crickets from the rest of the store and it turned out those three didn't really exist. So, yeah, when whoever is answering a guest query is supposed to stay in their area, it is a lot more guest friendly to walk the couple aisles and more rapidly get the answers for the guest.

When Style used to answer the phone (which we thankfully don't anymore, hahaHA! But I digress...) if someone said "I'm looking for a certain item" I would immediately ask what item or what department and transfer that call. I was burned a few times asking on the walkie and then having the customer pepper me with follow-up questions, so nope, not looking on the zebra, "Let me transfer you to that department." If it's a guest in front of me, it depends on where I am in the store, what the item is, and if I know there is someone here who most likely has the answer and is closer to the product.

 

[Dead and Khaki]

TTOTM that radios channel 1 asking where to find this or that in the store...USE YOUR ZEBRA! Or your phone since the Target App is better.

TDK's coworker is asking for an item's general location so s/he can point the guest in that direction. That's a quick search on a Zebra. Only if you don't have a Zebra handy or a reasonable effort with the Zebra isn't getting you any useful information should you be calling out to the rest of the team on channel 1.